Siri Karoline Thornhill is a Norwegian classical

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

for concert and opera, known for singing music of

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

Career

Thornhill studied singing first in her hometown

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

with Marit Storækre and continued with a scholarship from the Norwegian government at the Royal Conservatory in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

with Marius van Altena, Rita Dams and Diane Forlano. She took master-classes with

Cristina Deutekom Cristina Deutekom (28 August 1931 – 7 August 2014) was a Dutch operatic coloratura soprano. She sang with many of the leading tenors of her time, including Carlo Bergonzi, José Carreras, Franco Corelli, Plácido Domingo, Nicolai Gedda, Al ...

Elly Ameling Elisabeth Sara "Elly" Ameling (born 8 February 1933) is a retired Dutch soprano, who was particularly known for lieder recitals and for performing works by Johann Sebastian Bach. Performing with distinguished pianists and ensembles around the glo ...

Ton Koopman Antonius Gerhardus Michael Koopman (; born 2 October 1944), known professionally as Ton Koopman, is a Dutch conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and musicologist, primarily known for being the founder and director of the Amsterdam Baroque Orches ...

, Beata Heuer-Christen, Anna Reynolds and

Jean Cox Jean Cox (January 16, 1922 – June 24, 2012) was an American tenor. Early years Cox was born in Gadsden, Alabama. He served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II era as a pilot. After obtaining a degree in Music from the ...

. Thornhill has recorded

Bach cantata The cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, known as Bach cantatas (German: ), are a body of work consisting of over 200 surviving independent works, and at least several dozen that are considered lost. As far as known, Bach's earliest can ...

s with

Sigiswald Kuijken Sigiswald Kuijken (; born 16 February 1944) is a Belgian violinist, violist, and conductor known for playing on period and original instruments. Biography Kuijken was born in Dilbeek, near Brussels. He was a member of the Alarius Ensemble of ...

and

La Petite Bande La Petite Bande is a Belgium-based ensemble specialising in music of the Baroque and Classical eras played on period instruments. They are particularly known for their recordings of works by Corelli, Rameau, Handel, Bach, Haydn, and Mozart. Hi ...

, the soloists also forming the choir. With them she performed among other cantatas Bach's cantata for the fourth Sunday after

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

, ''Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ'', BWV 177, at the

Rheingau Musik Festival The (RMF) is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres. Concerts take place at culturally important locations, such as Eberbach Abbey and Schloss Johannisberg, ...

in the

Eibingen Abbey Eibingen Abbey (german: Abtei St. Hildegard, full name: Benedictine Abbey of St. Hildegard) is a community of Benedictine nuns in Eibingen near Rüdesheim in Hesse, Germany. Founded by Hildegard of Bingen in 1165, it was dissolved in 1804, but ...

. She appeared in

Antonio Lotti Antonio Lotti (5 January 1667 – 5 January 1740) was an Italian composer of the Baroque era. Biography Lotti was born in Venice, although his father Matteo was ''Kapellmeister'' at Hanover at the time. Oral tradition says that in 1682, Lotti be ...

's ''Requiem'' with the

Thomas Hengelbrock Thomas Hengelbrock (born 9 June 1958) is a German violinist, musicologist, stage director and conductor. Born in Wilhelmshaven, Hengelbrock studied the violin with Rainer Kussmaul. He started his career in Würzburg and Freiburg im Breisgau. ...

Balthasar-Neumann-Chor Thomas Hengelbrock (born 9 June 1958) is a German violinist, musicologist, stage director and conductor. Born in Wilhelmshaven, Hengelbrock studied the violin with Rainer Kussmaul. He started his career in Würzburg and Freiburg im Breisgau. ...

, and in Handel's ''

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...

'' with the

Knabenchor Hannover The Knabenchor Hannover (Hannover Boys' Choir) is a boys choir founded in 1950 by Heinz Hennig, who served as conductor until the end of 2001. Since 2002, the conductor has been Jörg Breiding. History and music The Knabenchor Hannover has tr ...

conducted by

Jörg Breiding Jörg Breiding (born 1972) is a German choral conductor and academic teacher. He has been the conductor of the Knabenchor Hannover since 2002. He taught at the Musikhochschule Lübeck, and has been professor of choral conducting at the Folkwang H ...

. She recorded in 2001 ''

Ein deutsches Requiem ''A German Requiem, to Words of the Holy Scriptures'', Op. 45 (german: Ein deutsches Requiem, nach Worten der heiligen Schrift, links=no) by Johannes Brahms, is a large-scale work for chorus, orchestra, a soprano and a baritone soloist, com ...

'' with

Klaus Mertens Klaus Mertens (born 25 March 1949, in Kleve) is a German bass and bass-baritone singer who is known especially for his interpretation of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach for bass voice. Career Klaus Mertens took singing lessons ...

and the choir of the

Bremen Cathedral Bremen Cathedral (german: Bremer Dom or St. Petri Dom zu Bremen), dedicated to St. Peter, is a church situated in the Bremer Marktplatz, market square in the center of Bremen (city), Bremen. The cathedral belongs to the Evangelical Church of Breme ...

, conducted by

Wolfgang Helbich Wolfgang Helbich (8 April 1943 – 8 April 2013) was a German church musician, a choral conductor and academic. He was the founder of the Alsfelder Vokalensemble and served as their conductor for decades, a group that toured internationally and re ...

. She took part in two world-premiere recordings with dramatic church music by

Simon Mayr Johann(es) Simon Mayr (also spelled Majer, Mayer, Maier), also known in Italian as Giovanni Simone Mayr or Simone Mayr (14 June 1763 – 2 December 1845), was a German composer. His music reflects the transition from the Classical to the ...

for

Naxos Naxos (; el, Νάξος, ) is a Greek island and the largest of the Cyclades. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture. The island is famous as a source of emery, a rock rich in corundum, which until modern times was one of the best abr ...

, such as ''Jacob a Labano fugiens'' and in 2013 his reconstructed Requiem. She has collaborated with the Camerata Köln and the

Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir is a Dutch early-music group based in Amsterdam. The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir was created in two stages by the conductor, organist and harpsichordist Ton Koopman. He founded the Amsterdam Baroq ...

in the project

Dieterich Buxtehude – Opera Omnia Dieterich Buxtehude – Opera Omnia is a project to record the complete works (in Latin: opera omnia) of the Danish Baroque composer Dieterich Buxtehude,

. In 2009 she recorded the Bach solo cantatas for soprano with the

Cologne Chamber Orchestra Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...

and the Cologne Bach Chorus, conducted by

Helmut Müller-Brühl Helmut Peter Müller-Brühl (28 June 1933 – 2 January 2012) was a German conductor. Müller-Brühl was a pupil of Hermann Abendroth, founder of the Cologne Chamber Orchestra. In 1958, Müller-Brühl invited this orchestra to be the principal or ...

, reviewed by George Chien:

"The present disc reveals an appealing vocal quality—clean, agile, superbly controlled, secure throughout the range—serving an appropriate understanding of the texts."

Thornhill has sung

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

opera roles, such as Clomiri in Handel's ''

Imeneo ''Imeneo'' (alternative title: ''Hymen'', HWV 41) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. The Italian-language libretto was adapted from Silvio Stampiglia's ''Imeneo''. Handel had begun composition in September 1738, but did ...

'' with the Capella Augustina conducted by

Andreas Spering Andreas Spering (born in 1966) is a German conductor and harpsichordist, who specializes in Early music. He is the younger brother of the conductor Christoph Spering. Recordings * ''Kantaten für Esterhazy'' by Joseph Haydn * ''Siroe'', by Ge ...

at the

Halle Opera House The Halle Opera House () is an opera house in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt. Originally named the Halle Town Theatre (), the theatre was built in 1886. A bomb attack on 31 March 1945 destroyed much of the original building. Restorative work ensued a few ...

, in Rameau's '' Dardanus'' in Freiburg, in carnival music from Venice and Florence with Hengelbrock at the

Komische Oper Berlin The Komische Oper Berlin is a German opera company based in Berlin. The company produces opera, operetta and musicals. The opera house is located on Behrenstraße, just a few steps from Unter den Linden. Since 2004, the Komische Oper Berlin, a ...

, in

Alessandro Stradella Antonio Alessandro Boncompagno Stradella (Bologna, 3 July 1643 – Genoa, 25 February 1682) was an Italian composer of the middle Baroque period. He enjoyed a dazzling career as a freelance composer, writing on commission, and collaborating with ...

's '' San Giovanni Battista'' at the

Quedlinburg Quedlinburg () is a town situated just north of the Harz mountains, in the district of Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. As an influential and prosperous trading centre during the early Middle Ages, Quedlinburg became a center of in ...

Cathedral, and in

Reinhard Keiser Reinhard Keiser (9 January 1674 – 12 September 1739) was a German opera composer based in Hamburg. He wrote over a hundred operas. Johann Adolf Scheibe (writing in 1745) considered him an equal to Johann Kuhnau, George Frideric Handel and Georg ...

's ''Sieg der fruchtbaren Pomona''. In August 2006 she made her debut as Donna Anna in Mozart's ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...

'' with Kuijken at the Festival de l'Opera in

Beaune Beaune () is the wine capital of Burgundy in the Côte d'Or department in eastern France. It is located between Lyon and Dijon. Beaune is one of the key wine centers in France, and the center of Burgundy wine production and business. The annua ...

and the

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

Early Music Festival. She has also appeared in opera premieres of the 20th and 21st century such as ''Odysseus's Women'' of

Louis Andriessen Louis Joseph Andriessen (; 6 June 1939 – 1 July 2021) was a Dutch composer, pianist and academic teacher. Considered the most influential Dutch composer of his generation, he was a central proponent of The Hague school of composition. Although ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

and

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. She has appeared at international festivals such as the

Handel Festival Halle The Handel Festival (in German: Händel-Festspiele) in Halle an der Saale, Saxony-Anhalt, is an international music festival concentrating on the music of George Frideric Handel in the composer's birthplace. It was founded in 1922 and it grew into ...

, the

Handel Festival Göttingen George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his trainin ...

and the

Lucerne Festival Lucerne Festival is one of the leading international festivals in the world of classical music and presents a series of classical music festivals based in Lucerne, Switzerland. Founded in 1938 by Ernest Ansermet and Walter Schulthess, it current ...

References

External links

*
Siri Thornhill
Bach-Verein Köln (in German) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thornhill, Siri Norwegian sopranos Living people Year of birth missing (living people)