Hélène Lindqvist

Hélène Lindqvist (born 1968 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish soprano singing opera, operetta, oratorio, art song and musical theatre.

Life and career
Lindqvist is of Swedish and Egyptian descent. She began her vocal training in Stockholm with the Florence Düselius. She then studied at the University of Music in Saarbrücken, Germany, and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. While there in 1995, she passed the exam to be a soloist in the musical theater. She took singing lessons with Jessica Cash, Éva Marton and Bernd Weikl, in addition to Renate Stoll-Bellmann.

Lindqvist had her first engagements at the Kammeroper Frankfurt, the broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and the Ensemble Alta Musica Frankfurt. From 1996 to 1999 she was a permanent member of the Saarland State Theater. There she performed roles including Ännchen in Weber's Der Freischütz, Ilia in Mozart's Idomeneo, Kriemhild in the operetta The Merry Nibelungs, Belinda in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, the Hitomaru in the Die Reise. She had a guest engagement at Theater Regensburg for 2001/2002 and 2009/2010, where she appeared as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto, Franziska Cagliari in Wiener Blut, Morgana in Alcina, Nuri in d'Albert's Tiefland and Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. Additional guest engagements followed at the Hamburg State Opera as Damigella/Fortuna in Monteverdi's L'incoronazioe di Poppea, and the Theater Augsburg as Gilda.

Her extensive repertoire includes many Baroque operas, and also Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni, the title role of Verdi's La Traviata, Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Micaela in Bizet's Carmen, and Desdemona in Verdi's Otello.

In 2004 Lindqvist undertook a tour of Japan, where she appeared as the Countess in Mozart's Le nozze di figaro. She also took a concert tour through Egypt.

From 2006 to 2009, Lindqvist was a regular ensemble member of the Theater Ulm, where she performed as Konstanze in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Ninetta in Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges, Gilda, Electress Marie in Der Vogelhändler, Fiorilla in Rossini's Il turco in Italia, the title role of Handel's Alcina, Euridice in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, and also Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar.

Meanwhile, as a freelance artist, Lindqvist is in demand, both in Germany and abroad, as a concert and art song singer. Her repertoire reaches from the early Baroque, concerning sacred compositions, through the modern period. This encompasses works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Anton Bruckner, Arnold Schönberg, Gustav Mahler, Gunnar de Frumerie, Alban Berg, Dimitri Terzakis, Antonín Dvořák, Lili Boulanger and Nadia Boulanger.

The Art Song Project
In 2000, Lindqvist married pianist Philipp Vogler, a colleague at the opera house in Saarbrücken. They have two daughters, Mimi and Josefin, who won the seventh season of The Voice-Kids Deutschland in 2019.

In 2011 Lindqvist and her husband started The Art Song Project. The site is intended to bring the works of lesser known art song composers to the attention of the public. In 2012, the duo released a CD recording of Anton Rubinstein's "Persian Love Songs" to generally positive reviews. And in 2013, they released another CD, of 24 lieder by Heinrich von Herzogenberg.

Awards

 * First Prize in the international art song competition, Concerto delle donne in Kassel, Germany
 * Second Prize in the Walter Gieseking Competition in Saarbrücken, Germany
 * Finalist in the Marjorie Lawrence Competition in Washington, D.C.

Discography

 * Alban Berg: Jugendlieder (Label Col Legno; 2006)
 * Gustav Mahler: Symphony no. 4 Taschenphilharmonie/Stangel (NEOS 2005)
 * Dimitri Terzakis: Daphnis and Chloe: Solo for Soprano no. 2; Songs without Words (Col Legno 2005)
 * Gunnar de Frumerie, Songs: Phoenix No. 1 (Valve-Hearts 1997)