Soile Isokoski

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Soile Isokoski (born February 14, 1957 is a Finnish lyric soprano. She is an opera singer as well as a concert and Lieder singer.

She graduated from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki (a cantor-organist diploma, a singing teacher´s degree and a singing diploma) and made her concert debut there in 1986.

Isokoski won the Lappeenranta song competition in Finland (1987), the Elly Ameling Competition in the Netherlands (1988) and the Tokyo International Singing Competition (1990). In 1987 she won 2nd prize in the BBC Singer of the World competition in Cardiff.

She worked first as a church musician in Northern Finland. In 1987 she was engaged as a soloist with the Finnish National Opera and stayed there until 1994. Her first appearance there was as Mimi in Puccini´s La Bohème in 1987.

Soile Isokoski has sung at all the leading opera houses in Europe (e.g. the Vienna State Opera, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra Bastille, La Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Berlin State Opera, Semperoper, the Hamburg State Opera, the Cologne Opera).

She made her début at the Metropolitan Opera as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro in 2002. The New York Times wrote January 28, 2002: “Ms. Isokoski... touched on the Countess' sense of abandonment by the Count without diminishing her regal bearing or the graceful humor she must contribute to the second act. And her dark, burnished soprano should make her a good addition to the Met roster."

Soile Isokoski´s lied repertoire is extensive. She has given recitals with her regular accompanist Marita Viitasalo worldwide including New York, Washington, Vienna, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Rome, Athens, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Tokyo.

Isokoski has appeared with many renowned conductors including John Eliot Gardiner, Neeme Järvi, Seiji Ozawa, Daniel Barenboim, Andrew Davis, Zubin Mehta, Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, Yehudi Menuhin, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Simon Rattle, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Ashkenazy, James Levine, Okko Kamu, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leif Segerstam, Sakari Oramo and Osmo Vänskä.

In December 2002 Soile Isokoski was awarded with the Pro Finlandia medal in honour of her notable contribution to Finnish music and in 2005 The State Prize for Music.