Maija Lisa Currie
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Maija Lisa Currie is an American soprano opera singer. She was born abroad in Helsinki, Finland in 1976, and during her childhood and teenage years lived in California, Spain, Puerto Rico, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, and Indiana.
After graduating from Carmel High School (Carmel, Indiana) in 1994, she earned a Bachelor of Music degree in voice from Indiana University School of Music in 1999, where she studied with Virginia Botkin and Paul Kiesgen, and a Master of Music degree in voice from the Peabody Institute in 2001, where she studied with Stanley Cornett and Phyllis Bryn-Julson. Following her graduation from Peabody, she returned to the IU School of Music and entered the Performance Diploma program, studying voice with Virginia Zeani and Patricia Stiles. During that time, she sang the title role in Massenet's Manon and performed as Beatrice in the North American premiere of Sven-David Sandstrom's opera Jeppe: The Cruel Comedy. In addition to her formal schooling, summer training included performing Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro at Opera in the Ozarks in 2000, training as a young artist at the Music Academy of the West in 2001 and 2002, where she performed Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring, and attending the Brevard Music Festival, where she performed Violetta in La Traviata.
She was a member of the Indianapolis Opera Ensemble in 2002, performing concerts and school shows throughout Indiana. She was a member of the International Opera Studio of the Zurich Opera during the 2003-2004 season, where she performed Papagena in Die Zauberflote, Donna Fulvia in La Pietra del Paragone, and die Erste Adelige Waise in Der Rosenkavalier at the opera house, and performed Ida in Richard Genee's Der Musikfeind in the Zurich Festival.
After returning to the United States, in 2005 she completed her Performance Diploma at Indiana University and moved to New York City, where she studies voice with Joan Patenaude-Yarnell. Since starting her professional career she has performed in operas and concerts with various companies, including Indianapolis Opera, Kentucky Opera, Mobile Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, and Jacksonville Lyric Opera, amongst others.
In 2006 she returned to Indiana University in a professional capacity to sing Manon in two performances, called in as a last minute replacement when a student was ill. In 2008 she performs Beauty in Dicapo Opera's production of Vittorio Giannini's Beauty and the Beast. In May 2008 she performs the role of Esterka in the premiere of Adam B. Silverman's opera Korczak's Orphans with the Opera Company of Brooklyn, an opera based on life of the Polish-Jewish author, pediatrician, and child pedagogue Henryk Goldszmit whose pen name was Janusz Korczak.
