Astrid Nordstad
Mezzo-soprano
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Astrid Nordstad is a Norwegian mezzo-soprano, born in Trondheim. A well-known voice in her home country, she was awarded the Tom Wilhelmsen Opera Prize in 2022—the most important of its kind in Norway—and is now steadily building a presence on the operatic and concert stages across Europe.
In the 2025/26 season, she makes an important role debut as Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlo at the Norwegian National Opera. She also returns to the roles of Olga in Eugene Onegin and Ruth Sherwood in Wonderful Town. In concert, she sings Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the Ålesund Symphony Orchestra and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Nidaros Cathedral, with further engagements to be announced.
The 2024/25 season featured a series of contrasting debuts: Emilia in Verdi’s Otello, Mother Goose in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Sylva in Die Csárdásfürstin, and the Male Fox in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. She appeared with the Staatsorchester Oldenburg in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, with the Bergen Philharmonic in Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, in Dvořák’s Stabat Mater with the Malmö Opera Orchestra and Choir, and in the Norwegian premiere of A Plastic Theatre by Johanna Marsh with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra.
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In earlier seasons, she sang Olga in Eugene Onegin at both the Royal Danish Opera and the Norwegian National Opera, where she also appeared as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Tisbe in La Cenerentola, and Ruth Sherwood in Wonderful Town. Other roles included Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte at Bergen National Opera, the title role in Carmen with the Helgeland Sinfonietta, Baba the Turk in The Rake’s Progress at the Oslo Opera Festival, and Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia for Ringsakeroperaen.
As a concert soloist, she recently performed Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder with the Dresden Festival Orchestra under Marc Minkowski, and sang Cleofe in Händel’s La Resurrezione with Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre in Aix-en-Provence and at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. She performed Berlioz’s La Mort de Cléopâtre at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and made her Concertgebouw debut in Bruckner’s Mass in f minor with the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Other recent highlights include Shéhérazade with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra under Marc Soustrot, Lied von der Erde with the Kristiansund Symphony Orchestra, Rückert-Lieder with the Danish Chamber Orchestra under Ádám Fischer, Messiah with the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, and Das Lied von der Erde with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León.
A dedicated recitalist, she has performed at Grieg’s birth house and is featured on the album Peter Heise: The Song Edition Condensed. In her native Norway, she is widely appreciated for her interpretation of Grieg’s Haugtussa.
From 2018 to 2020, she was a member of the Norwegian National Opera’s Young Artists’ Programme, where she sang Maddalena in Rigoletto, Badessa in Suor Angelica, Mercedes in Carmen, Masha in The Queen of Spades, and Tisbe in La Cenerentola.
Raised in Trondheim, her first musical experiences were with the Nidaros Cathedral Girls’ Choir. She studied singing at the Norwegian Academy of Music and was selected for the opera programme at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. She later joined the Opera Academy in Copenhagen, where she studied with Susanna Eken. In 2019, she reached the semi-finals of the Queen Sonja International Music Competition and was awarded the Ingrid Bjoner Scholarship as best Norwegian participant.
General Management: Tiben Artists
