Kristin Mulders, mezzo-soprano, started taking voice lessons at the age of 19, when studying music at Wartburg College, Iowa. She holds a mastersdegree in vocal performance from the Grieg Academy of Music in Bergen, Norway, where she studied with the Norwegian tenor Harald Bjørkøy and Norwegian soprano Hilde Haraldsen Sveen. The last year she has studied privately with Prof. Eva Blahová.
Despite her short career, she has given numerous recitals both in Norway and abroad, and she is regularly doing solo-parts with choirs and orchestras. She has sung with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, and worked with conductors like Peter Schreier, Andrew Litton, and Eivind Gullberg Jensen. Mulders has performed solo-parts in works like Bach’s Christmas oratorio and St.Johns Passion, Mozart and Duruflé Requiems, Beethovens Symphony no.9, Händels Messiah, Charpentiers Te Deum and Messe de Minuit, and she has appeared as a soloist in productions for the Norwegian television and radio. Her versatile repertoire also includes lieder, opera and baroque music, as well as music from the renaissance and the classical cabaret genre. During the last years she has received several scholarships for her work.
Some upcoming engagements in 2010 includes touring for Concerts Norway (Rikskonsertene) in Norway, understudy for the Cherubino-role in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and singing Annina in Verdi’s La Traviata with The New Opera in Bergen. As a soloist with the early-music ensembles Currentes(Norway) and Ensemble San Felice(Firenze) she will be touring Italy, Germany and the Czech-Republic before doing a CD-recording with the same group. From April 2010 Mulders will be singing in Ars Nova Copenhagen conducted by Paul Hillier.
General version:
Kristin Mulders is a versatile singer, and with her lyrical coloratura mezzo-soprano voice she sings repertoire ranging from early renaissance and baroque to modern neo-classical and cabaret music. She has appeared as a soloist with i.e. Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, Stavanger Cathedral-choirs and Stavanger S.Orchestra, Savannah Choral Society and Savannah S. Orchestra, Forsvarets Musikkorps Vestlandet, Collegiûm Mûsicum Choir and orchestra, Voci Nobili, etc .
She has done several solo concerts in Norway and abroad, including at Edvard Griegs home Troldhaugen. Her repertoire includes soloparts in works like the Mozarts Requiem, Duruflé Requiem, Beethoven Symphony nr.9, Mendelssohn Elijah, Bach Christmas-oratorio and St.Johns Passion, Pergolesi Stabat Mater, Schnittke Requiem, Saint-Saëns Messe de Minuit, Charpentier Te Deum and Messe de Minuit, Allegri Miserere, Händel Messiah, and Arvo Pärt Passio.
She works regularly with Bergen Vocalensemble/Kor Vest, The New Opera in Bergen and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, and has appeared in operaproductions like Don Giovanni, Tosca, Carmen, Der fliegende Holländer,and Eugene Onegin. She was an understudy for the Mercedes -part in Carmen with Bergen Phil. Orchestra cond. by Andrew Litton in 2007.
Since 2003 she has been engaged in different concerts and CD- projects in New York; she appears as a guest vocalist at the cd-recording Scandinavian Yultide Voices – led by New York-based pianist and composer Mika Pohjola. She has performed for the Norwegian broadcasting companies TV2 and NRK TV and radio., and sings the opening-track at the last CD of the pricewinning female choir Voci Nobili, conducted by Maria G. Helbekkmo. The choir was ranged as the Worlds Top Female Choir in 2007 by Musica Mundi.
Mulders received outstanding critics after two tours in the US in 2007, the first of them which included working with the grammy-winning (2006) composer William Bolcom in Ann Arbour, Michigan, together with pianist Irene Simonsen, in order to prepare for a recording of Bolcom cabaret-songs. Later on, her interpretation of Mahler and Grieg-songs together with pianist Knut Chr. Jansson was also warmly received by the american audience.
Throughout the year she holds several performances with different baroque ensembles, in addition to solo-recitals with different pianists and chambermusic-groups.Mulders was engaged in a music and art celebration of the Geirr Tveitt and Olav H.Hauge-anniversary 2008 in New York – a cooperation between the Trygve Lie Gallery , Hauge/Tveitt08 and HardingPuls - where she did a first performance of songs to Olav H.Hauge poems written for Mulders by Mika Pohjola.
Some upcoming engagements in 2010; touring for Rikskonsertene/Fylkeskonsertane with the performance "Sangerinden" ("The singer"), concert-tours with the baroque-ensemble Currentes in Italy and the Czech-Republic in 2010, Singing Annina in Verdi's La Traviata, and singing with Ars Nova Copenhagen and conductor Paul Hillier.
S T U D I ES
Recent student of prof.Eva Blahová.
Masters degree - voice 2002-2004
- The Grieg Academy in Bergen . Professor Hilde Haraldsen Sveen.
Bachelors degree - voice 1999-2002
- The Grieg Academy in Bergen. Professors: Harald Bjørkøy and Hilde H.Sveen
Junior year, vocal performance 1997-1998
- Wartburg College,
Iowa, U.S.A,
- Sophomore year , vocal performance / piano studies , choir and language studies.
Masterclasses
- Elena Obrazova
- Peter Schreier
- Elisabeth Norberg Schulz
- Håkan Hagegård
- Elisabeth Söderström
- Susanna Eken
- Robert Levin
- Malcolm Bilson
- Njål Sparbo
SCHOLARSHIPS
Berlin Artist in Residence 2009/Hardangerlokk, Hordaland Fylkeskommunes Kunstnerstipend 2008, Fond for lyd og bilde 2008, Eckbos Legater 2009/2007, Bergen Kommunes Etableringsstipend 2006, Fond for utøvende kunstnere 2006, O.Kavlis og Knut Kavlis Almennyttige fond 2005, Kvam Herads Kulturstipend 2001/2005, Fridtjof Sundt’s Legat 2004, Augusta Antonette Mohrs legat 2002/2004, Ole Bulls Fond 2003, Libresse Jentefond 2003, De Unges Forbunds legat 2003, Stipendiefond for kvinnelige studenter 2003, Loret Ruppe International Scholarship (Iowa) 1997-1998 and Lånekassens gebyrstipend for musikkstudiar i USA 1997/1998.