Renate Ekerhovd

INTRODUCTION

Renate Ekerhovd is a spontaneous singing talent with a distinct and silvery high coloratura voice. Her joy of singing helps to facet the different styles and characters, which she always portrays with great nuance, authority, a flair for timing, and technical surplus. She is known for her bell-ringing soprano with beauty in tone, her playful musicality, and her focus on delivery and communication, whether it is at a concert or on the opera stage.

RECENT AND FUTURE ENGAGEMENTS

Renate’s most recent and future engagements include:

• Oscar/Un Ballo in Maschera, Queen of the Night and Catherina Cavalieri/Amadeus by Peter Schafer at the Royal Danish Opera;
• Berta/Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini at The Norwegian National Opera & Ballet (March 2022);
• Adele/Die Fledermaus at Ringsakeroperaen;
• her debut at The Bergen National Opera as Papagena/Die Zauberflöte by Mozart;
• various concerts and productions for Opera til Folket in Oslo;
• Händel’s Messiah with Stavanger Cathedral Ensemble;
• a New Year’s Gala (2024) with the Ålesund Symphony Orchestra;
• Queen of the Night/The Magic Flute (sung in Norwegian) at the Kirsten Flagstad Festival;
• Adina/L’elisir d’amore (sung in Norwegian, short version) at the Midtåsen Kulturfestival in Sandefjord (Norway).

BIOGRAPHY

Renate has made a name for herself through her studies and early career as a versatile artist. She has performed with some of the most prominent ensembles and companies in Scandinavia and the world, such as Carnegie Hall in New York, the World Choir Symposium in Seoul, South Korea, the Royal Theater in Copenhagen, the Bergen National Opera, and the Norwegian Opera & Ballet in Oslo.

Renate has appeared as a soloist and actress in a number of productions while studying at The Royal Opera Academy in Copenhagen. She made her professional debut at The Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen in 2018 as Barbarina in director Elisa Kragerup’s critically acclaimed staging of Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart. In the following years she also sang The Queen of the Night in Kasper Holten’s successful production of Amadeus by Peter Schaffer, Johanna Baker in the musical Sweeney Todd by Sondheim, Fortuna in L’incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi, Amore in Orfeo ed Euridice by Gluck and Lady with a Hand Mirror in Postcard from Morocco by Argento.

In the spring of 2020, Renate Ekerhovd became part of the soloist ensemble at the Norwegian Opera & Ballet as a Young Artist, and she has participated in several productions and concerts in the 20/21 season. Though her many planned role debuts at DNO&B were canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, she has done the roles of Frasquita in Carmen by Bizet, Sister Genovieffa in Suor Angelica by Puccini, Berta in The Barber in Seville by Rossini and Musetta in La bohème by Puccini.

Renate is a sought-after concert artist and has sung repertoire from Bach to Abrahamsen with several large Scandinavian orchestras. She has experience with broadcasting concerts and performances on the radio, television, and streaming over the internet. She was a soloist at the Royal Danish Orchestra’s Christmas concert at The Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, where the concert was broadcast live on Radio DR1. The Norwegian Opera and Ballet has broadcasted the performance of Suor Angelica by Puccini, and the Kirsten Flagstad 125th Anniversary Concert live over the radio, and the latter was also broadcast on national TV NRK Hovedscenen. In the autumn of 2020, the premiere of The Barber of Seville was streamed live on Operavision.com and on Youtube. In January 2021, she sang at the New Year’s concert with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, which also was shown on Harmonien’s website.

Conductors with whom Renate has collaborated include Paolo Carigiani, Gregor Bühl, Gerhard Markson, Håkon D. Nystedt, Michael Boder, Giancarlo Andretta, Robert Houssart, Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Alexis Kossenko, Tobias Ringborg, James Gaffigan, Stephen Layton, Kirill Karabits, Grethe Pedersen, Boris Schäfer along with others. Directors with whom Renate has collaborated include Kasper Holten, Karolina Sofulak, Caroline Chaney, Jetske Mijnssen, Rachel Hewer, Jacobo Spirei, Natascha Metherell, and more.

EDUCATION AND BACKGROUND

Renate comes from the small island Sotra outside of Bergen on the Norwegian west coast, and she played the piano and sang in a choir for many years before she began her vocal studies at the Norwegian Academy of Music with teachers Kirsten Taranger, Randi Stene, and Bo Skovhus. After her bachelor’s degree in Opera at the Norwegian National Opera Academy, she commenced her studies in Copenhagen at The Royal Danish Opera Academy. Working with the vocal teacher and dean Anne Margrethe Dahl, she completed her advanced postgraduate diploma of music degree in the early spring of 2020.