LÉONIE SONNING TALENT PRIZE 2024
Christina Sofia af Klinteberg Herresthal was born in Oslo in 1997, where she grew up with music close to her heart. She grew up in the Norwegian National Opera Children’s Choir and Barratt Due Young Talents in Oslo. The young mezzo-soprano with a penchant for chamber music studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and the Norwegian Academy of Music.
Christina Sofia af Klinteberg Herresthal made her opera debut as Ishara in Per Nørgård’s Gilgamesh (Rued Langaard Festival 2022). She has also appeared as a soloist with Orkester Nord, Arctic Philharmonic, Finnish Baroque Orchestra, Nordic Baroque, Randers Chamber Orchestra, The Baroque Society, Ensemble Esbjerg and Nordic String Quartet.
The money accompanying the Léonie Sonning Talent Prize will be spent on immersion trips to Brussels, Vienna, Salzburg, Helsinki and London. She will also study with composer Maya Miro Johnson at Yale University/NY to participate in the development of a chamber opera in which the main role will be written for her, to Oslo, where she has a research project at NMH, and to Paris to improve her French language skills. Finally, she will participate in baroque singing competitions to build a network of contacts within the European music scene.
