Erica Back

Ensemble: (Former) Oldenburgisches Staatstheater

Freelancer: Finnish National Opera, Savonlinna Opera Festival, Tampere Opera, Ulriksdal Palace Theatre (Stockholm)

Mezzo-soprano Erica Back is an Oslo-based freelance artist whose repertoire spans from early Baroque to contemporary music. From 2019 to 2023, she was a member of the opera ensemble at Oldenburgisches Staatstheater, following a year in the theater’s opera studio. As a guest artist, Ms. Back has performed with Finnish National Opera, Savonlinna Opera Festival, Tampere Opera, and at the Ulriksdal Palace Theatre in Stockholm, among others.

A graduate of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki (Master of Music, 2016), Ms. Back also studied at the University of Music in Piteå and the Conservatory of Music in Kokkola. Her most influential mentors have included Monica Groop, Christiane Iven, Emma Rönnlund, and Synnöve Dellquist. She has also participated in masterclasses with Emma Kirkby, Francisco Araiza, Julia Hamari, and Peter Mattei.

Recent roles at Oldenburgisches Staatstheater have included Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Concepción (L’heure espagnole), Lola (Cavalleria Rusticana), and Stewardess (Flight). Other notable appearances include Siebel (Faust) at Savonlinna Opera Festival, Dorabella (Così fan tutte) and Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) at Finnish National Opera, and Ruggiero (Alcina) at the Vaasa Baroque Festival. Her contemporary opera credits include the title role in Frida y Diego by Kalevi Aho, Elisa in Jan Sandström’s Elisa och fantasin, and Serafina Suomi in Olli Kortekangas’s Veljeni vartija.

Ms. Back is equally active on the concert stage, having appeared as a soloist with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Vaasa City Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Lapland. Her concert repertoire includes Les nuits d’été, Sieben frühe Lieder, Il Tramonto, and a wide range of sacred works by Bach, Mozart, Respighi, and Rossini.

She is a recipient of the 2024–2026 working grant from the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, which supports her ongoing research into art songs by female composers and norm-critical interpretations in opera. Her earlier accolades include prizes at the Lappeenranta Singing Competition (2016), International Sibelius Singing Competition (2015), and Kangasniemi Singing Competition (2014), as well as awards from the Mozarteum Summer Academy and the Caj Ehrstedt Foundation.