Erica Back

Mezzo-soprano Erica Back’s repertoire stretches from early baroque to contemporary music. Her curiosity and her passion for performance lead to an eternal search to discover new avenues of expression and to continually challenging herself, whether performing opera, sacred music, recitals, musical theatre or spoken word.

As of 2024 she is based in Oslo as a freelance musician.
Between 2019 and 2023 Erica was a member of the opera ensemble at the Oldenburg State theater in Germany.

Opera roles she has performed include Hänsel (Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel), Octavian (R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier), Concepcíon (Ravel: L’heure espagnol), Annio (Mozart: La clemenza di Tito), Kuchtík (Dvorak: Rusalka), Cupid (Blow: Venus and Adonis), Ruggiero (Händel: Alcina), Dorabella (Mozart: Così fan tutte), Siebel (Gounod: Faust), Alcina (F. Caccini: L’isola d’Alcina) and Cherubino (Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro). And some contemporary opera roles; Serafina Suomi (O. Kortekangas: Veljeni vartija), Frida Kahlo (K. Aho), Katrina (J.Mattsson: Katrina) and Elisa (J. Sandström: Elisa och fantasin).

Solo songs and lieder lie particularly close to Erica’s heart. A two year research and performance grant (2024-2026) from the Swedish Cultural Fund in Helsinki will allow her to explore two fields; art songs by female composers and norm critical / ’gender curious’ interpretation in the field of opera. As well as learning new repertoire, she hopes, during this time, to deepen her insights and widen her views on singing, interpretation and performance and to find inspiration through encounters with other artists and artforms.

Erica’s background

Growing up in Närpes, a rural Swedish-speaking area in Finland, classical music was not familiar to her, but learning to play the French horn as a child led to a fascination with classical singing during her teen years. These interests led her to pursue studies as a young singer at the Conservatory of Music in Kokkola in Finland, further to the Piteå University of Music in Northern Sweden, thence to conclude her education at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in 2016. The most important guides during her studies have been mezzo-soprano Monica Groop and sopranos Christiane Iven, Emma Rönnlund and Synnöve Dellquist.

After graduating opera performances at the Finnish National Opera, Savonlinna Opera Festival, Vaasa Baroque Festival, Tampere Opera, Ulriksdal Palace Theatre in Stockholm ensued as well as soloist appearances with Turku Philharmonia, The Chamber Orchestra of Lapland, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and Vaasa City Orchestra, to name a few.

As a young singer Erica demonstrated her firm grasp of different genres in several national and international competitions. In 2014, she was awarded shared first prize in the Kangasniemi Singing Competition in Finland. Erica's special aptitude for lied interpretation saw her receive the second prize and a special lied recital prize at the 2015 International Sibelius singing competition in Järvenpää, Finland. In 2016, she was awarded shared second prize at the national singing competition in Lappeenranta. In 2017 Erica was awarded tenor Caj Ehrstedt's prize for classical singers under thirty. In the same year she also received a grant and concert prize at the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg.

In closing, Erica would like to quote the composer Nadia Boulanger:
“Nothing is better than music; when it takes us out of time, it has done more for us than we have the right to hope for.”