Iida Antola & Kirill Kozlovski
Biography Iida Antola & Kirill Kozlovski
Iida Antola
Welcome to my website. My name is Iida Antola and I’m a versatile musician/artist, mostly working as an opera singer. I grew up in Finland but I consider myself a cosmopolitan – I was born in Taipei where I spent my early childhood, I have studied and lived in Berlin and in France. At at the moment I’m based in Amsterdam. I speak fluent Finnish, English, German and French.
I work primarily as soloist but I am also a trained pianist, choir conductor and a published composer. In spring 2022 I made my international debut as Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos (Strauss) at Opéra de Limoges and I sang title roles of Suor Angelica (Puccini) in Berlin Alte Münze and Adina (Rossini) in Royal Opera Festival in Krakow (2022). My other recent important roles include the role of Bride in the Finnish premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s latest opera Innocence, a role which I covered at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2021; Micaëla (Bizet: Carmen) at Tampere Opera and Donna Elvira (Mozart: Don Giovanni) at Wien Palais Eschenbach (2020). I made my professional debut at the Finnish National Opera as Pamina in Mozart’s Magic Flute in 2017 and have since sung several principal roles there at the very beginning of my career, such as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera (2018 & 2021), Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (2020) and Crobyle in Massenet’s Opera Thaïs (2019).
I’ve had success in various voice competitions. In summer 2022 I was awarded the Bel Canto Prize, Audience Prize and the Inge Borkh scholarship at the Rossini in Wildbad Festival. In 2021 I was a finalist in the prestigious ARD competition in Munich, Germany. In 2023 was awarded 1st prize at the Lappeenranta National Voice competition. Winning 1st prize in the Kangasniemi Competition in Finland back in 2017 resulted in my first working opportunities in Finland.
Besides opera I’m also a passionate Lieder singer. This season (2023-2024) I’m one of the laureates of Lied Academy d’Orsay-Royaumont with pianist Anni Laukkanen. My debut CD “The Truth about Love” with pianist Kirill Kozlovski was published by Alba Records in 2023. I have given recitals in MozartFest Würzburg, Crescendo Festival Berlin, Ploiesti Philharmonic and Bucharest Atheneum and in Germany, France, the Netherlands and my native Finland. I won shared 2nd prize (1st prize wasn’t awarded) at the International Paula Salomon Lindberg Competition in Berlin in 2017 with pianist Daria Tudor and in 2018 I was a finalist in both the International Hugo Wolf Lied Competition in Stuttgart and the International Schubert Lied Duo Competition in Dortmund with pianist Anni Laukkanen.
I also have a vast oratorio and concert repertoire: I’ve performed for example The Messiah (Handel), Requiem (Mozart), Requiem (Fauré), The Seasons (Haydn), Nelson-Messe (Haydn), Salve Regina (Haydn) and Paukenmesse (Haydn). I’m an experienced performer of contemporary music, I have perfect pitch and recently sang and conducted Pierrot Lunaire at the “Kaivos Festival” in Finland. I’ve also premiered music in the “Klang” Festival in Helsinki and I can be heard as soloist on several recordings, including Veli-Matti Puumala’s opera Anna-Liisa (Ondine 2015), the Bermaniana male choir recording (Alba 2016), as well as the Helsinki Chamber Choir’s Bergman recording (BIS 2017). Publisher Sulasol has published my compositions.
Before my voice studies in Universität der Künste Berlin, I graduated as choir conductor and pianist from the Sibelius Academy. I’ve studied choir conducting in Finland under Timo Nuoranne and Prof. Matti Hyökki and in France under Nicole Corti (CNSMD Lyon). Between 2013-2015 I worked as a chorus master for many opera productions at the Sibelius Academy and I was also the artistic director of HOL, a high-level student choir in Helsinki. In 2015 HOL was awarded two golden stars at International Tampere Vocal Music Festival choir review and I was also awarded the prize for the best young conductor. My dream is to combine conducting and singing.
My studies and artistic projects have been supported by by grants from the Olga & Vilho Linnamo foundation, the Selim Eskelin foundation, the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Wihuri Foundation.
