B I O G R A P H Y
The tenor Erlend Tvinnereim (1981) was born and raised in Bergen, Norway where he gained his first singing experiences already as young boy. After concluding his BA at the Grieg Academy in Bergen he moved to Zürich, Switzerland to continue his Masters degree at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste with the renowned Professor Scot Weir. There he graduated with distinction and was accepted to the «Solistendiplom» (Specialized Master of Performance) to make his well acclaimed Debut Recital in the spring of 2011.
During his years of study Erlend Tvinnereim also profited through Materclasses and lessons with eminent singers such as Ileana Cotrubaş, Peter Schreier, Håkan Hagegård, Werner Güra, Hans Peter Blochwitz, Jill Feldmann, Margreet Honig, Susanna Eken, Anne Lise Berntsen and Lied specialists Hartmut Höll and Daniel Fueter. In addision to increasing concert engagements he made his Tamino debut in Mozart Magic Flute guesting for the «Schweizer Opernstudio» in Biel/Solothurn and singing the role of Peter Quint in Britten's The Turn of the Screw as part of Festival der Künste in Zürich in 2007.
Parallel to his studies he was admitted to the the international opera studio «OperAvenir» at Theater Basel in the 2008/2009 season where he participated as part of the ensemble singing in Der Fliegende Holländer (Steuermann) Les Dialogues des Carmelités (L`Aumonier), The House of the Dead (Straz) Parsifal (1.Gralsritter/3. Knappe) and the event opera «Il tempo del postino» as a part of ArtBasel Festival-09. He also appeared in several studio productions such as Club Cosi (Ferrando), Schaf - a childrens opera and the operetta show Viva Venezia.
Erlend Tvinnereim has in few years of freelancing gained great experience through stage appearances at Theater St.Gallen, Grand Opéra de Genève, Theater Basel, Staatsoper Hamburg, the Bergen National Opera, Opera Nord Tromsø (Norway) and Szeged National Theatre (Hungary), working with conductors such as Cornelius Meister, Jesus López-Cobos, Friedemann Layer, Andrea Marcon, Marc Soustrot, John Fiore, Helmuth Rilling, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Robert Howarth, Gebriele Ferro, Leonardo Alarcón, Jac van Steen, Stefan Blunier, Julian Wachner, Andrew Litton, Maurizio Barbacini, Gabriele Ferro, Karen Karmensek, Patrick Furrer, Howard Griffiths and Gabriel Feltz and stage directors including Calixto Bieto, Phillip Stölzl, Nicolas Joel, Katharina Thalbach, David Bösch, Benedict von Peter, David Poutney, Michael McCarthy, John La Bouchardiere, David McVicar, Johannes Schmid and Róbert Àlföldi.
As a sought after concert singer Erlend Tvinnereim regularly performs across Europe, with emphasis in the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. Despite his young age, he has built up a wide repertoire including all of Bachs Passions and Masses, the Christmas Oratory and Magnificat, Händels Messiah, Solomon, Theodora, Belshazzar and Dixit Dominus as well as Mozarts Requiem, Haydns Creation and Beethovens 9.th Symphony to name but a few.
Contemporary music include first performances by Gion Antoni Derungs and Mathias Heep, the world premiere of Knut Vaages opera Veslefrikk in 2010 and a leading role in the european premiere of Lera Auerbachs chamber opera "The Blind" at the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival 2013. Erlend Tvinnereim has also been awarded several Prizes and Scholarschips such as the Migros-Kulturprozent Prize for 2010, Henry Klæstad Foundation Prize and the City of Bergen Scholarship for Young Artists 2011. For the season 2015/2016 Erlend Tvinnereim was engaged as a soloist member of the "jeune troupe en recidence" at the Grand Thèâtre de Genève (sponsored by BNP-Paribas) where he apperared as Oronte in Alcina, Ruodi and Rudolphe in Guillaume Tell, ajax II in La Belle Hélène and Bardolfo in Falstaff.