Audun Iversen

Norwegian baritone Audun Iversen began singing at the age of 22. In Spring 2005, he graduated from the Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo, where he studied with professors Håkan Hagegård and Svein Bjørkøy. Audun furthered his studies at the Opera Academy Copenhagen and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, where, during the 2007-08 season, he performed Schaunard in La bohème and Viscomte Cascada in The Merry Widow with the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen.

A multi award-winning artist, Audun received First Prize in the Queen Sonja International Music Competition in Oslo in 2007 (where he was the first singer to win the newly founded Ingrid Bjoner Scholarship), was a finalist in the Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition, was awarded the Danish Reumert Talent Award for 2009 at the official Danish award ceremony for stage arts, was HSBC laureate at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and 2010 recipient of the Aalborg Opera Prize. Conductors with whom Audun has collaborated include Christian Badea, Marc Soustrot, Kazushi Ono, Giordano Bellincampi, Michael Boder, Eivind Aadland, Lan Shui, Alan Curtis, Carlo Montanaro, Robin Ticciati, Cornelius Mesiter, Sebastian Weigle and Thomas Søndergaard.

Some operatic highlights of recent seasons include Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia for his San Francisco Opera debut and at Deutsche Oper Berlin; il Conte in Le Nozze di Figaro for Royal Danish Opera and Glyndebourne Festival; title role Eugene Onegin for Royal Danish Opera, Opéra de Lille, the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow and English National Opera; Zurga in Les pêcheurs de Perles with Moscow State Philharmonic Society; Don Giovanni with Glyndebourne on Tour; Sharpless in Madama Butterfly for Royal Danish Opera and for Opera di Roma; Albert in Werther at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (conducted by Antonio Pappano) and Opernhaus Zürich; Marcello in La bohème at the Royal Opera House, San Francisco Opera and Royal Danish Opera; Olivier in Capriccio for his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut; Conte di Luna in Il Trovatore in Denmark, and the title role in Wozzeck for Oper Frankfurt and The Norwegian Opera & Ballet, Oslo.

Notable concert appearances include the Grand Opening Gala of the new Norwegian National Opera House in Oslo; The Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony singing with Elīna Garanča; the Norwegian National Opera’s New Year’s concerts and Operafest concerts, performances at the Lofoten International Chamber Music Festival with Leif Ove Andsnes, Lars Vogt and Håvard Gimse; Carmina Burana with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale in Florence and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Hamburger Symphoniker, Bergen Philharmonic and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Britten’s War Requiem with the New Japan Philharmonic conducted by Daniel Harding.

In the 2019-20 season, Audun returns to Oper Frankfurt for his role debut as Posa in Don Carlo. Other notable engagements include appearances at The Norwegian Opera & Ballet as the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro and the title role in Eugene Onegin. He will finish the season by making his Santa Fe Opera debut as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia.