Sonja Herranen

Sonja Herranen is one of the most outstanding young Finnish sopranos. Her noble, expansive voice and natural stage presence have already received recognition at numerous competitions and on opera and concert stages.

As a former member of the International Opera Studio of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Sonja Herranen returns to the stage of the Staatsoper as a guest for the first time in the 2026-27 season, when she once again takes on the role of Pamina in the popular Everding production of Die Zauberflöte. She will also make her house debut at Opernhaus Zürich in the new production of Elektra as the Fifth Maid (Lydia Steier/Lorenzo Viotti) and returns to the Finnish National Opera for the new production of Orfeo ed Euridice as Euridice. In summer 2027, she will also be seen as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at the Savonlinna Opera Festival.

In the concert field, she can be heard, among other engagements, as a soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra and in Fauré’s Requiem with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a member of the International Opera Studio of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden from 2024-26, Sonja Herranen made, among others, her debuts as Freia in Das Rheingold and Helmwige in Die Walküre, Anna in Nabucco, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Priestess in Aida, Voice from Heaven in Don Carlo, Flower Maiden in Parsifal, as well as Agathe in the Opera Studio production of Der Freischütz, and worked with conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Simon Rattle, Bertrand de Billy, Philippe Jordan, Eun Sun Kim and John Fiore.

Further opera highlights included her debut as Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 2026, where she also made her debuts as Liù in Turandot in 2025 and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni in 2024, as well as her debuts as Third Norn in Götterdämmerung and First Lady in Die Zauberflöte at the Finnish National Opera in 2024 and 2022, respectively.

Furthermore, in 2025 she sang the role of Gerhilde in a semi-staged version of Die Walküre with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under the direction of Daniel Harding.

Herranen is also a sought-after soloist on concert stages and has most recently sung under renowned conductors such as Tarmo Peltokoski, James Gaffigan and Ville Matvejeff. Her most recent concert highlight was Mahler’s Fourth Symphony at the Bregenzer Festspiele in 2025 under Leo McFall.

Sonja Herranen won the Elisabeth Connell Prize International Singing Competition in London in spring 2023 and, in the same year, was awarded second prize as well as the special prize of the Finnish National Opera Foundation at the national singing competition in Lappeenranta. In 2019, she won second prize at the Timo Mustakallio Singing Competition of the Savonlinna Opera Festival.

She studied at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with the soprano Heli Veskus and privately with Dale Fundling.

In 2026, Sonja Herranen became a scholarship holder of the Finnish Wagner Society.