““Kristine Nowlain commanded immediate attention...and simply stunned us...””
The “electric” Swedish-American soprano Kristine Nowlain is committed to finding a deep connection to her artistry through constantly seeking relevance, nuance and complexity in her interpretation, choice of repertoire and collaborations.
Kristine was born and raised in San Francisco, California in a Swedish-American family. She has studied voice in Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Stockholm and Malmö. In 2012 she graduated from Occidental College in Los Angeles with a B.A. in Music and minors in Sociology and Latin American Studies. She completed her Bachelors in June, 2018 at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and in June, 2020 she completed her Masters from Malmö Opera Academy/Malmö Academy of Music.
In the autumn of the 2025/26 season, Kristine will sing Charlotte in Krenek’s Der Diktator with Kamraterna. In the spring she will sing Trini in the world premier of Karin Rehnqvist’s children’s opera Färden till Arareko as well as Irene in the revival production of Måndag är Fiskbulledag. For the 2024/25 season, Kristine sang in two productions by Operaverkstan at Malmö Opera: Augusta in the revival of Snösystern by M. Johansson in the autumn and Irene in the world premier of Måndag är Fiskbulledag by Lars Ljungberg in the spring. During the winter of 2023/24 Kristine performed Emma, the main character in children’s opera Flurry Tale (Vinteryra) with music by Rusty Magee, libretto by Billy Aronson and direction by Marie Parker Shaw on the main stage of Malmö Opera, conducted by Andreas Eriksson Hjort. During the fall of 2023, she sang Vita in the world premier of Andrea Tarrodi’s first two-act opera Det Långa Seklet with direction & libretto by Helena Röhr through the free-opera group Freebird. In the fall/winter of 2022, she sang two roles at Malmö Operaverkstan: Trasmaja in Väntarna by L.J. Werle (direction: Hillevi Björnsson) and Augusta in the world premier of Snösystern by Magnus Johansson, directed by Linda Mallik. That summer she sang High Priestess in Verdi’s Aida at Opera Hedeland, directed by Rodula Gaitanou and conducted by Carlo Goldstein. In the spring of 2022, Kristine sang one of fives roles in the world premier of Drømmedøden, (music: Josefine Opsahl, direction: Michaela Granit), with Nordic Opera at Folkoperan (Sthlm), Det Kongelige Teater (Copenhagen), Den Nye Opera (Esbjerg) and Kalmar Castle. In the autumn of 2021, Kristine jumped in on short notice as the cover for both Hanna Glawari and Valencienne in Lehár’s Die lustige Witwe at Nöjesteatern, Malmö with a number of planned and unplanned performances in both roles. In the autumn of 2020, she sang Despina in Cosí fan tutte with Malmö Opera on tour directed by Jonas Österberg Nilsson.
In February 2020 she debuted at Malmö Opera as Cupidon in Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers, directed by Elisabeth Linton and conducted by Tobias Ringborg. During the 2019/20 season at Malmö Opera Kristine covered Tytania (Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and in 2018 she covered Maria in Bernstein’s West Side Story. Some of her favorite performed roles (in part and/or complete) are Calisto (Cavalli’s La Calisto), Zerlina (Mozart’s Don Giovanni), Despina (Mozart’s Così fan tutte), Laetitia (Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief) and Susanna (Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro).
In concert, Kristine has worked with conductors such as Patrik Ringborg, Tobias Ringborg, Jakob Hultberg, Maike Bühle, Fredrik Malmberg, Cecilia Martin-Löf, Florian Benfer, and Sofia Winiarski, as well as been the soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elias at Berliner Philharmonie, Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s Johannespassion and Weihnachtsoratorium among other works. In 2019 she sang with Malmö Opera Orchestra at Malmö Festivalen and was featured as the soloist at Gävle Symphony Orchestra’s Christmas Concert, 2019. She participated in the Mirjam Helin Singing Competition in Helsinki, 2019, the 2022 Wilhelm Stenhammar International Music Competition and was a finalist in the Hjördis Schymberg Award with Nordiska Kammarorkestern.
Kristine has also found her artistic voice in lieder, contemporary music, chamber music, music composed by women and through a wide variety of projects. She regularly performs a concert program of female composers from Sweden, England and France with pianist Annika Bjelk and violinist Inga Zeppezauer titled Élève-toi: songs about us. She is also planning a tour callled Skuggor och Ljus with the fantastic Vindla String Quartet with a concert featuring Rolf Martinsson’s Till Skuggan av en Verklighet with text by Karin Boye, as well as music by Rebecca Clarke, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Poldowski (Régine Wieniawska) and original music composed by the quartet themselves.
In 2018 Kristine performed the Scandinavian premier of woman.life.song by Judith Weir for soprano and 19-piece chamber orchestra. In 2017 she was one of 12 singers in the “core-team” of Marina Abramovic’s week-long performance piece The Cleaner at The Modern Art Museum, Stockholm. In 2022 she was the soloist in Min Totala Njutning, a performance piece by Lilith Studios (Elin Lundgren and Petter Peterson), poet Daniel Mårs and composer Philip Gleisner. The piece was later selected as one of 14 works to participate in Scenkonstbiennalen 2023.
She has received scholarships from the Friends of Malmö Opera, Fredrika Bremer Förbundet, Familjen John Anderssons i Anderslöv Stiftelse, Giovanni Impellizzeris Bel Canto Scholarshop, Anders Sandrews Stiftelse, Stiftelsen Petersenska Hemmet, Helge Ax:son Johnsons Stiftelse, Torsten Tegstams Scholarship, Royal College of Music Scholarship, Royal Swedish Academy of Music Scholarship and more.
She has studied with Valentin Lundin, Arwel Treharne Morgan, Bo Rosenkull and Kirsten Buhl Møller as well as taken lessons from Jeremy Carpenter, Camilla Tilling, Anna Larsson and Elin Rombo. She participated in the Birgit Nilsson Masterclasses with Miah Persson in 2021 as well as in masterclasses with Ann-Sofie von Otter, Thomas Bagwell, Gregory Lamar, Giuseppe Sabbatini and Solveig Kringlebotn.
