Annika Fuhrmann is a German-Finnish versatile singer, musician, and sound artist, who feels most at home in the fields of experimental music theater, sound art, improvisation, and contemporary music. Annika graduated from the Sibelius Academy with a master’s degree in music. In recent years, she has actively sought to break away from her classical singing background. Instead of technical perfection, she is interested in the diverse use of the human voice as an expressive tool with a direct and unadorned connection to the listener.
Annika has premiered several works composed for her and participated in interdisciplinary projects with artists from various fields. Additionally, she has composed and recorded several audio works for the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE . She has recorded, among others, Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia for eight electronically amplified voices and orchestra with the RSO conducted by Hannu Lintu. Annika has performed at events such as the Tokyo Wonder Site Experimental Festival, London’s Grimeborn Festival of New Opera, Rencontres des Musicales de Vézelay Festival (France), Musica Nova, Tampere Biennale, Kamarikesä, Kokkola Opera Summer and Helsinki Festival.
At the moment Annika’s artistic work is supported by the Kone Foundation.
Annika Fuhrmann has proven to be a fearless Hofmann -interpreter like Piia Komsi, who rivets her audience.
Annika Fuhrmann’s metallic clear, subtle soprano reaches from feathery smooth, gentle whispering to naïve, grotesque bleating and powerful accents – the nuances of Pierrot lunaire rarely come out so meaningfully.
Musically the performance was excellent: Schönberg was to a great extent a colour composer, which is often forgotten because of the twelve-tone bemoaning. Fuhrmann’s sprechgesang was natural and free and no embarrassing hollering of an opera soprano, somewhere between speech and pitch.