Annika Fuhrmann is a German-Finnish multifaceted musician and vocal artist.
She is most at home in the world of contemporary music, improvisation and experimental music theater, where she boldly and broad-mindedly crosses borders of genre, taking full advantage of her subtle coloratura soprano. Annika is constantly working together with contemporary composers and has premiered several works written especially for her. She has performed in festivals like Tokyo Wonder Site Experimental (Tokyo, Japan), Grimeborn Festival of New Opera (London, Great Britain), Rencontres des musicales de Vézelay (Vézelay, France), Musica Nova (Helsinki, Finnland), Tampere biennale (Tampere, Finnland), Helsinki Kamarikesä (Helsinki, Finland), West Coast Kokkola Opera Festival (Kokkola, Finland) and the Helsinki Festival. While her roots are in the classical bel canto singing style, Annika draws influence from folk music, free jazz, avant-garde, and baroque music, as well as experimental performance art.
Annika obtained her master´s degree from the Sibelius Academy in music education and her bachelor’s degree from the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in voice pedagogy. Having specialized in children’s voices, she has worked a lot with children’s choirs, as both conductor and singing teacher, e.g. the Tapiola Choir.
Annika has also studied composition. Her compositions have attracted attention especially among choirs and vocal ensembles and are actively performed in Finland and abroad. As a composer, Annika draws among others from Finnish folk music. Her works are published by SULASOL.
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.
Helsingin Sanomat (10. 8. 2012)
All in all, the approach of the performance felt fresh. It is especially pleasing to see talented work in the field of new music theater in Helsinki. Fuhrmann and director Jaakko Nousiainen seem to have found themselves a promising niche for their work.