Katarina Karnéus trained at the Trinity College of Music and the National Opera Studio in London. Katarina performs on the world’s leading opera and concert stages and has been engaged by the Göteborg Opera since 2012. In 2018, she was appointed Court Singer to the Swedish Royal Court.
Her performances at the Göteborg Opera include, among others, Fricka in the Das Rheingold, Brangaine in Tristan and Isolde, Orpheus in Orpheus and Eurydice, the Woman in Schönberg’s Erwartung and Madame Sebastian in Notorious. Further roles include Queen Gertrude in Hamlet and Clytemnestra in Electra, Octavian in the Knight of the Rose (Der Rosenkavalier) and Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina. In 2018, her interpretation of the lead role in Bellini’s Norma, won her Svenska Dagbladet’s Opera Prize. In 1995, Katarina Karnéus won the world famous singing competition - Cardiff Singer of the World.
Katarina made her debut in 1999 on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera as Varvara in Katja Kabanova. This was followed by Olga in Eugene Onegin, Siebel in Faust and Rosina in The Barber of Seville. Other roles include Herodias in Salome at Opera North, Claire in The Visit of the Old Lady at Theater an der Wien, Annio in The Mildness of Titus at the Royal Opera House and Bayerische Staatsoper, Countess Geschwitz in Lulu at the Bayerische Staatsopera, the title role in Carmen at the Opéra Comique and in Alceste at La Monnaie, Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda at the Staatsoper unter den Linden, Orpheus in Orpheus and Eurydice at the Deutschen Oper, Berlin.
She has performed as a soloist in front of orchestras such as Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra and the BBC's Scottish Symphony Orchestra. As a singer of classical romance, Katarina has performed, at the Wigmore Hall in London, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York and the Concertgebouw. Royal events include performances at the Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street in London as well as at Her Majesty Queen Silvia's Childhood concerts and the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in 2010.
Recordings include, among others, Songs by Sibelius and Grieg, R. Strauss and Mahler, Orchestral Songs by Szymanowski with Simon Rattle and Orchestral Songs by Mahler with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Susanna Mälkki. DVD recordings include Brangaine in Tristan and Isolde with Nina Stemme in the role of Isolde.
In 2010, Katarina Karnéus won two Grammy Awards for Mahler's Eighth Symphony accompanied by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. In 2015, she was awarded the Litteris et Artibus medal by His Majesty the King of Sweden.
