Erica Back

Finnish lyric mezzo-soprano Erica Back is an Oslo-based freelance artist whose repertoire spans early Baroque to contemporary music. From 2019 to 2023, she was a member of the opera ensemble at Oldenburgisches Staatstheater, following a year in the theatre’s opera studio. Her roles there included Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, Concepción in L’heure espagnole, Lola in Cavalleria rusticana and the Stewardess in Flight.

As a guest artist, Ms. Back has performed with Finnish National Opera, the Savonlinna Opera Festival, Tampere Opera and Ulriksdal Palace Theatre, Confidencen, in Stockholm. Early music remains a substantial part of her work. Her engagements in 2026 include Venere in Monteverdi’s Il ballo delle ingrate with Finnish National Opera and the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, following Alcina in Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina in 2024. Earlier roles include Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina at Vaasa Baroque, Dorabella in Così fan tutte and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro at Finnish National Opera, and Siebel in Faust at Savonlinna.

Contemporary Nordic opera is another thread in her career. She sang Mother Sofia in Uljas Pulkkis’s Isoviha at the Ilmajoki Music Festival in 2025 and 2026, and the title role in J. Mattsson’s Katrina on Åland in 2024 and 2025. Her repertoire also includes Frida Kahlo in Kalevi Aho’s Frida y Diego, Elisa in Jan Sandström’s Elisa och fantasin and Serafina Suomi in Olli Kortekangas’s Veljeni vartija.

Ms. Back is equally active on the concert stage, having appeared as a soloist with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Vaasa City Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Lapland. Her concert repertoire includes Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été, Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder, Respighi’s Il tramonto and sacred works by Bach, Mozart, Respighi and Rossini. A working grant from the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland for 2024–2026 supports her research into art songs by women composers and norm-critical approaches to operatic interpretation.

A graduate of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where she completed her Master of Music with Monica Groop in 2016, Ms. Back also studied in Piteå and Kokkola. Her teachers include Christiane Iven, Emma Rönnlund and Synnöve Dellquist, and her further training includes masterclasses with Emma Kirkby, Francisco Araiza, Julia Hamari and Peter Mattei. She received the Lied Prize at the Wilhelm Stenhammar competition in 2022. Earlier distinctions include prizes at the Lappeenranta, International Sibelius and Kangasniemi singing competitions, and awards from the Mozarteum Summer Academy and Caj Ehrstedt Foundation.