Finnish soprano Helena Juntunen combines an international operatic career with a substantial concert and recording profile. Her recent work places particular emphasis on twentieth-century opera, contemporary Finnish works and the music of Sibelius. In 2026, she sang Solveig in the world premiere of Sebastian Fagerlund’s Morgonstjärnan at Finnish National Opera in Helsinki. Her engagements that year also include Patricia in Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen.

Ms. Juntunen’s recent stage work includes Salome in Wuppertal in 2024 and 2025, Leonore in Fidelio at Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari in 2024, and Marie in Wozzeck at Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe in 2021 and 2023. Her wider repertoire encompasses Countess Almaviva and Donna Elvira in Lyon, Clara in Der Zwerg, Marietta in Die tote Stadt and the title role in Káťa Kabanová at Opéra National de Lorraine, as well as Greta Graumann in Der ferne Klang in Strasbourg and Marie/Marietta at Theater Basel.

On the concert platform, Sibelius remains central to Ms. Juntunen’s work. She sang Luonnotar and songs with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 2025, following Sibelius songs with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2024. Her recent engagements also include Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Helsinki Philharmonic in 2025 and the Lapland Chamber Orchestra in 2026, and Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder with the Seoul Philharmonic in 2024. Kullervo with Copenhagen Phil is announced for February 2027. Her recordings for Ondine and BIS include the first orchestral recordings of Sibelius’s Höstkväll and Hertig Magnus.

A regular guest at Finnish National Opera since 1999, Ms. Juntunen has sung Zdenka, Sophie, Mimì, Pamina and Rosalinde there, alongside roles in world premieres by Jüri Reinvere and Sebastian Fagerlund. Pamina has also taken her to Aix-en-Provence under Daniel Harding, La Monnaie under René Jacobs, Geneva, the Wiener Festwochen, Theater an der Wien and Dresden. Her breakthrough as Marguerite in Faust at Savonlinna in 2002 was followed by debuts at Connecticut Opera, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Vlaamse Opera and Semperoper Dresden in 2003/04, and concerts at Carnegie Hall and in Tokyo. Earlier orchestral collaborations include the Berliner Philharmoniker, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic.

Ms. Juntunen began her vocal studies with Airi Tokola at Oulu Conservatoire and earned her Master of Music at the Sibelius Academy with Anita Välkki. She won the women’s division of the Lappeenranta Singing Competition in 2002 and received the Karita Mattila Prize in 2006.