L A U R A B O H N
s o p r a n o
". . . an amazing blend of vocal splendor and physical virtuosity" - San Francisco Chronicle
" The great Bohn " - Trouw
"impressive" - Opera
The Duchess in Powder her Face
Powder her Face, Nederlandse Reisopera, 2024
American born soprano Laura Bohn's performances have been called "a brilliant tour de force triumph" and "the tragic classicism and intense, focused range of a Callas playing Medea" (Gramophone).
Laura has been heard as a soloist with the LA Philharmonic, The Industry (LA), The Mostly Mozart Orchestra (NY) , Het Residentie Orkest (NL), Nederlandse Reisopera, I Solisti (BE), Operadagen Rotterdam, Syracuse Opera (NY), West Edge Opera (CA), Festival Opera (CA), Dallas Opera (TX), The Center for Contemporary Opera (NY), The Millennium Jazz Orchestra (NL), the Grand Harmonie Orchestra (MA), Toneelmakerij and Silbersee Opera (NL). ​ Ms. Bohn has been featured on such stages as Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall , the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA, Konzerthaus Berlin, National Sawdust in New York, Het Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam.
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​The soprano opened her '24-'25 season at de Nationale Opera (DNO) in Amsterdam playing the solo opera Lullaby , written for her by composer Kamala Sankaram and playwright Guillermo Calderón. Her tour-de-force performances received critical acclaim, “Bohn sings Sankaram’s notes with a warm power that brings on a wave of goose bumps…” (Trouw). Lullaby premiered in May 2023 at the O. Festival for Opera. Music. Theater (former Operadagen Rotterdam) and was heralded as '' an impressive drama . . . virtuosically sung" (theaterkrant.nl). In the coming seasons Lullaby will tour internationally including the Netherlands, Chile and the United States. More info at LullabyOpera.com.
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Laura made her debut with the Nederlandse Reisopera in early 2024 in the title role of the Duchess in Powder her Face. The reviews raved, "… Laura Bohn ... sang truly excellently Saturday evening …the great Bohn, to the end a pitiful figure as the Duchess, shared the enthusiastic ovation." (Trouw)
"…Laura Bohn portrayed the duchess as a fascinating figure who at times evoked pity, then revulsion and even pure fun…" (NRC). The Nederlands' premiere of Powder her Face toured major theaters in the Netherlands including Amsterdam's Carré. Laura was interviewed by major Dutch papers; The Volkskrant and The NRC dagboek as well as Operamagazine.nl about her process creating the role of the Duchess in this production.
​​ Laura's '24-'25 season includes her Royal Concertgebouw solo debut singing the works of Weill, Sondheim, Bernstein and other Broadway classics at the annual Anatomische Les of the Amsterdam UMC. Upcoming season engagements include the world premiere of Claude and Marcel (Weinberg/Fleischmann) in the title role of Marcel Moore, including 4 development workshops in San Francisco and at Seattle Opera from '24-'26 and a premiere at Oakland's West Edge Opera in 2027. She will return to West Edge Opera in 2026 to reprise her role as the Governess in Britten's Turn of the Screw. Other projects this season include Andriessen's M is for Man, Music, Mozart with the Belgian wind orchestra I Solisti in Nederland and Belgium, and Westward Ho! : European composers in America on tour with the Ruysdael String Quartet throughout the Netherlands. Last season's highlights included Anne LeBaron's solo tour de force Sucktion; A Cyborgopera in Los Angeles, and Zuam! an immersive opera ritual with 3 opera singers and a deaf dancer with The Futurists . Zuam! toured the O. Festival for Opera.Music.Theater in Rotterdam, the Oerol festival on the island of Terschelling, Amsterdamse Bostheater and Gaudeamus Festival in '24.
Career highlights include the title role in Adés' Powder her Face, in which "her powerfully sung Duchess" "nimbly aged half a century" (Opera News, WSJ), and Bernstein's MASS, singing and dancing at Lincoln Center with the Mostly Mozart Orchestra under the baton of Louis Langrée and with Gustavo Dudamel at the LA Philharmonic. Other notable performances include The Industry's Hopscotch opera in which she sang a mad scene by Ellen Reid in over 250 performances while in a limousine driving around downtown L.A., and as Nerone in MonteverdISH, a hip-hop adaptation of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, where "she was literally a bridge between the two worlds of opera and hiphop . . " (Theater.nl) touring the Netherlands and Belgium.
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Recent season highlights include the Witch in a radical urban re-imagining of Hansel and Gretel with Silbersee Opera and Toneel Makerij on a Dutch national tour. She joined the Carpe Diem String Quartet on tour in Amsterdam, Siena, Italy, and Colorado, and sang Anne LeBaron’s rollicking tour-de-force DISH in LA with the Beyond Opera Collective.
Other role highlights for the soprano include the Governess in The Turn of the Screw at West Edge Opera and Dallas Opera (cover), Anna I in Weill's Seven Deadly Sins at Festival Opera, and Marzelline in Beethoven's Fidelio at Princeton University with the Grand Harmonie Orchestra. In 2018-19 she headlined The Bernstein Celebration Tour with the Millennium Jazz Orchestra in major Dutch theaters, sang Marinus (cover) in Michel van der Aa’s Sunken Garden at the Dallas Opera, Mozart arias in On Behalf of a Madman with the Grand Harmonie Orchestra in Boston and toured the Netherlands with Silbersee Opera in as the villainess in Lev. In 2017 Laura sang the role of Bellini's Norma in Before I Die with I Solisti di Vento and Kameroperahuis on tour in the Netherlands and Belgium and was heard as Elle in La Voix Humaine at National Sawdust in NYC and in the Netherlands.
Laura will have her opera-film debut in She Who is Alive by San Francisco based composer Erling Wold playing scientist and espionage ring leader Dr. Maria Stryker, filming in 2023.
Find the teaser trailer of the film here.
The villainous Juf in Lev (Silbersee Opera, 2019)
Other recent career highlights include Ino in Händel's Semele under the baton of Richard Egarr with Het Residentie Orkest, and originating the role of JFK's mistress Mary Pinchot Meyer in LSD; the Opera at REDCAT in LA. She was a singing and dancing Queen of the Night in DJ Moz’art with Silbersee Opera, a pastiche dance-opera celebrating the life and works of the composer which played over 40 performances in major theaters throughout northern Europe to great critical acclaim.
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Laura is a champion of living composers and has premiered major works by Anne LeBaron, Erling Wold, Ellen Reid, Wouter Snoei, Virko Baley, Clark Suprynowicz and Forrest Pierce. The soprano was a young artist at the Teatro Real (Royal Opera of Spain) in Madrid (‘09-’10), Syracuse Opera in New York (’08) and received the Luciano Pavarotti Memorial Scholarship to attend the International Vocal Arts Institute in TelAviv, Israel.
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A native of Seattle, Ms. Bohn has studied voice and theater extensively in Rome and Reggio-Emilia, Italy respectively. She is a graduate of the Dell ‘Arte International School of Physical Theater, holds a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music and a BFA in Vocal Performance from the California Institute of the Arts. Laura is on the voice faculty at ArtEZ Conservatory of the Arts, Arnhem, and the Re:Master Opera program at the Sandburg Institute Amsterdam. She divides her time between the U.S. and Europe, based in Amsterdam with her jazz drummer husband and son.