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)
DISH, Beyond Opera Collective
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 (Netherlands), I Solisti del Vento (Belgium), 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 Avery Fisher Hall, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA, Konzerthaus Berlin, National Sawdust in New York, Het Concertgebouw and Het Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam.
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.
Current projects for Laura include Lullaby a one-woman opera written for Bohn by composer Kamala Sankaram which played the O-Lab of the O Festival (formerly Operadagen Rotterdam) in the spring of 2022 in a work-in-progress. Lullaby will have its European premiere at the O. Festival 2023 followed by a European tour the following season and the American premiere at Festival Opera in California in the summer of 2024. More info on Lullaby here.
Last season Laura’s Witch was “sung with infectious pleasure” (NRC) in a radical urban re-imagining of Hansel and Gretel with Silbersee Opera and Toneel Makerij on tour in major Dutch theaters. 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.
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 will take place in 2022-23.
Find the teaser trailer of the film here.
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.
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.
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.