Jenni Hietala is a soprano from Finland (b.1995). Despite her young age she has been successful on opera and concert stages and in singing competitions. She is currently a member of the Young Artist Programm at the Vienna State Opera in seasons 2022/2023 and 2023/2024. She is also preparing her Master’s degree in Vocal performance with Prof. KS Linda Watson at the Music and Arts University of the city of Vienna. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Finland at the Oulu University of Applied Sciences in 2019.
At the Vienna State Opera she has been singing several roles, such as Echo (Ariadne auf Naxos), Gerhilde (Die Walküre), Blumenmädchen (Parsifal), Hanne (Die Jahreszeiten/Haydn) and in December 2023 she made her debut in the new children’s opera Das verfluchte Geisterschiff (Der fliegende Holländer for children) as Senta. She made her debut in Salzburger Landestheater in October 2023 jumping in as Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia. At the Finnish National Opera she made her debut as Gerhilde in Wagner’s opera The Valkyrie in August 2022. Ms. Hietala has also performed as soprano soloist numerous times in Mozart’s Requiem. At the Wiener Konzerthaus she made her debut in March 2023 as Soprano soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (conducted by Emmanuel Tjeknavorian).
Ms. Hietala reached the finals in Placido Domingo’s Operalia - The World Opera Competition 2022 in Riga, Latvia and she was also the semifinalist of the Neue Stimmen Competition in Germany. That same Summer she won 1st prize in the National Kangasniemi Singing Competition 2022 in Finland and also 1st prize in the Havets Röst Competition in Åland in 2021. In her native country she has also reached the finals in the Timo Mustakallio Competition at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 2017. In addition to that she was invited to sing in the International Scholarship Concert in Bayreuth during the Scholarship week of the Bayreuth Festival in 2023. She was awarded the Hildegard Zadek foundation’s scholarship 2022/2024.