Meeri Pulakka

Soprano Meeri Pulakka's versatile talent spans from early to contemporary music, and she is equally at home both on the operatic stage as well as in chamber music settings. Pulakka has appeared as soloist with the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, Barocco Boreale, the Finnish Chamber Orchestra, the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, and Uusinta Ensemble, working with conductors such as Juha Kangas, Sakari Oramo and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. Her latest operatic casting took place in Vienna: the role of Vitellia in Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito.

Meeri Pulakka is in especially high demand as a performer and premierer of contemporary music, owing to her notably musical and precise work – greatly appreciated by living composers – that stems from extensive violin and singing studies started at an early age by the 'Finnish folk music capital' of Kaustinen. Pulakka's engagements with the music of our time include the role of Girl in Riikka Talvitie's radio opera Queen of the Cold Land (premiered in 2017), Luciano Berio's Sequenza III and Luigi Nono's La fabbrica illuminata (Kallio New Music Days), Kaija Saariaho's Lonh, Enno Poppe's Wespe, Outi Tarkiainen's Into the Woodland Silence (UML festival Oulu), Minna Leinonen's Shom (Brücken festival), Olli Kortekangas' One Night Stand (role of Kami, 2011), concert at the Villa Lante in Rome (Nuovi Spazi Musicali), Sebastian Hilli's Arachne (New Music Theatre / Showcase 2016 Pietarsaari) as well as her enthusiastic work bringing young composers' new works to life (Ears Open society, Creative Dialogue 2014 Santa Fé, the enoa network / Helsinki Festival 2016).

In June 2018, Meeri Pulakka graduated as Master of Music (with distinction) at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, focusing on Lied and Oratorio singing. In fall 2017, she finished her Master of Arts degree in opera singing (with distinction) at the Universität für Musik and darstellende Kunst in Vienna. Pulakka collaborates with pianists Kirill Kozlovski and Anna Ramstedt on Lied repertoire and performs regularly in early music productions. Current examples of the latter include performing as the soprano soloist with the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra conducted by baroque harpist Andrew Lawrence-King in January 2018, and in Barocco Boreale's In Queen Kristina’s Footsteps production in November 2018.

At Circolo Scandinavo, soprano Meeri Pulakka is working together with composer Jarkko Hartikainen on a new solo soprano piece, of her commission, that receives its world premiere in Pulakka's debut concert at the Helsinki Music Centre in January 2019. The concert consists of solos and duos by composers Jarkko Hartikainen, Erik Bergman, Enno Poppe, Philippe Leroux and György Kurtág.