Science in the Park

Conductor: Fredrik Burstedt

Fredrik has worked with all of Sweden’s professional orchestras and many others in the Nordic region, including the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, the Odense Symphony Orchestra, and the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, and I Pomeriggi musicali.

In the realm of opera, Fredrik has conducted Janáček’s *The Cunning Little Vixen* at the Gothenburg Opera, Bizet’s *Carmen* and Martinů’s *The Greek Passion* at the Värmland Opera, Lehár’s *The Merry Widow* and Rossini’s *Cinderella* at the Royal Swedish Opera, and Kirke Mechem’s *Tartuffe* at the Norrland Opera. He has led premiere productions, including Jonas Bolin’s *Tristessa* at the Royal Opera in Stockholm—which was named one of the five most important opera events in the world—as well as *The Silver Bird* by Mats Larsson Gothe, *The War of Love* by Paula Malmborg-Ward, and *The Norrmalmstorg Drama* by Albert Schnelzer.

Fredrik began his studies in conducting with Jorma Panula and received further instruction from Daniel Harding, Stefan Solyom, and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. He has been awarded the Royal Swedish Opera’s Sixten Ehrling Prize for young conductors and the prestigious Herbert Blomstedt Scholarship from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. In 2017, Fredrik was awarded a Grammy for his album featuring the works of composer Mats Larsson Gothe, on which he conducted the Västerås Sinfonietta and the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra.

Soloist, mezzo-soprano: Susanna Levonen

Susanna Levonen is a member of the NorrlandsOperan company and has received national and international acclaim for her compelling character portrayals. With a vocal range of just over three octaves, she has performed roles as both a mezzo-soprano and a dramatic soprano.

At the Norrlands Opera, Susanna has sung, among other roles, the title role in *Carmen*, Rosina in *The Barber of Seville*, Eboli in *Don Carlo*, Dorabella in *Così fan tutte*, Marie in *Wozzeck*, Begbick in *Mahagonny*, Lady Macbeth in *Macbeth*, Chrysothemis in *Elektra*, Marie Curie in *Blanche & Marie*, and Selma Jezková in *Dancer in the Dark*.

At the same time, Susanna has made guest appearances in Sweden (Malmö Opera, Folkoperan, Wermland Opera, GöteborgsOperan) as well as in Germany and Belgium, in roles such as Amneris in *Aida*, the title role in *Salome*, Sieglinde in *Die Walküre*, Senta in *The Flying Dutchman*, Magda in *The Consul*, and Marie in *Wozzeck*. For her performance as Sieglinde at Wermland Opera, Susanna was nominated for “Singer of the Year” by the German opera magazine *Opernwelt*.

She has also performed many orchestral works with symphony orchestras in Sweden (such as the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra), in Hanover and Kassel, Germany; Trondheim, Norway; Salzburg, Austria; and Montevideo, Uruguay.

Susanna has a special love for the song and the art of storytelling itself, which has led to numerous tours featuring Argentine tango after she performed in the capital of tango, Buenos Aires.

Among her awards are the Jenny Lind Scholarship and the Der Sängerpreis at the Internationaler Wettbewerb für Liedkunst in Stuttgart.

Susanna studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and holds a Soloist Diploma from the Academy of Music in Gothenburg.

Soloist, mezzo-soprano: Sidsel Aja Eriksen

Sidsel Aja Eriksen is a Danish mezzo-soprano based in Copenhagen, Denmark. She studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Aarhus and at the Dutch National Opera Academy in Amsterdam.

Sidsel has performed as a soloist with several orchestras, including the Aalborg, Aarhus, Danish Radio, and Helsingborg Symphony Orchestras, in works such as Handel’s *Judas Maccabaeus* and *Messiah*, Bach’s *Christmas Oratorio*, Rossini’s *Petit Messe Solennelle*, and Gade’s *Elverskud*. She has performed roles at the Royal Danish Theater in Copenhagen, the Funen Opera, Opera Hedeland, and the Aarhus Summer Opera, among others. Her most recent roles include the Mother Superior in Puccini’s *Suor Angelica* and Papagena in Mozart’s *The Magic Flute*.

In the summer of 2022, Sidsel made her Swedish debut in the title role of Werle’s *Tintomara* at Läckö Castle, and in 2023 she sang Cinderella in Rossini’s *Cenerentola* at the Immling Festival in southern Germany.

Host: Dan Turdén

Since 2021, Dan Turdén has been the opera director of the Norrlandsoperan opera department. Turdén most recently directed *Adriana Mater*, which was performed at Norrlandsoperan in 2023. The production made a guest appearance at the prestigious Savonlinna Opera Festival in Savonlinna, Finland, in the summer of 2024. Prior to that, Turdén directed Verdi’s *Macbeth* in 2021 and *Love & Politics* in 2020 at Norrlandsoperan. The latter was a collage of excerpts from Verdi’s operas, based on Schiller’s plays, developed during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and brought to fruition—from concept to premiere—in just five weeks under Turdén’s direction.

From 2007 to 2019, Turdén served as artistic director of the independent opera company Kamraterna in Stockholm. With them, he directed, among other works, *Les Enfants Terribles* by Philip Glass, *The Fox and the Seven Deadly Sins* by Igor Stravinsky and Kurt Weill, *The Ban on Love* by Wagner, and *Fidelio* by Beethoven.

Turdén began his career as an actor, training at the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts from 2004 to 2008, and also completed a two-year master’s program in opera directing at the Stockholm Opera Academy from 2014 to 2021.

As a freelance opera director, Turdén has worked at Malmö Opera, the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, Värmland Opera, and the Baltic Sea Festival.