Described as “vocally resplendent,” “powerful,” and possessing “impeccable coloratura” (San Francisco Chronicle), soprano Alisa Jordheim is praised for her compelling and vocally assured performances in opera, oratorio, musical theatre, both early and new music, and recital. Miss Jordheim’s recent portrayal of Soeur Constance in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites at the Caramoor International Music Festival was met with great acclaim: Sister Constance was “beautifully taken here by the sweet-voiced, endearing soprano Alisa Jordheim” (The New York Times) and “winningly performed by Alisa Jordheim in a soprano of surprising depth and color” (Musical America). Regarding Florentine Opera’s 2015 production of Elmer Gantry, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes, “Alisa Suzanne Jordheim gave a spot-on performance as Lulu Baines. She created a sympathetic character and sang with a voice that was pure, lovely, light in color, and powerful.”

A 2013 Merola Opera Program Participant, Miss Jordheim sang the roles of Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia and Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro, and “Dal tuo gentil sembiante” from Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba in the Merola Grand Finale. Prior to the role of Lulu Baines in Elmer Gantry, she appeared as Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring, Frasquita in Carmen, and Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro with Florentine Opera. Other recent roles in addition to Soeur Constance in Dialogues des Carmélites at Caramoor include Satirino in La Calisto, 2nd Knabe in Die Zauberflöte, and the Page in Rigoletto with Cincinnati Opera; Marzelline in Fidelio with Madison Opera; Micaëla in “Carmen in Concert” with the Columbus Symphony/Opera Columbus; Flora in Turn of the Screw, Sirena in Rinaldo, Ellen in Oklahoma!, and Fredrika in A Little Night Music with Central City Opera; The Rose in The Little Prince with Cincinnati Chamber Opera; and Nannetta in Falstaff with Emerald City Opera.

Miss Jordheim’s performances as soloist with orchestra include Torke’s Book of Proverbs with the Grant Park Music Festival, Messiah and Bestienne in Bestien und Bestienne (semi-staged) with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Messiah with the Madison Bach Musicians, First Fairy in Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Columbus Symphony and the Greeley Philharmonic, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Madison Symphony, Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, J. S. Bach’s Cantata No. 29 with the Dayton Philharmonic, Carmina Burana and Exsultate, jubilate with the Fox Valley Symphony, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the CCM Concert Orchestra, The Revelations of Divine Love (Cooman) with the Bel Canto Chorus, Ein deutsches Requiem (as guest soprano soloist) with the Lawrence University Symphony Orchestra, and favorites by Rodgers & Hammerstein and Andrew Lloyd Webber with the Northwest Indiana Symphony.

Engagements in 2016-2017 included a return to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra as Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro under the baton of Edo de Waart, soprano soloist in Ein deutsches Requiem with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, soprano soloist in Torke’s Four Proverbs with Present Music, Serpetta in La finta giardiniera with On Site Opera and Atlanta Opera, Yum-Yum in The Mikado with DuPage Opera Theatre/New Philharmonic, and a return to Florentine Opera to create the role of Lola in the world premiere and subsequent professional recording of Sister Carrie, written by Grammy award-winning composer Robert Aldridge and librettist Herschel Garfein. Engagements in 2017-2018 include her debut with Opéra national de Paris as 1st Knappe in Parsifal, soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the Baltimore Symphony conducted by Marin Alsop, Cunégonde in Candide with Palm Beach Opera, Venus in Venus & Adonis and Belinda in Dido & Aeneas in a double-bill production with Florentine Opera, and Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Boston Midsummer Opera. With the New York Opera Society, Miss Jordheim sang the role of Ruth Maier (“Norway’s Anne Frank”) in Letters from Ruth, a new musical by Norwegian composer-librettist team Gisle Kverndokk and Aksel-Otto Bull. She is also the voice of Bel in the animated short film Over the Horizon, written and directed by David Pierson.

Miss Jordheim is the recipient of a 2016 Sullivan Foundation Award and 2015 Sullivan Foundation Career Development Grant. She won the 2015 Bel Canto Regional Artists Competition, took 2nd place in the 2013 Auditions Plus Classical Singer Vocal Competition - Young Artist Division, and won the Edith Newfield Scholarship in the 2013 Musicians Club of Women Music Scholarship Competition in Chicago. She was the recipient of the 2012 Central City Opera Young Artist Award, winner of the 2012 and 2011 Wisconsin District Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and a finalist in the Kurt Weill Foundation’s 2011 Lotte Lenya International Competition. Miss Jordheim is also the recipient of a Central City Opera Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program Award.

A Fulbright Scholar and Fellow of the American Scandinavian Foundation, Miss Jordheim studied and conducted research on singing diction in the Scandinavian languages at the University of Oslo in 2013-2014. She frequently performs recitals of songs by Scandinavian composers, has published an article on Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish singing diction in the NATS Journal of Singing, and has completed English and IPA translations of numerous songs by Scandinavian composers. She is also an advocate of new music for voice, having premiered works composed for her by Lori Laitman, Douglas Pew, Joanne Metcalf, Josh Deutsch, and Rodney Rogers.

Miss Jordheim is a native of Appleton, Wisconsin, and she completed her first two years of undergraduate study at Lawrence University, where she studied with Patrice Michaels. She earned her Bachelor of Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Voice Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) as a student of William McGraw, and her DMA cognate field is Scandinavian song and diction. At CCM, she performed the roles of Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Lucia (The Rape of Lucretia), Echo (Ariadne auf Naxos), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Une Pâstourelle (L’enfant et les sortilèges), and the partial role of Mademoiselle Silberklang (Der Schauspieldirektor).