Maria Forsström

Maria Forsström was born in Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden. She is equally at ease at a Lieder recital and in the symphonic repertoire as on the opera stage, and is much appreciated for her Mahler interpretations and for the deep joy she finds in exploring different musical styles. 

Her repertoire spans from early Baroque to 20th-century composers, such as Luciano Berio and Benjamin Britten. Maria graduated first at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm as an organist, choir conductor and pianist. She then pursued Early Music Studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she also focused on Baroque and Classical ornamentation, completing her studies with orchestra conducting at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg. After this, she started singing, realising she wanted to become the instrument itself. 

Due to her broad perspectives, she is much in demand as a vocal coach by prominent choirs in Sweden such as the Gothenburg Symphony Chorus, the Swedish Chamber Choir and the French Radio Choir. Schubert being one of her housegods, she is currently preparing a completely new translation of his and Müller’s Winterreise into Swedish, for a concert project with art, darkness and sound. She holds a strong interest in neurobiology, related to the perception and learning processes within music.

Though being thoroughly Swedish by age-old ancestry, Maria is an Anglophile with an Italian heart. A keen piano player since childhood, she loves to stroll through Haydn sonatas too late into the night. Languages and gardening are her other big interests. When not persuing music, Maria is often found renovating her country house and looking out at her overgrown flowerbeds. 

Maria Forsström has performed with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, La Chambre Philharmonique, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra NOSPR, Wroclaw Symphony Orchestra, Südwestdeutsches Philharmonie, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Musica Aeterna, Perm, Russia, performing on stages in Europe, Russia and Japan, working with conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Masaaki Suzuki, Teodor Currentzis, Thomas Dausgaard, Edward Gardner and Jacek Kaspszyk. She has recorded for Musica Rediviva, Sony Classical and Chandos.