Sofia Jernberg

SOFIA JERNBERG

Sofia is a Swedish experimental singer, composer, improviser and performer, born in Ethiopia 1983. She grew up in Ethiopia, Vietnam and Sweden. Since 2011 she lives in Stockholm.

One of her deepest interests as a singer is to explore the “instrumental” possibilities of the voice. Her singing vocabulary includes sounds and techniques that often contradict a conventional singing style. She has dug deep into non verbal vocalizing, split tone singing, pitchless singing and distorted singing.

Music theatre and contemporary opera play an important role in Jernberg's artistic work. She has embodied roles written explicitly for her in new works such as ‹Folie à Deux› by Emily Hall and ‹UR_› by Anna Thorvaldsdottir. She performed the production ‹PIERROT LUNAIRE› directed by Marlene Monteiro Freitas as a soloist together with Klangforum Wien at the Wiener Festwochen 2021, the KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen and at the Festival d'Automne à Paris in 2022. In the film ‹Union of the North› by Matthew Barney, Erna Ómarsdóttir and Valdimar Jóhannsson she was seen as a singer. In 2021, she premiered Chaya Czernowin's ‹Atara› with the RSO Vienna at the Musikverein Wien at Wien Modern. In 2023, she made her debuts with Collegium Novum Zurich, Ensemble Resonanz Hamburg and Lucerne Festival Forward. In 2025, she will sing the world premiere of Chaya Czernowin's work ‹No!› with the LA Phil New Music Group at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Los Angeles and the German premiere with the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne.

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