Biography

Iris Oja was born on April 19, 1977, in Tallinn, Estonia. In 1984 she entered the Tallinn Secondary School of Music to study piano; in 1992 she changed her specialty to choir conducting, and graduated in 1995. At the same time she attended Tallinn Art School, graduating in 1994. She then entered the Georg Ots Tallinn Music School to study classical singing (with T. Bachmann), and in 1999 continued her studies at the Estonian Academy of Music, majoring in classical singing (Prof. Taru Valjakka, Prof. Ivo Kuusk). In 2003 she gained her bachelor's degree and continued in the Master's course. She also participated in masterclasses by Ellen Hargis and Rudolf Piernay.

In autumn 2002 Iris Oja won the Singer's Contest in Tallinn dedicated to 120th anniversary of Mart Saar. In the spring of 2003 she participated in the Klaudia Taev International Competiton for Young Singers and, in the summer of the same year, in the Queen Sonja International Music Competition. In both of these competitions she reached the semifinals.

Whilst at the Georg Ots Music School she founded, together with some friends, a vocal quartet called Sotto Voce (Hele-Mai Hark, Iris Oja, Rainer Vilu and René Soom), and they performed concerts throughout Estonia. The repertoire consisted mainly of highlights from operas and operettas.

In 1998-2000 Iris Oja sang in the Savonlinna Opera Festival Choir, where the repertoire at that time included Faust by Gounoud, Forza del destino by Mascagni, Zauberflöte by Mozart and 3 new operas from Finnish composers.

Since 2000 she has been the leading alto soloist in the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, a section leader and a member of the artistic board. During this time she has been the soloist in many different programs as well as several recordings for Harmonia Mundi.

Iris has been much in demand as an oratorio soloist in Estonia and abroad, performing baroque oratorios, passions and masses, as well as works by Beethoven, R.Strauss, I.Stravinky, A.Pärt, T.Tulev and others. She has also been involved in opera and other stage music projects (Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky, Cavalleria rusticana by Mascagni, Eesti Ballaadid by Tormis and other) and given solo song recitals (Liszt and R.Strauss; Rahmaninov and Chaykovsky, various opera arias and Estonian chamber music).

Iris is frequently the singer of choice for the performance of contemporary music. Many new works by Estonian composers have been dedicated to her, which she has also premiered and recorded. She is a member of Resonabilis, a unique ensemble performing contemporary music, which is constantly extending its repertoire in co-operation with different composers.

Her most recent exciting project (autumn 2006) has been the recording, together with pianist R.Vignoles, of her first solo CD for Harmonia Mundi of romances by Rachmaninov and Shostakovich. This record will be released at the beginning of 2008.