Biography

Coloratura soprano Olivia Moss is based in Helsinki, with international engagements so far taking her to Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Greece, alongside her performances across Finland and her homeland, the UK. Olivia’s recent engagements include joining the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra as soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and performing at I Djurs og Mols Festival in Denmark. Olivia is a Britten Pears Young Artist (2026 season) and a Young Artist of the Bergen National Opera Academy, where she returned to the role of Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte last season. Olivia was awarded The Gus Christie Award 2018 from Glyndebourne, the Second Prize in the Helsinki Lied Competition 2021 with pianist Kumi Shimozaki, a merit award from the Martin Wegelius Foundation and she was a finalist in the Boosey & Hawkes International Sing Finzi Competition 2021.

In the 25/26 season, Olivia sings the lead role of Oiwa in new chamber opera Yūrei : Ghost of AI Empire (Muramatsu & Huang-Kokina) for Operactive Arts and the role of Love Expert in the world premiere of Trbojevic’s The Art of Loving with Dani Juris and Helsinki Chamber Choir. Olivia also joins the Finnish Baroque Orchestra for the first time in ‘A French Christmas Night’ concert tour and is a soloist in the world premiere of Matthew Whittall’s The World Tree with Helsinki Chamber Choir, also on tour around Finland.

Olivia is deeply committed to contemporary music and has sung many of the major works for soprano of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre, Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, Berio’s Sequenza III for voice and Folk Songs, Saariaho’s Leino Songs and Lonh, and Abrahamsen’s Let Me Tell You. She has also given several world premieres, most recently Järventausta’s Vigil this season, and she thrives on the process of creating a new piece or role with the composer.

In other contemporary and 20th century opera,  Olivia has sung Tytania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Britten), which she performed excerpts of at Glyndebourne in a showcase following their academy, Flora (The Knot Garden, Tippett) and she was soprano soloist in a fully staged production of Bernstein’s Mass under Marin Alsop at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Olivia covered Yulia in the world premiere production of All the Truths We Cannot See (Pulkkis), she contributed in the working group for Obsessions (Zhao) and joined the chorus for the world premiere of Zatopek! (Howard). She is constantly expanding her repertoire, preparing roles such as Agnès (Written on Skin, Benjamin), Max (Where the Wild Things Are, Knussen), Clémence (L’amour de Loin, Saariaho) and Bella (A Midsummer Marriage, Tippett).

Equally at home with more traditional repertoire, Olivia regularly sings the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte (Bergen National Opera YAP, Polyteknikkojen Orkesteri, Sibelius Academy Opera) and has sung Charlotte in Krenek’s Der Diktator in her debut with Tapiola Sinfonietta, the title role in Handel’s Semele (Sibelius Academy/Vantaa BRQ Festival), Suor Dolcina (and cover Suor Genovieffa) in Puccini’s Suor Angelica (Heraklion Festival). Further partial roles include Lucia (Lucia Di Lammermoor), Violetta (La Traviata), Gilda (Rigoletto), Amina (La Sonnambula), Eurydice (Orphée aux Enfers),Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) and First Witch (Dido & Aeneas). Her chorus credits include productions at the Finnish National Opera, Helsinki Festival and the Baltic Sea Festival.

Olivia is also inspired by projects that involve innovative programming and bring traditional repertoire into unconventional settings; she was a soloist for Lee Mingwei’s installation Sonic Blossom at the Ateneum (Finnish National Gallery), she sang Berkeley’s Songs of the Half Light with guitarist Teuvo Taimioja at the Luosto Amethyst Mine (Luosto Soi Festival) and she sang in immersive theatre production 03.08.38 – Tillstander av unntak by Transiteatret-Bergen.

Regularly found on the concert stage, Olivia has sung the soprano solos in Bach’s St John Passion & St Matthew Passion, Handel’s Messiah & Israel in Egypt, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Dvorak’s Te Deum and Campra’s Arion amongst many others. Olivia is also featured on the film soundtrack for The Postcard Killings (Good Films Collective).

Olivia holds a Master’s Degree from the Sibelius Academy, where she studied with Outi Kähkönen and Collin Hansen. Her studies at the Sibelius Academy were generously supported by the Selim Eskelin Foundation. Prior to this, Olivia studied privately with Rosa Mannion and Mary King, after graduating from the University of York with a BA (Hons) in Music in 2016. 

Olivia’s journey with classical singing started in the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choir. With the LPYC she worked under the batons of Vasily Petrenko and Ian Tracey, was soprano soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria in the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and she sang at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games.

Ensemble singing continues to be a part of Olivia’s musical journey; she sang in The 24 under Robert Hollingworth and the University of York Chamber Choir under Peter Seymour and she is now in high demand in Finland’s professional ensemble scene, most recently joining the roster of the grammy award-winning Helsinki Chamber Choir.

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