Martina Starr-Lassen, soprano, is currently studying a Masters in Vocal Performance at the Royal Northern College of Music under the tutelage of Mary Plazas. Previously, Martina completed her Bachelor of Music with Honours at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) as an RCS Trust Scholar. Martina is an artist with Live Music Now, with whom she gave her first performance at the National Galleries of Scotland in 2017. Martina has been a member of the Bergen National Opera’s Young Voices programme since 2013, and is supported as a young artist by the Edvard Grieg Choir. During this time Martina has organised and performed a number of recitals in Bergen under their aegis. 

Masterclass highlights have included working with Sir Thomas Allen (2016) Amanda Roocroft, Patricia MacMahon (2017, ’18), Dame Felicity Lott (2017) and Rachel Nicholls (2016). In summer 2018, she received coachings with Malcolm Martineau and Russel Smythe at the Oxenfoord International Summer School, and at the Academy of French Song and Opera, with Caroline Dowdle, Florence Daguerre de Hureaux and Jean Paul Pruna. At Opera North, Martina has taken part in a residency with Nicholas Kok and James Brining. 

During her time at the RCS, Martina was an original and full-time member of the RCS Voices Consort, performing repertoire from Bach motets to Messiaen, at venues and festivals across Scotland, including the St. Magnus International Festival, and the Aberdeen International Youth Festival. In competition success, Martina was commended in the RCS Highgate Competition 2015, and won the Governor’s Chamber Prize 2017 as part of a vocal octet, with whom she performed sold out concerts at the Merchants House of Glasgow and the Linlithgow Arts Guild.

Upcoming, Martina will collaborate with composer Eldad Diamant on a new work to be performed as a pre-opera show before RNCM’s production of Vaughan Williams’ Pilgrim’s Progress in April, and in May she will feature in the AD Festival Days ‘Portraits’ concert series in Cross Street Chapel Manchester. 

Martina is grateful for support in her studies from the RNCM Postgraduate Bursary Scheme and Bergen Bys Utdanningslegat.

To learn more, please visit martinastarrlassen.com