Oberlin Portrait: Leif Aruhn-Solen

Tenor Leif Aruhn-Solén offers his artist diploma recital Wednesday, April 18 at 8 p.m. in Warner Concert Hall

Artist Diploma student Leif Aruhn-Solén recalls that his first musical memory was hearing his mother sing--while still inside her womb. Such experiences in utero are probably not rare, but having the soprano Britt Marie Aruhn as your mother is. Aruhn-Solén's father, Christer Solén is also an opera singer, and music was a huge presence in his life. "I don’t think I really had the option not to be involved in music," says Aruhn-Solén.

"I started going to the opera when I was three," he says. "The first one I remember is La Traviata, with my mother as Violetta. She didn’t want me to be upset at the end when she died, so she practiced at home. She would stand up and fall backward onto the bed so that I could see how it looked and not be frightened when I saw her do it in the theater."

Because of his mother’s career, Aruhn-Solén, a native of Stockholm, Sweden, has lived all over Europe, attending school in Paris, Brussels, and Milan, and living for five years in Denmark before returning to Sweden.

Despite his parents’ vocal legacy--or perhaps because of it--Aruhn-Solén did not decide to sing until quite late. He attended a special music high school in Sweden, majoring in piano at first, but switching to voice following a year of private lessons. He kept his parents in the dark, however, not even telling them about his recitals and performances. "At 16, I didn’t want people to say that I was doing it because of my parents," he says. "Yes, they are both singers, but I did it because I wanted to."

While still an undergraduate at the Royal University College of Music in Stockholm, Aruhn-Solén was singing with the Swedish Radio Choir (from 1994 to 1997). In 1998, a year after his graduation, he won a role in the musical Kristina from Duvemåla by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, the creators of Chess. But it was at university that his path to Oberlin revealed itself--he attended a master class given by Professor of Singing Richard Miller. "I was really excited about the way he taught, which is why I auditioned for Oberlin in 1999. He is the first teacher I’ve had who knows exactly what he is doing all the time."

Aruhn-Solén has since maintained a busy performance schedule in the United States and abroad. He just made his British debut as the tenor solo in an Easter production of St. Matthew Passion with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. This summer, he will sing Tisiphone in Rameau’s Hippolytus and Aricia with the Opera Theater of St. Louis, and next season he will return to Oslo to solo with the Oslo Philharmonic--his third consecutive season with them.

What inspired you to be a musician? What keeps you inspired on discouraging days?

I grew up in music, and there is always music to influence every mood; I can never hear the first movement of Bach’s Magnificat and not be happy. Or, if you need to cry a little bit, you put on the St. Matthew Passion.

What is the most memorable performance you have ever seen and why?

I guess the best one I’ve ever participated in was when I was in the Swedish Radio Choir. It was Schumann’s Szenen aus Faust, with Bryn Terfel singing Faust (the other soloists included Barbara Bonney and Karita Mattila, with the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Claudio Abbaddo). There was one moment near the end, where Bryn Terfel had a soft aria. I just got this . . .wow. I didn’t know that the most beautiful voice in the world would be a baritone; I thought it would be a soprano or a tenor. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard.

If you could perform with any musician, living or dead, who would it be? What would you perform?

I think it would be quite cool to perform with the baroque specialist John Elliot Gardener.
If you could master another instrument, what would it be?
I would love to think that I had actually mastered the piano. After that, almost any orchestral instrument; each have beautiful moments.

If you could not be a musician, what other profession would you choose? What profession would you definitely not choose?

Economics has always been my biggest secondary interest. I can’t really see myself in a nine-to-five job. I don't think I could do any job where I went to the same place every day, five or six days a week, to do the same thing all the time.

What do you listen to in your free time?

Bach is the composer for me – I never get tired of him. I love Mozart and Rossini, but you need a break from them once in a while. I also really like the Backstreet Boys and a lot of other pop. A generation ago, you had to choose between popular and classical music, but I think that because our generation grew up with pop, we can enjoy both.

What do you like to read?

Fantasy literature -- science fiction.

What are three words that describe you?

Down-to-earth, quite serious, and focused. I’m a very typical Taurus.