Vienna based Finnish mezzo-soprano Tuija Knihtilä graduated from the Sibelius-Academy and continued her studies at Die Hochschule der Künste Berlin as well as at the Zürich International Opera Studio. After a six-year-tenure at the Finnish National Opera’s soloist ensemble she took a step towards international stages and has worked as a freelancer since 2010.
The 2022/23 season marks her debut as Judith in Bartok's Bluebeard’s Castle with Pori Sinfonietta (Finland) and performances as Kundry in Wagner’s Parsifal at the Linz Landestheater (Austria). At the Savonlinna Opera Festival she returned to the name role of Bizet's Carmen and the role of Amneris in Verdi's Aida. Other highlights of the season are Beethoven 9 with Sakari Oramo and the Wiener Symphoniker and Missa Solemnis with the Lahti Symphony and Hannu Lintu who conducted also Tuija’s debut as Marguerite in Berlioz's La damnation de Faust 2020 with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Helsinki.
Other roles to be mentioned in Tuija's repertoire are Komponist/Ariadne auf Naxos and Venus/Tannhäuser at the Norwegian National Opera, Brangäne/Tristan und Isolde at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, Jocasta/Oedipus Rex and Mary/The Flying Dutchman at Bergen Opera and Ortrud/Lohengrin at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, Santuzza/Cavalleria Rusticana in São Paulo and Brangäne at Teatro La Fenice under the baton of Myung Whun Chung as well as her celebrated Ortrud/Lohengrin at the Danish Royal Opera in Copenhagen.
Tuija made her US debut at the Austin Opera (TX) as Amneris, the role in which she has appeared also in São Paulo, Bonn, and Malmö. In Malmö she also sang Laura Adorno/La Gioconda.
As a sought-after concert singer some of her notable performances have been Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with Hannu Lintu at the Helsinki Festival, Das Lied von der Erde with Malmö Symphony Orchestra and of Herodias/Salome as concert set up with Turku Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leif Segerstam.