Born in Sweden, Håkan Vramsmo won a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 1999, having previously studied in Sweden, Amsterdam, France and Germany. He graduated in 2001 with distinction and immediately went on to sing at the opening night of the BBC Proms in Vaughan Williams’s A Serenade to Music. This summer he returned to the Proms taking part in Birtwistle’s The Mask of Orpheus with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

During his studies Håkan took a great interest in song repertoire, winning top prizes at major international competitions including second prize at both the Wigmore Hall and StuttgartInternational Lieder Competitions in 1999 and 2001.

Håkan has performed extensively on the concert platform, appearing at major venues and festivals throughout Europe including Wigmore Hall (with Iain Burnside, Graham Johnson and Llŷr Williams), Bridgewater Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Santiago de Compostela (with Roger Vignoles), Sibeliusacademin and the Aldeburgh, Bath, King’s Lynn, Newbury Spring, Leamington and Exeter Festivals. He has also appeared with the Gothenberg and Malmo Symphony Orchestras, the Gabrieli Consort and Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, both conducted by Paul McCreesh, and recorded for BBC Radio 3, Stockholm Radio and Swedish Television.

Håkan has returned to the Bath Festival for Winterreise, to Jerusalem to sing Stravinsky’s Abraham & Isaac and appeared with the Scharoun Ensemble at the National Concert Hall. He has also appeared at the Lake District Festival and as soloist with the City of London Sinfonia and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras. In 2008 he sang Rossini in Rome with Sir David Willcocks, recorded Finzi, Barber and Schubert’s Schwanengesang with Julius Drake for BBC Radio 3 and appeared at the Festival Wratislavia Cantans in Poland.

Recent operatic work has included the newly created role of Axel in Anna Meredith’s Tarantula in Petrol Blue in Aldeburgh, the role of Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas) for Nuremberg Festival Opera, critically acclaimed performances of Elizabeth Maconchy’s The Departure at Sadler’s Wells for Independent Opera, Papageno for The Pimlott Foundation and Belcore (L’Elisir d’amore) for Opera South. He has previously covered the role of Papageno in Glyndebourne Festival Opera’s production of The Magic Flute; sung Valentin in Opera Omnibus’s production of Gounod’s Faust; the Count (Marriage of Figaro) with the Opera Company Idéefixe in Paris, Nantes, Cheverny, Strasbourg and Brugge; the title role of Don Giovanni with English Touring Opera and the role of Tarquinius in the European Opera Centre’s production of Britten’s Rape of Lucretia.