Harpa Ósk Björnsdóttir, an Icelandic soprano based in Basel, Switzerland, joined Theater Basel’s OperAvenir ensemble in August 2024. In the 2025/26 season she will perform several featured roles at Theater Basel, including Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Annina in Verdi’s La Traviata, Clorinda in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, the soprano solo in Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Sinfonieorchester Basel, and the opera-pastiche Don Quijote alongside the Kammerorchester Basel.

Recent appearances include Zanaida with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Woglinde in Das Rheingold at Bühnen Bern, and the soprano solo in Bach’s St John Passion with Symphony Orchestra Nord. She has appeared frequently with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, performs regularly with the Icelandic baroque ensemble Brák, and has sung at Oper Leipzig with the Gewandhausorchester and at Oper Halle with the Staatskapelle Halle. Later this month she will appear as the soprano soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Sinfonieorchester Basel at SummerStage Basel, and later this year again at Casino Basel.

Before moving to Basel, she studied at the Bayerische Theaterakademie August Everding at the Prinzregententheater München under Sabine Lahm, and at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig with Caroline Stein.

Before moving to Germany, Harpa studied singing at the Reykjavik Institute of Singing and Vocal arts under the guidance of Ólöf Kolbrún Harðardóttir until May 2018, and then at the Icelandic University of the Arts under the guidance of Ólöf Kolbrún, Hanna Dóra Sturludóttir, Kristinn Sigmundsson and Þóra Einarsdóttir.

In September 2019 she made her debut with the Icelandic Opera in the role of Barbarina in “Le nozze di Figaro” in the National theater of Iceland and in the beginning of 2019 she performed as a soloist with the Icelandic Symphonic Orchestra in Harpa concert hall, as one of the winners of the “Young soloists 2019” competition. Harpa sung for the voice of the main character in the movie “Sparrows”, which was Iceland’s submission to the Academy awards in 2017. For six years she sung with the choir “Graduale Nobili”, who is mostly famous for it’s world tour with the singer Björk.

She has received grants from the funds of ”Kiyo & Eiko Tomiyasu” (2018), “Jón Stefánsson” (2020), “Landsbankinn” (2021), “Ýlir” (2021), Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson” (2021), Ingjaldssjóður (2023), and received a scholarship from the “Festival Puycelsi” (2019) where she performed as a soloist. She was chosen the "Voice of the year 2019", as well as the winner of the University category and received the listener's award in the competition "Vox Domini”. In 2024, Harpa was a finalist in the Wilhelm Stenhammar International Music Competition in Norrköping, Sweden.

Harpa graduated in 2019 from the University of Iceland with a degree in Electrical Engineering.