BIOGRAPHY
Aksel Rykkvin (b. 2003) is an award-winning Norwegian baritone based in London. He has sung classical music from a young age, and had an illustrious career as the "world's premier boy soprano" (Swedish Radio P2).
Aksel Rykkvin is an award-winning Norwegian baritone based in London. He is studying for a BMus in voice with Prof. Mark Wildman with a full ABRSM scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music 2022-26. He was placed third in the Joan Chissell/Rex Stephens Schumann Lieder Prize in London in 2023. At the Kathleen Ferrier Society Bursary for Young Singers competition in Manchester in 2023 he won the Joyce Budd Second Prize and the Norma Procter Song Prize. Aksel and duo partner pianist Zany Denyer were ‘Leeds Lieder Young Artists’ in 2024.
Aksel received rave reviews for his boy treble début album recorded with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at the age of twelve. Both his solo albums reached the UK Classical chart top 10. He performed as a treble soloist at numerous concerts, operas, festivals, on radio and TV in Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom. As Yniold in Pelléas et Mélisande he was hailed as ‘unsurpassable’ (ResMusica), and later he impressed in his Paris début at the Opéra Comique as Anthony in 'Miranda'.
As a baritone, Aksel has performed as a soloist at festivals, concerts and operas in Norway, Sweden, UK, Austria and Germany. After his concert at Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber’s Lied festival at Schloss Elmau in Bavaria in 2023, Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote he had 'a voice as beautiful as milk and blood' and Deutschlandfunk radio was 'very impressed' and praised his 'extremely clear diction'. In August 2024, Aksel will re-visit Oslo Chamber Music Festival for two concerts.