In memoriam Marianne Rørholm

With the sudden and untimely death of Marianne Rørholm on 8 October 2021, The Royal Danish Academy of Music has lost a great artistic and pedagogical capacity and a warm and committed teacher and colleague.

Marianne was an authentic human being who did what she said and said what she did. On behalf of the Academy, I would like to express that Marianne will be greatly missed. Honoured be her memory.

Uffe Savery,
President

Marianne graduated from the Opera Academy in Copenhagen in 1984, and had a brilliant career for many years as an opera soloist at the highest international level, where, with her beautiful and rich voice, she sang major lyrical mezzo roles in operas by, amongst others, Mozart and Strauss. She held engagements at several leading European opera houses, working with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Giuseppe Sinopoli and René Jacobs.

In Denmark, Marianne Rørholm performed as a guest soloist at both the Danish National Opera and the Royal Theatre in a wide variety of roles from the Baroque to newly-composed operas. Particularly memorable was for example her performance in the lead role of TilFred in the premiere of Poul Ruders’ opera “The Handmaid’s Tale”, which premiered in 2000 at the Royal Theatre, and which required the exercise of all aspects of Marianne’s artistic, vocal and dramatic talent – her strong and natural musicality, and her always warm and even sound.

In addition, Marianne sang numerous concerts as an oratorio and concerto soloist both in Denmark and abroad, and she can be heard on several recordings with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.

From 2006 on, Marianne chose to dedicate to teaching the same consistently high quality that she stood for in her artistic career. In the years 2006-2009 she took a Master’s programme in elite voice pedagogy at The Royal Danish Academy of Music, and joined the Academy staff immediately afterwards as a part-time teacher in voice. She advanced in her position over the years, and in 2015 she became a teaching associate professor. Marianne taught students of all voice types and at all levels in the Academy’s voice programmes, from first year Bachelor students to the soloist class (Advanced Postgraduate Diploma in Music) and the Opera Academy’s Master’s and Young Artist programmes. She generously shared her extensive repertoire in joint classes between the year groups, and each year she taught a team of students in vocal pedagogy at advanced level. 

Marianne was a steadfast and patient support to her voice students and achieved outstanding results in her teaching work through her ever-present musicality and her great understanding of the anatomy of singing, as well as her ability to translate her knowledge into support for the needs of each individual student.

There was no-one like Marianne to delight and rejoice when a student made progress in the big picture, as well as in the small daily success stories, and she loved sharing these experiences with her colleagues in the department.

Marianne was a loyal and strong staff member in the vocal programmes of The Royal Danish Academy of Music, and she always had the time and the inclination to discuss how we could create the best possible conditions to promote the development of all of the students. Her dry and precise humour often helped us to find a liberating “no-nonsense” approach to solving problems.

On behalf of all of us, I would like to express my deep gratitude for Marianne’s efforts. Her tireless dedication will live on through the many, many wonderful singers she has trained, and among those of us who have worked so closely with her and have been inspired and enriched by her enthusiasm and great skill.

For myself personally, I have lost a present and attentive colleague and friend, with whom I have had ongoing conversations over many years about the big and small things in life and teaching, and with whom I formed an ever-stronger bond over the years. 

In deep sorrow and with the greatest respect,

On behalf of the Voice Department at The Royal Danish Academy of Music,
Professor Helene Gjerris