Guja Sandholt
Singer and Artistic Director

Guja Sandholt is an Icelandic singer based in Amsterdam and Reykjavík. She performs regularly in the Netherlands, Iceland, and internationally. She is also the Artistic Director of Reykjavík Opera Days, named Music Festival of the Year 2018 at the Icelandic Music Awards.
Recent operatic highlights include Leonore in an adapted production of Beethoven’s Fidelio in Iceland and Estonia; Julia Child in Lee Hoiby’s Bon Appétit! in Reykjavík, Estonia, and the Netherlands; and Popova in William Walton’s The Bear in Iceland and Sweden. A passionate interpreter of the oratorio repertoire, Guja has appeared as a soloist in works such as Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium and St Matthew Passion, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s, Verdi’s and Duruflé’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Mass in C, Dvořák’s and Pärt’s Stabat Mater, and Vivaldi’s Gloria. She has performed at festivals such as Holland Festival, Lucerne Festival, Reykjavik Art Festival, Berliner Festispiele, Salzburger Festispiele, Grachtenfestival, Reykholtshátíð and Reykjavík Opera Days.
Guja studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg before moving to the Netherlands, where she studied with Jón Þorsteinsson, Charlotte Margiono, and Stephanie Doll.
Her operatic repertoire also includes Dido (Dido and Aeneas, Purcell), Nerone and Ottavia (L’incoronazione di Poppea, Monteverdi), Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice, Gluck), Volpino (Lo speziale, Haydn), Flosshilde (Das Rheingold, Wagner), and Zweite Norn (Götterdämmerung, Wagner). She frequently performs in recital with pianist Heleen Vegter, both as a duo and as part of Tríó Ljósa with violinist Diet Tilanus.
Alongside her solo career, Guja is also an experienced ensemble singer and holds a part-time position with the Netherlands Radio Choir.