World renowned American Soprano Laura Aikin is considered a leader amongst the new generation of today’s dynamic young sopranos. Possessing a range of over three octaves and an arresting stage presence, her repertoire embraces works from the Baroque to the contemporary on both the concert and operatic stages. In great demand in both Europe and America, she began her career as a member of the ensemble at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin from 1992-98 where she performed more than 300 times in such major roles as Lulu (Lulu), Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte), Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos), Amenaide (Tancredi), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Adele (Die Fledermaus), and Zaide (Zaide).

Now a regular guest in the world's leading opera houses, Laura Aikin has performed Aminta (Die Schweigsame Frau), Zerbinetta, Olympia, Adele, Sophie and Queen of the Night at the Vienna State Opera. At La Scala Milan she has sung Marzelline (Fidelio), Sophie, Soeur Constance (Les Dialogues des Carmelites) and Zerbinetta. She sang Zerbinetta at the Bavarian State Opera, a role which she has also sung at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. She has sung Lulu with Opernhaus Zurich, the Netherlands Opera and at the Bastille in Paris, Alcina (Alcina) and Zaide at the Beaune Festival, Sophie at the Semper Oper Dresden, Manon (Boulevard Solitude) for the Gran Teatro del Liceu Barcelona and Konstanze in the award winning Christoph Loy production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail for Opera Frankfurt. In addition to numerous concert appearances since 1995 at the Salzburg Festival, she appeared in 1999 as the Queen of the Night, in 2003 as Badi’at in the world premiere of Henze's opera L'Upupa, as Blondchen in 2004 in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and as Konstanze in the same production in the 2006 festival. In 2005 she made her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the role of the Flight Controller in Jonathan Dove's Flight and in 2006 she sang her first Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor) for Opéra de Montpellier.

In the United States Laura Aikin has sung Zerbinetta at the Chicago Lyric Opera, Aspasia (Mitridate) at the Santa Fe Opera, Queen of the Night, Sophie and Fiakermilli (Arabella) at the Metropolitan Opera, the Angel (St François d'Assise) and most recently Ann Truelove (The Rake’s Progress) for San Francisco Opera. She made her debut with the San Francisco Symphony in Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri.

As a concert artist Miss Aikin has appeared in numerous major concert houses throughout the world with orchestras such as the London, Chicago, Cleveland, Vienna, BBC and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, the Berlin, Munich, Israel and Vienna Philharmonics, the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra, Sudwestfunk Orchestra, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Les Arts Florissants, Concerto Köln and Concentus Musicus. The many international festivals in which she has performed include Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, Schlesswig-Holstein, Melbourne, Edinburgh, Luzern, Wienerfestwochen and Berlinerfestwochen. As a Lied singer, she has performed in Berlin, Milan, Dresden and Rome, and made her American recital debut in the San Francisco Chamber Music Series.

Miss Aikin has performed with many of today's greatest conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Helmut Rilling, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Franz Welser-Möst, Christoph von Dohnanyi, William Christie, Donald Runnicles, Fabio Luisi, Sylvain Cambreling, Zubin Mehta, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Michael Gielen, Markus Stenz and René Jacobs.

She recently had a major success in the role of Aithtra (Die Aegiptische Helena) for Deutsche Oper Berlin and Lulu for Lyon Opera in the new Peter Stein production.. Future operatic appearances include Lulu at La Scala, the Wiener Festwochen and for the Opéra de Paris,  Diana (Arbore di Diana) for the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, Konstanze for Strasbourg Opera, Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare) at the Semper Oper, Dresden and Olympia (Tales of Hofmann) for the Opéra de Paris.

Recent concert engagements have included a performance of Candide at the Edinburgh International Festival, Beethoven’s Christus am Ölberg with the Concentus Musicus Wien under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Berg’s Lulu Suite with the BBC Scottish Symphony, the premiere of a new work, Touché, by Hanspeter Kyburz with the Cleveland Orchestra,  Haydn’s The Creation with the St Louis Symphony Orchestra, Berg Altenberg Lieder with the orchestra of the Opéra de Paris under Pierre Boulez and concerts with the San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas.  Future engagements include concerts with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Ivan Fischer.

Her many acclaimed recordings include Beethoven's Christus am Ölberg with Daniel Barenboim on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Centennial Edition Recording, Songs and Cycles by Ned Rorem for Orfeo with pianist Donald Sulzen, Schoenberg's Die Jakobsleiter with the Sudwestfunk Symphony Orchestra, Respighi's La Campana Sommersa with the Montpellier Opera and a DVD of Lulu live from Opernhaus Zürich. Other DVD releases include Henze's L'Upupa, and Die Entführung aus dem Serail from the Salzburg Festival and Les Dialogues des Carmelites from La Scala with Riccardo Muti.

Miss Aikin began her studies in her hometown of Buffalo, New York and Indiana University where she studied with Margaret Harshaw. On receiving a two-year grant from the Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD), she travelled to Europe to study at the Hochschule for Musik in Munich with Kammersängerin Reri Grist. She currently works with Kammersängerin Brigitte Eisenfeld. She lives in Milan with her family.