Biografie
Jasperina Verheij (born 1999), a mezzo-soprano and recorder player, is a versatile and expressive musician. Combining numerous interests and studies in music (singing and recorder) and science, she explores the intersections of various disciplines and draws inspiration from a wide range of sources. She enjoys collaborating with theater makers, scientists, composers, and dancers, while also developing herself as a theatre maker.
She has won multiple prizes at the Princess Christina Competition and has sung and performed at the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam, the Opera Forward Festival, Gaudeamus Music Week, the November Music Festival, the Early Music Festival (fringe), Batenburg Baroque, the International Lied Festival Zeist, and many other concert series and venues. She has also performed solo with various orchestras, including the Residentie Orchestra and Orkest de Ereprijs. Her solo performance, "De Bubbels van Babel," combining contemporary music, song, and dance, was performed at the Delft Fringe Festival in May/June 2025 and was awarded the Delft Chamber Music Festival Award.
Together with pianist Willem van den Dool, she forms a song duo with which she regularly gives song recitals. With this, they won the "Vrienden van het Lied" award at the finals of the International Student Song Duo Competition, after which they will give several recitals for the "Vrienden van het Lied" organization in 2025. They also won an honorable mention at the Grachtenfestival Conservatory Competition, praised for their exceptional duo qualities and poetic commitment. Together they also participated in masterclasses at the International Song Festival Zeist with Elly Ameling, Robert Holl, Wolfram Rieger, and Malcolm Martineau, among others. In the 2023-2024 season, they were young artists at the Udo Reinemann International Masterclasses in Brussels, where they were coached by Christianne Stotijn, Hartmut Höll, and Sir Thomas Allen, among others. In 2025, they were SongEasel Young Artists and gave concerts and participated in masterclasses in London.
On the opera stage she appeared in scenes from Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro (Cherubino), directed by Floris Visser and in Die Zauberflöte (third knabe) at the Dutch National Opera Academy. In January 2024, she performed the role of Medea in Handel's opera 'Teseo', directed by Michael Chance. In March 2025, she played the role of 'Fox' in Janacek's 'The Cunning Little Vixen'.
Jasperina studied for her Master's degree in voice with Noa Frenkel at the Royal Conservatoire, for which she received the 'Scholarship for Excellence'. In June 2025, she graduated with a 9.5 and distinction for "a mesmerizing marriage of body movement and musicianship across all styles." At the Royal Conservatoire, she also obtained her Bachelor's degree in voice with distinction in 2023 and her Bachelor's degree in recorder with Daniël Brüggen in 2022. She also took singing lessons with early music specialists Peter Kooij, Francesca Aspromonte, and Pascal Bertin. In the fall of 2025, she continues studying for half a year at the Opera Academy of Gothenburg, supported by the VandenEnde Foundation. Furthermore, she obtained her Bachelor's degree in Life Science & Technology from the universities of Leiden and Delft and is pursuing a Master's degree in Health and Digital Transformation at Maastricht University.
Jasperina plays on instruments built by Joanne Saunders, Ralph Ehlert and Li Virghi, made possible by the support of the Eigen Muziekinstrument Foundation.