Francine Vis
Playing the violin and learning to read music as a small child gave Francine an ear and a musicality that make her feel at home in all classical music—from Baroque to quarter-tone music. After completing her studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where she earned a Master’s degree with distinction for her musical talent and artistic expression, she moved to Copenhagen to study at the Opera Academy at the Royal Danish Theatre with Professor Kirsten Buhl Møller, graduating in 2013. There, she had the opportunity to sing Flora in Verdi’s La traviata and Mercédès in Bizet’s Carmen.
During her studies in Denmark, she performed the role of the Squirrel in Richard Ayres’ opera The Cricket Recovers, directed by Pierre Audi, at the Holland Festival. After graduating, she sang Pernille in Nielsen’s Maskarade and Cherubino at the Royal Danish Opera. She made her Swedish debut in a leading role as Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest (by B. Tommy Andersson) in Vadstena.
In 2018, she sang and conducted a new music-theatre production with music by, among others, Ligeti at the Opera Forward Festival in Amsterdam. The same year, she made both her role and house debut as Carmen at Den Jyske Opera. She has performed a lied recital with Magnus Svensson at Stockholm Concert Hall, Tisbe in La Cenerentola at the Royal Swedish Opera, Cherubino in Danish at Den Ny Opera in Esbjerg, and the Dormouse and the Grasshopper in Mathilde Wantenaar’s contemporary children’s opera A Song for the Moon at Dutch National Opera.
In 2022, she toured Scandinavia with the contemporary opera Drömdöden with Nordic Opera. She made her role and house debut as Gertrude in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at Malmö Opera. In 2023, she stepped in with great success as Faust in Malmö Opera’s touring production Marguerite. In the summer of 2023, she sang Angelina in La Cenerentola at Opera Hedeland.
At Malmö Operaverkstan, she performed the leading role of Nallepirat in the newly written children’s opera Nalle Havsöga in spring 2024. Later in 2024, she sang the Third Lady and Third Boy in The Magic Flute at Den Ny Opera in Esbjerg. In 2025, she toured with Malmö Opera in the title role of Baba in Menotti’s The Medium. In the summer of 2025, she sang Wellgunde in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung at Den Ny Opera in Esbjerg.
In the 2025–26 season, she sings Lola in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Annina in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier at the Royal Danish Opera. Also on her program are Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Mozart’s Mass in C minor (second soprano).
Within contemporary music, Francine can be considered a specialist. For many years, she has participated in avant-garde projects with Silbersee in the Netherlands. She performs complex vocal “acrobatics” with great ease in works by composers such as Georges Aperghis, Luciano Berio, Giacinto Scelsi, John Cage, and many living composers.
Francine won first prize at the Copenhagen Lied-Duo Competition in 2015 together with pianist Christian Westergaard, as well as the Handel Prize and the Dioraphte Prize for Best Interpretation of a World Premiere at the IVC International Vocal Competition 2014 in ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. She can also be heard with Westergaard on a CD box set of songs by Heise, released in February 2021.
As a concert soloist, Francine performs both Baroque, contemporary, and Romantic repertoire with ensembles such as the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, Concerto Copenhagen, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, South Denmark Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Copenhagen Phil, Camerata Øresund, Esbjerg Ensemble, Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, and Orchestre de Chambre de Genève.
In recent years, Francine has also developed her conducting skills. She conducts her own amateur choir and is completing her Master’s degree in choral conducting at the University of Gothenburg in spring 2026.
