Born on St. Cecilia’s Day in Helsinki, Finnish-American soprano Maija Lisa Currie has been reviewed by the New York Times as “an attractive young soprano with a promising voice and copious stage presence.”  Opera News described her as having a “luxurious voice, nimble and subtle,” an accolade which she earned for her portrayal of Massenet’s Manon.  A lyric coloratura with a Mozartean voice of silvery lyricism, warm color, shimmering high notes, and the instincts of a true stage animal, Currie’s performances delight and entertain.  She began 2008 performing Beauty in Vittorio Giannini’s Beauty and the Beast at Dicapo Opera, which earned her the Times review.  During the 2008-2009 season, she performs Tytania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Laurentia in Dan Shore’s The Beautiful Bridegroom, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Lucy in Menotti’s The Telephone, and Zerlina in a concert performance of Don Giovanni.

With an affinity and flair for singing Mozart, operatic roles include Susanna (Figaro), Blondchen (Entführing), Ilia (Idomeneo), Elisa (Il Re Pastore), Pamina (Zauberflöte), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Despina (Cosi fan tutte), Papagena (Zauberflöte), and Silberklang (Impresario).  Currie has also earned rave reviews for her performances of the title role in Massenet’s Manon.  After first performing the role in graduate school at Indiana University, she returned to IU unexpectedly in 2006 as a professional guest to reprise the role.  She was brought in on two day's notice to learn the staging and sang two acclaimed performances.  Other roles range from baroque to contemporary, including Sophie (Rosenkavalier), Musetta (Boheme), Juliette (Romeo et Juliette), Violetta (Traviata), Gilda (Rigoletto), Gretel (Hansel und Gretel), Tytania (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring), Anna Reich (Lustigen Witwe), Valencienne (Merry Widow), Mabel (Pirates of Penzance), Clori (Cavalli's Egisto), Donna Fulvia (Rossini's La Pietra del Paragone), La Fornarina (Arensky's Raphael), Ida (Genee's Der Musikfeind), and Wanda (Offenbach's Die Grossherzogin von Gerolstein).

Currie enjoys learning and performing new compositions, and has worked personally with several composers on new works.  She premiered Angel Songs in 2001, a song cycle composed for her by Benjamin C.S. Boyle (Composer-in-Residence of the Young Concert Artists) to poems of C.S. Lewis.  In 2003 she sang the role of Beatrice in the North American premiere of Sven-David Sandström's 21st-century opera Jeppe.  She both performed and Assistant Music Directed for a 2007 production of Seamus Heaney’s The Burial at Thebes at La MaMa Experimental Theater Club in New York's East Village, with new music composed by Carman Moore.  In 2008, she sang Laurentia in the New York premiere of Dan Shore's new opera The Beautiful Bridegroom, Esterka Winogron in the World premiere of Adam B. Silverman’s newly completed opera Korczak's Orphans, and covered the role of Cécile de Volanges in the New York premiere of Conrad Susa’s 20th century opera The Dangerous Liaisons.

She has performed internationally with such companies as the Zurich Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Kentucky Opera, Mobile Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, Zurcher Festspiele, and the Basel Sinfonietta.  During the 2003-2004 season, she was a member of the International Opera Studio at the Zurich Opera, performing with the company in both young artist and mainstage productions, including the 2004 production of Der Rosenkavalier, in which she can be seen on DVD as one of the three Adelige Waisen in the EMI Classics DVD of the production, directed by Sven-Erich Bechtolf and conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, starring Nina Stemme, Vesselina Kasarova, Malin Hartelius, and Alfred Muff.

In addition to her time in the Opernstudio at Zurich, Currie trained in the Indianapolis Opera Ensemble, at Music Academy of the West for two summers, at the Britten-Pears Program in Aldeburgh, England, at Brevard Music Center.  She studied at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where she received a Performance Diploma as well as a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice, and at Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University where she received her Master of Music degree in Voice.  Currie has been a finalist in the Sara Tucker Grant Competition and the Opera Columbus Vocal Competition, and as a result of being a winner in the Emerging Artists Division of the Classical Singer AudComps, she was featured in the October 2006 issue of Classical Singer Magazine.

She has studied voice with Joan Patenaude-Yarnell, Virginia Zeani, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, and Paul Kiesgen; has coached with Warren Jones, Thomas Grubb, Diane Richardson, John Churchwell, Rachelle Jonck, Vlad Iftinca, Joann Kulesza, Gary Arvin, Thomas Barthel, Robert Muckenfuss, Andrew Altenbach, Charles Prestinari, and Jeanne-Minette Cilliers; and has had extensive studies in style and artistry with such highly regarded musicians as Marilyn Horne, Carol Vaness, Timothy Noble, Martina Arroyo, Reri Grist, Graham Johnson, Mary Ann Hart, and the late Leonard Hokanson.  Conductors with whom she has worked include Franz Welser-Möst, Jane Glover, David Effron, James Caraher, Emmanuel Villaume, Ronald Zollman, Oliver Gooch, Christopher Fecteau, Douglas Fisher, Carmine Aufiero, Hajime Teri Murai, and the late Randall Behr; stage directors include Michael Ehrman, Lotfi Mansouri, David Gately, David Morelock, Sven-Eric Bechtolf, Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, David Roth, Ulrich Peter, Roger Brunyate, Don Westwood, and the late John Lehmeyer.