Projects
Creative Leadership
Victoria Erickson is committed to the creation of new music through collaborative, singer-informed development. Alongside her performing career, she works as a librettist, producer, and artistic collaborator on projects that connect composers, performers, and audiences across disciplines and international borders.
Her ongoing creative partnership with composer Jodi Goble has produced several original musical dramas that reimagine historical narratives and classical literature through contemporary perspectives.
The Miller's Daughter, for which Victoria wrote the libretto and created the title role, premiered at Iowa State University in 2024. Inspired by Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin, the work retells the story from the perspective of the previously unheard Daughter, weaving Schubert's music through her story. Since its premiere, the work has been presented at the National Opera Association Convention and by universities and arts organizations across the United States, with additional productions continuing to expand its reach.
Victoria also served as librettist for Du, meine Welt!, a musical drama exploring the intertwined lives and artistic relationships of Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Pauline Viardot, Jenny Lind, and Ernestine Schumann-Heink. Blending music history with dramatic storytelling, the work reflects her ongoing interest in revitalizing interest in art song in the United States. She sang the role of Clara Schumann in the world premiere in March 2026 at Iowa State University.
Her newest collaboration with Goble, Acquatofana, is a new opera currently in development inspired by the story of Giulia Tofana and the secret network of women associated with the infamous poison Acquatofana in seventeenth-century Italy. Scenes from the work will premiere at the Savannah VOICE Festival in August 2026 as development continues toward a full production, where Victoria will sing the role of Giulia.
Victoria is also the founder and Artistic Director of Opera Athena, a Minnesota-based opera company dedicated to making opera more accessible while championing new works and underrepresented voices. Through Opera Athena she has produced original productions and community-centered performances, including Green Thumbed in 2025, in which she created the leading soprano role of Holly, as well as the company's 2025 production of The Miller's Daughter.
International collaboration has become a defining element of Victoria’s artistic work. As a recipient of the DAAD-Stiftung Respekt & Wertschätzung Scholarship, she conducted research and creative residencies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, examining audience engagement while building collaborations between composers, librettists, singers, and institutions in Germany and the United States.
Working alongside faculty, composition students, and organizations including Really Spicy Opera and the Aria Institute, Erickson organized workshops and performances of newly created vocal works while fostering an international network of student composers committed to new opera creation. These collaborations have established ongoing professional relationships that continue to shape her artistic practice and inform her commitment to transatlantic partnerships in contemporary opera.