From the New York Times

  • " ... Sonja DuToit Tengblad stood out in a raft of rapidly shifting characterizations." 

From the Boston Globe

  • "Sonja Tengblad sang with crystalline tone and graceful musicality."
  • "“Leah Wool’s Holofernes was an earnest rather than ecstatic lover who warmed up in the course of the oratorio; her final aria, “Noli, o cara,” was her best. In the role of the eunuch Vagaus, Holofernes’s servant, Amanda Forsythe set off the evening’s vocal fireworks. Yet the most thoughtful singing came from Sonja DuToit Tengblad, who caressed her words throughout. She was a bright, radiant Abra and then firm and dignified as the Judean governor Ozias." (from Boston Baroque's October 2015 performance of Vivaldi's Juditha Triumphans, Jordan Hall)

From L'Opéra - Revue québécoise d'art lyrique (Montreal)

  • "In the arias, each of the eight singers defended with conviction those that they had been trusted with, but the soprano Sonja DuToit Tengblad distinguished herself by a purity of timbre, a perfection in singing, and an angelic presence on stage that enthralled more than one in the audience."

From The Hub Review

  • "The lumious Sonja DuToit Tengblad, who by now has emerged as something of a local vocal star, likewise dazzled in a sweet (if not highly individualized) reading of Scarlatti's Christmas Cantata ..." (from the Handel and Haydn Society's 2014 performance, Jordan Hall)
  • "And then there was the stunning Sonja DuToit Tengblad, whose secure, gleaming soprano all but riveted the audience."

From the Minnesota Star Tribune

  • "Sonja DuToit Tengblad gave the most affective performance of the evening." (from Dominic Argento's 80th Birthday Celebration Concert)

 

From the Boston Classical Review

  • "Sonja DuToit Tengblad proved an ideal advocate [for Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915] in her debut with the Landmarks Orchestra, the soprano delivered a stirring rendition of the score. Her voice had a touch of warmth and grace." (from the Boston Landmarks 2017 performance of Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915
  • "Friday's performance featured one of Boston's best singers, Sonja DuToit Tengblad." (from the Boston Philharmonic's Mahler 2 performance, April 2017)

  • "Tengblad’s bell-like voice easily projected through the large hall over flutist Rolfe’s soft-edged obbligato in the lively, charming aria “Ich folge dir gleichfalls mit freudigen Schritten.”  If shouting “Brava!” were allowed during a Passion, Tengblad would likely have garnered a few for the unerring phrasing, floating high notes, and touching expression of her performance (with two mellow flutes obbligati) in the post-Crucifixion aria “Zerflisse, mein Herze, in Fluten der Zähren.” (from the Handel and Haydn Society's February 2016 performance of Bach's St. John Passion, Symphony Hall)

  • "The standout among the soloists Saturday night was soprano Sonja Tengblad, who teamed up with percussionist Jonathan Hess for Tan Dun's "Silk Road" (1989) ... Tengblad's is a multi-textured, crystalline-toned voice especially suited for avant-garde music.  Her singing was clear and expressive across the piece's range of clarion pointillisms, vocal slides, whispers, and hisses." (from BeatSong 2013 performance) 
  • "Unfortunately, lights in the hall were too low to follow the text during the performance, but soprano Sonja Tengblad's clear diction helped remedy that. Tengblad's extraordinarily pure tone, with moderate vibrato, was consistent across her wide range, from stratospheric soft high notes to strong low ones, and made a fine timbral match with the orchestra’s prominent woodwinds, especially flutes and horns. Tengblad's performance strove for no big effects, but instead subtly declaimed the texts and helped weave the work's dark atmosphere. (The piece contained few explicit musical images, except when scurrying strings announced the arrival of Trakl's "Rats.") The soprano negotiated Knussen's disjunct vocal line with the kind of pinpoint intonation and consistency of tone that made it, too, seem perfectly natural. At the piece’s end, her flute-like voice gave way to the sound of an actual flute, playing all by itself." (from the Boston Modern Orchestra Project's 2013 performance of Knussen's Symphony No. 2 for soprano and orchestra)
  • "That fellow Cupid gets around, warming up even the most icebound places on Earth, as depicted in the "Frost Scene" from Dryden's and Purcell's King Arthur. Soprano Tengblad as the god was animated and bell-toned as she summoned the wintry spirit Cold Genius from under the frozen ground." (from the Handel and Haydn Society's 2013 performance of Purcell's King Arthur, Sanders Theater)

From the Boston Musical Intellegencer

  •  "The evening's absolute standout was Tengblad who navigated the soprano role of Knussen's Symphony No. 2 (1971) with gentle poise even in the highest reaches of her voice." (from the Boston Modern Orchestra Project's 2013 performance of Knussen's Symphony No. 2 for soprano and orchestra)