Press Enter to search
Yulia Matochkina opens her 2024/25 season with Verdi’s Requiem in Rome with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, conducted by Daniel Harding. She returns to the Bayerische Staatsoper München as Ulrica Un ballo in maschera and Santuzza in a new production of Cavalleria rusticana. She will also return to ROH Covent Garden as Azucena Il trovatore and to Deutsche Oper Berlin as Amneris Aida. Later, she will perform Carmen with Ópera de Las Palmas and Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana with the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Matochkina’s recent appearances include debuts as Venus Tannhäuser and Azucena Il trovatore at Bayerische Staatsoper, and her return to Deutsche Oper Berlin as Amneris Aida and Ortrud Lohengrin.
Other recent highlights include Eboli Don Carlo at The Metropolitan Opera, Semperoper Dresden, The Royal Ballet and Opera, Amneris Aida and Ulrica. Un ballo in maschera at the Spring Festival Tokyo with Riccardo Muti, Dalila Samson et Dalila with Opera de Tenerife. Verdi’s Requiem at Opernhaus Zürich, the Verbier Festival, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, the Dutch National Opera, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Carmen at Arena di Verona, Azucena Il trovatore at Opernhaus Zürich, Ulrica Un ballo in maschera at Teatro alla Scala, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Marfa Khovanshchina with Opéra national de Paris, Federica Luisa Miller at Staatsoper Hamburg and the Salzburg Festival.
Yulia took the first steps of her career with the Mariinsky Theatre and soon became its leading soloist. In her home theater she had the opportunity to build an extended repertoire of the main mezzo-soprano roles such as Amneris Aida, Eboli Don Carlo, Principessa de Bouillon Adriana Lecouvreur, Dido Les Troyens, Dalila Samson et Dalila, Venus Tannhäuser, Ortrud Lohengrin, Brangäne Tristan und Isolde, Wellgunde Das Rheingold, Kundry Parsifal, Polina Pique Dame, Ascanio Benvenuto Cellini, Dulcinée Don Quichotte, Marguerite La damnation de Faust, Joanna The Maid of Orleans and Marfa Khovanshchina, among others.
She is the first prize-winner of the Golden Medal of the XV International Tchaikovsky competition and the first prize-winner of the 9th Rimsky-Korsakov International Competition for Young Opera Singers.
Yulia Matochkina was born in Mirny in the Arkhangelsk Region and graduated from the Petrozavodsk State Conservatoire, named after Glazunov, where she studied with Professor Viktoria Gladchenko. She was also a member of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers between 2009–2015.
South Korean mezzo-soprano Hyejun Melania Kwon joined the Opera Studio NRW Germany in 2022. She is currently performing Valencienne (Merry Widow), Flora (La Traviata), Fortuna, Valletto and Famigliare 1 (L’incoronazione di poppea) at Theater Wuppertal, and Mara (Kirsas Musik) at Theater Dortmund. She has performed in the Konzerthaus Berlin’s opera gala and has won top prizes in competition, including First prizes at the International Competition Nouvelles Étoiles in 2021, and the King’s Peak International Music Competition in 2022. Hyejun received her bachelor’s degree at Ewha Womans University in Korea. During her studies, she was alto soloist for a tour of the United States with the Ewha Chamber Choir, which made a stop at Los Angeles Disney Hall. She went on to study with Ewa Wolak at the Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule Berlin, where she received her master’s degree and where she performed Dorabella (Cosi fan Tutte), Ruggiero (Alcina) and Ljubica (Svadba). Hyejun has been awarded a scholarship from the Mozart Gesellschaft (Dortmund) for the upcoming year.
English mezzo-soprano Siân Griffiths has recently graduated from the National Opera Studio’s Young Artists programme (London), studying with John Evans and generously supported by the Nicholas John Trust. Recent performance highlights include Fanny Price in Waterperry Opera’s Touring and Festival production of Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park, Riccardi in Opera Rara’s concert performance of Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde, and Guest Singer in the Royal Ballet’s production of Like Water for Chocolate by Joby Talbot at the Royal Opera House, London. Recent concerts performances include alto soloist in Saint-Saëns Messe de Requiem for the Sussex House School and alto soloist in Michael Haydn’s Requiem in C minor and Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore for the Wooburn Singers. In 2023, Siân will perform the roles of Cherubino in Spira Mirabilis’ upcoming production of Le nozze di Figaro and Dryad in Garsington Opera’s production of Ariadne auf Naxos.
Mezzo soprano Elena Zhidkova made her professional debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. She appeared at the Bayreuth Festival. Claudio Abbado invited her for the concert version of PARSIFAL, for Schumann’s FAUSTSZENEN and for his farewell concert at the Berlin Philharmonic where she appeared again in Händel’s JEPHTA under the baton of Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
At the Teatro Real in Madrid she debuted as Waltraute (GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG) and as Brangäne in TRISTAN UND ISOLDE. A highly sought after guest performer in Tokyo as well she could be heard at the New National Theatre Tokyo among others as Octavian (DER ROSENKAVALIER), Fricka (DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN) and Brangäne (TRISTAN UND ISOLDE). She debuted very successfully as Judith in Bartok’s DUKE BLUEBEARD´S CASTLE at the Teatro alla Scala, a role she has also created at the Barbican Hall London with the London Symphony Orchestra under Valéry Gergiev (published on CD).
Her interpretation of Judith (DUKE BLUEBEARD´S CASTLE) at the Mariinsky Theatre gained her the „Golden Mask“ award as best singing actress in Russia. She was invited to sing the same part under Seiji Ozawas at the Saito Kinen Festival (also published on CD). Her appearance as Fricka (DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN) could be witnessed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and in the new production of the tetralogy at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. She could be seen as Venus in TANNHÄUSER at the Semperoper Dresden, as Ortrud in PARSIFAL at the Bayreuth Festival and sang Marie (WOZZECK) with the BBC Orchestra under Donald Runnicles and in a new production at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. As Kundry (PARSIFAL) she appeared in Lyon, Vienna, Mannheim and Düsseldorf. She has sung La Principessa di Bouillon (ADRIAnA LECOUVREUR), The Foreign Princess (RUSALKA), Eboli (DON CARLO) and Kundry (PARSIFAL) at the Wiener Staatsoper, Charlotte (WERTHER) under Michel Plasson, as well her debut as Ortrud (LOHENGRIN). She enjoyed great success as Didon in Berlioz’ LES TROYENS, as Amneris in AIDA and Eboli (DON CARLOS) at the Hamburgische Staatsoper, as Nicklausse in LES CONTES D´HOFMMANN at ABAO Bilbao Opera, as Eboli at the Bolshoi, as Judith in BLUEBEARD´S CASTLE in Dresden and as Santuzza in CAVALLERIA RUSTIVANA at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Opéra Bastille Paris.
She celebrated a triumphant success at the Bayreuth Festival in the summer of 2019. Shortly before the festival premiere of the new production of TANNHÄUSER, she took over the role of Venus and was warmly acclaimed for her performance by the international press.
Emma Jüngling is Laureate of the Friedl Wald Prize 2016, of the Geneva Richard Wagner Bursary in 2017 and of the Alice Gamble Prize (London) in 2019. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2020 with a distinction as well as a DipRam for outstanding final recital. She currently studies with Cathy Pope. Emma previously studied at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne with Hiroko Kawamichi. Since 2016, she has been a member of the Opéra de Lausanne chorus in Switzerland. She was also a soloist in their Children Workshop for two seasons. Her first role on stage was Tituba in Robert Ward’s The Crucible at the Berlin Opera Academy, thanks to the Lorna White prize. Emma has enjoyed being a chorus member at the Grange Opera Festival and at the Wexford Opera Festival both in 2021.
Canadian mezzo-soprano Kady Evanyshyn is a member of the International Opera Studio at Staatsoper Hamburg, where her roles include Zweite Dame (Die Zauberflöte), 2. Magd (Elektra), Kate Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Laura (Luisa Miller), and Glascha (Katja Kabanova). A 2020 participant of Renée Fleming’s SongStudio at Carnegie Hall, Kady’s broad repertoire ranges from the music of Purcell and Rameau to numerous world premieres. Her recent concert performances include: J.S. Bach’s Ich habe genug, conducted by Simone Dinnerstein, Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs, conducted by Jeffrey Milarsky, and the world premiere of Stefano Gervasoni’s Drei Grabschriften for mezzo-soprano and piano. Kady is an alumnus of the Aspen Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, and Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artist Vocal Academy, and has received prizes from the Gerda Lissner Foundation and the Winnipeg Music Festival. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Edith Wiens.
Anna Lucia Richter comes from a large family of musicians. A long-time member of the girls’ choir at Cologne Cathedral, she received singing lessons from her mother Regina Dohmen from the age of nine. She was subsequently trained by Prof. Kurt Widmer in Basel and completed her singing studies with distinction with Prof. Klesie Kelly-Moog at the Cologne Academy of Music. She received further inspiration from Christoph Prégardien, Edith Wiens and Margreet Honig. In spring 2020, the artist initiated a change of subject to mezzo-soprano under the guidance of vocal expert Prof. Tamar Rachum, who still mentors her and is now her authoritative teacher. An important step that opened up new opportunities for the artist worldwide. In March, for example, she gave a guest performance of Mahler’s Wunderhorn Lieder under the direction of Ádám Fischer in Düsseldorf at short notice.
Canadian mezzo-soprano Jillian Tam has just finished her second year as an undergraduate student in vocal performance at McGill University in Montreal under the direction of Dominique Labelle. She is a member of the McGill University Schulich Singers Ensemble conducted by Jean-Sebastian Vallée. Tam was a student at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute in 2018 and this summer, is the youngest singer accepted to the Verbier Festival Academy’s Atelier Lyrique.
Eira Huse’s first singing experience was as a member of the Norwegian Opera Children’s Choir. She has performed at several festivals such as the Oxford Lieder Festival, Kammeroper Schloss-Rheinsberg and Oslo Grieg Festival, among others: A Shepherd/Cat/Squirrel at L’Opéra de Lyon/ROH Muscat, 2nd Woman/2nd Witch (Dido and Aeneas) at the Norwegian Opera and Lady Capulet (Romeo and Juliet by B. Blacher) at the Studio de l’Opéra de Lyon. She has sung with musicians such as Henning Kraggerud and conductors including Titus Engel, Oliver John-Ruthven, Clemens Flick, Nicholas Kok and Emmanuelle Calef. She has also worked with directors Georg Quander, Jean de Lacornerie, Andreas Heise and James Bonas. Upcoming engagements include the role of Dido (Dido and Aeneas) at Ramme Gård. Huse composed and performed the chamber opera ‘Scenes from a Beehive’ about the global disappearance of bees.
Established as a major star across both operatic and concert stages, mezzo-soprano Alice Coote is regarded as one of the great artists of our time. Coote has performed major roles on stages such as the Metropolitan Opera, Glyndebourne, Royal Opera House, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opéra de Paris, Wiener Staatsoper, LA Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Salzburg Festival. Equally acclaimed on the concert stage, she has performed with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, The Hallé and The Concertgebouw.
The 24/25 season will see Coote perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the London Symphony Orchestra, before returning to the operatic stage in The Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg’s Così fan tutte (Dorabella); followed by two productions of Semele (Juno) for the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and the Royal Ballet and Opera.
Engagements in the 23/24 season included Storge Jephtha at the Royal Opera House; Mahler Symphony No. 3 with Robin Ticciati and the London Philharmonic Orchestra; Beethoven Symphony No. 9 and Mass in C Minor with Dinis Sousa and the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra; and Mahler Symphony No. 3 with Michael Tilson Thomas and the London Symphony Orchestra.
Driven by her passion for exploring and challenging gender stereotypes in characterisation, Coote is renowned for her interpretations of some of opera’s most important male and female roles. She brings that same philosophy to her work on the recital platform, an essential extension of Coote’s musical life. Committed to audience development and redefining genre barriers, last season Coote premiered her latest project, ‘The Rebellious Recital’: a song recital including works by Mahler, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Bach and John Lennon at the Wigmore Hall.
In 2018, she was awarded an OBE for services to music.