JULIA LEZHNEVA
SOPRANO

“But the fourth guest, soprano Julia Lezhneva, was a surprise. To her Cleveland debut she brought an instrument of great distinction, a concentrated beam of pure sound. To borrow a Latin phrase not used in the Mass, it's a voice one could attend could attend ad infinitum.” (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)

“Angelic beauty” is The New York Times’ description of the voice that belongs to Julia Lezhneva, a leading soprano and a soloist of choice of many top orchestras, festivals and concert halls. “Perfect”, “flawless” and “pure” are the terms most often used by the world’s top critics, who marvel at her “unforgettable spiritual expression” (The Guardian).

Ms. Lezhneva’s international career skyrocketed when she created a sensation at the Classical Brit Awards at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2010, singing Rossini’s Fra il padre at the invitation of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

A decade later, she is set to make her Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Musikverein debuts, in October 2019 and February 2020, respectively. This season she also returns to Salzburg, this time with Sir Andras Schiff, as well as to the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with a performance of Handel’s Alessandro with Kammerorchester Basel and Diego Fasolis. 

Ms. Lezhneva’s American appearances include collaborations with the Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst, the Mostly Mozart Festival debut with Louis Langrée at the David Geffen Hall and concerts with the Seattle Symphony.

The world’s top orchestras who regularly invite Julia Lezhneva include the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Münchner Philharmoniker, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Mariinsky Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Orquestra Nacional de España, and Seoul Philharmonic. She is a welcome guest at the Lucerne, Rheingau, Schleswig-Holstein and Kissinger Sommer festivals, to name a few.

An exclusive Decca recording artist, Ms. Lezhneva released her latest solo album, Graun Arias, in 2017. Recorded with Concerto Köln, it won an OPUS Klassik in the following year. Other releases include Vivaldi Gloria with Franco Fagioli and Diego Fasolis (2018), Porpora Germanico in Germania with Max Emanuel Cencic (2018), Handel Arias with Il Giardino Armonico (2015), Ms. Lezhneva’s much acclaimed solo-debut Alleluia, also with Il Giardino Armonico (2014), and Pergolesi Stabat Mater with Philippe Jaroussky, Diego Fasolis, I Barocchisti and the Swiss Radio and TV Choir (2013).

Born in 1989 in a family of geophysicists on Sakhalin Island off the Pacific Coast of Russia, Ms. Lezhneva began playing piano and singing at the age of five. She graduated from the Gretchaninov Music School and continued her vocal and piano studies at the Moscow Conservatory Academic Music College.  At 17 she came to international attention as the winner of the Elena Obraztsova Opera Singers Competition, and was invited to share the stage with Juan Diego Flórez at the opening of the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro in the following year. In 2009, she won first prize at the Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition in Helsinki and the following year took first prize at the Paris International Opera Competition, as the youngest contestant in each competition’s history.

Julia Lezhneva’s teachers and mentors include Dennis O’Neill, Yvonne Kenny, Elena Obraztsova, Alberto Zedda, Richard Bonynge and Thomas Quasthoff.

Opernwelt magazine named her “Young Singer of the Year” in 2011 for her debut at La Monnaie in Brussels. The following year she performed at the Victoires de la Musique Classique in Paris and appeared at the Salzburg Festival in Handel’s Tamerlano opposite Plácido Domingo and Bejun Mehta.

Ms. Lezhneva’s debut in Handel’s Alcina as Morgana at the Staatsoper Hamburg was widely celebrated in September 2018. She was immediately invited to return for Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini) and additional performances of Alcina.