Julia Lezhneva

Julia Lezhneva's international career began with a bang when she caused a sensation in 2010 at the Classical Brit Awards in London's Royal Albert Hall with Rossini's Fra il padre at the invitation of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

Just a decade later, she is discovering a broad repertoire with various orchestras, conductors, operas and oratorios. She made her highly successful debuts with the Berliner Philharmoniker in October 2019 and at the Musikverein Vienna in December 2019. She returned to the Mozartwoche Salzburg in January 2020, this time under Sir András Schiff in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro; in January 2023 she sang in Don Giovanni. In June 2023, she appeared for the first time at La Scala in Milan in Porpora's Carlo il Calvo.

In winter 2019, she made her debut in Bach's Christmas Oratorio (conducted by Vladimir Jurowski); in the same season, she sang in Handel's Messiah and La Resurrezione, Vivaldi's Juditha triumphans; as well as Haydn's Creation and Mahler's Symphony No. 4. In October 2024 appeared for the first time with Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir in Handel's Esther.

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. 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. Opernwelt magazine named her “Young Singer of the Year” in 2011 for her debut at La Monnaie in Brussels.

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