Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk begins the 2011-12 Season at the Ravinia Festival, where she sings Das Klagende Lied for the first time, under the baton of James Conlon. She travels to Los Angeles Opera to appear as Olga Eugene Onegin, and joins the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra for Pulcinella with Mikhail Jurowski. She makes her debut at Teatro Real, Madrid, as Marta Iolanta, and travels to California for a special guest appearance with the Monterey Symphony, where she sings both Les Nuits d’été and Sheherazade. She makes her Wigmore Hall recital debut in February, and travels to Paris to sing Jacosta Oedipe in concert with Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra. Spring finds her in Bergen, Norway, where she sings Judith Bluebeard’s Castle in concert with Ed Gardner.

Last season found her at Metropolitan Opera in the role of Marina Boris Godunov, and in Rome for performances of Alexander Nevsky at Santa Cecilia under the baton of Vasily Petrenko. She traveled to Japan with the Mariinski Theatre and Valery Gergiev in the role of Didon Les Troyens, and returned Europe for Mahler’s Second Symphony with Jiri Belohlavek and the Valencia Orchestra in Spain, and with Antonio Wit and the Warsaw Philharmonic in Poland. Her Amneris Aida was a huge success during the White Nights Festival at the Mariinsky Theater, where she also sang Verdi’s Requiem under the baton of Valery Gergiev.

In future seasons, the acclaimed mezzo recreates the role of Olga in a new production at the Metropolitan Opera and she appears for a series of concert performances of Pique Dame with the Israeli Philharmonic under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski, as well as appearing as Carmen in a major European festival.

Recent successes include her appearance with Royal Danish Opera in the title role of Carmen, a role in which she has also appeared at Polish National Opera, Oper Leipzig, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Dallas Opera, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, and in Tokyo and Seoul with Myung-whun Chung. At Los Angeles Opera she made her role debut as Fricka Die Walkure to great acclaim, and sang the role of Didon Les Troyens with the Mariinsky Theater in St Petersburg, Russia, and at Carnegie Hall, New York.

Miss Semenchuk sang the role of Sonya War and Peace and Polina Pique Dame at The Metropolitan Opera; Olga at the Royal Opera House in London; Sesto La Clemenza di Tito and Maddalena Rigoletto for Settimane Musicali di Stresa under Gianandrea Noseda. In St Petersburg she appeared as Fenena Nabucco, Carmen, Nicklausse Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Laura The Stone Guest, as Hanna in Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night and in many other roles. In Germany she appeared as Ascanio Benvenuto Cellini at the Baden-Baden Festival, and with Daniel Barenboim at the Staatsoper Berlin she was Preziosilla La Forza del Destino and Polina both; in Austria she sang the role of Charlotte Werther at Graz Opera.

As a recitalist, Ekaterina Semenchuk has toured Europe, North America and Argentina. With her accompanist Semion Skigin, she recently celebrated Shostakovich in recital at the Vienna Konzerthaus. Her performances with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra have included Berlioz’s Romeo et Juliet conducted by Carlo Rizzi, and Verdi’s Requiem with Gustavo Dudamel. She also sang La Mort de Cleopatre with Valery Gergiev at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Prokofiev’s Hamlet with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Jurowski, and Mahler’s Second Symphony and Kindertotenlieder with the Philharmonia conducted by Eliahu Inbal. She sang Mahler’s Third Symphony with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop, and with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under Pieteri Inkinen, Her debut recording of Russian songs is available on the Harmonia Mundi label.

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