Ekaterina Semenchuk

The Russian mezzo-soprano Eka-
terina Semenchuk studied at the Conservatory in St. Petersburg and acquired her first stage experiences at the Opera Studio of the Mariinsky Theater, where she became a member of the ensemble. It was with this company that she also gave her first performances in the West: at La Scala in Milan and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Since then Semenchuk has been a regular guest artist at the world’s major companies. She has performed Olga in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House in London and Preziosilla in Verdi’s La forza del destino at the Staatsoper Berlin. She has also appeared as a Verdi performer at the Salzburg Festival: Eboli in Don Carlo in 2013 and Azucena in Il trovatore in 2015. In 2015 she made her debut at the Vienna Staatsoper as Giovanna Seymour in Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, and in the fall of 2016 she will sing Verdi’s Lady Macbeth at Los Angeles Opera and Amneris in Aida at San Francisco Opera. Ekaterina Semenchuk’s repertoire additionally encompasses French operas, from Bizet’s Carmen (which she has performed at the Arena di Verona) through Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila to Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette, Les Troyens, and Benvenuto Cellini. Her credits in the concert hall include Verdi’s Requiem with such conductors as Gustavo Dudamel, Valery Gergiev, and Sir Antonio Pappano; she has additionally sung Mahler’s Das klagende Lied at the Ravinia Festival, Proko-fiev’s Alexander Nevsky at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Berlioz’s La Mort de Cléopâtre at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Vienna Konzerthaus. As a lieder singer she has collaborated with Semion Skigin, Dmitry Efimov, and Helmut Deutsch. In 2005 Ekaterina Semenchuk performed in Gretchaninov’s Credo for the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.

August 2016