Aida Garifullina

Soprano Aida Garifullina was born in Kazan. Her mother, choir director Laylya Ildarovna, gave her first music lessons and inspired her to become an opera singer. Later, Aida Garifullina studied at the Nuremberg Academy of Music and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In 2013, she became an ensemble member of the Vienna State Opera, where she sang roles such as Adina (L'elisir d'amore), Musetta and Mimì (La bohème), Eudoxie (La Juive), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Gilda, Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) and Irina (Tri Sestri). Recent highlights include an appearance at the 2018 Concert de Paris for Bastille Day, a sensational debut at the Staatsoper Berlin in a new production of Prokofiev's Betrothal at the Convent in a production by Dmitri Tcherniakov conducted by Daniel Barenboim, Musetta at London's ROH Covent Garden and at the Metropolitan Opera in Don Giovanni. As part of Deutsche Grammophon's 120th anniversary celebrations, she also appeared with conductor Long Yu in performances of Carmina Burana in Shanghai and at the Forbidden City in Beijing, which have since been released on CD and DVD. Most recently, she sang Violetta (La traviata) at the Arena di Verona, Susanna at the Bavarian State Opera, and Adina at La Scala in Milan. Future appearances will take her to Hamburg as Violetta, to New York as Susanna, to Moscow as Musetta, and to the Berlin State Opera as Liù (Turandot). Aida Garifullina played the role of Lily Pons in the feature film Florence Foster Jenkins and is a "Merited Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan". Her debut album was released worldwide by Decca Records in February 2017 and was awarded the prestigious ECHO Klassik.