Vesselina Kasarova

VESSELINA KASAROVA started playing the piano at the age of four and graduated from the High School of Music in her native Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. At the National Academy of Music in Sofia, she studied vocal performance in the class of Prof. Ressa Koleva and even at the time of her training participated in productions of the National Opera and Ballet House in Sofia. In 1989 she was engaged at the Zurich Opera, in the same year also won the First Prize at the Neue Stimmen (“New Voices”) singing competition in Gütersloh, Germany. In 1991, Mrs. Kasarova made her debut at the Salzburg Music Festival in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, conducted by Sir Colin Davis. In the same year she made her debut at the Vienna State Opera. In a stylistically extensive repertoire, comprising over sixty five central roles, she appeared on the stages of many musical theatres, among them the Covent Garden Royal Opera House, Metropoliten Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bavarian State Opera, Opéra National de Paris, the opera houses of Geneve, Barcelona, Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Madrid, Theatro alla Scala and the festivals Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. Vesselina Kasarova has collaborated with such renowned conductors as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir Colin Davis, Pinchas Steinberg, Seiji Ozawa, Semyon Bychkov, Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Ivor Bolton, Franz Welser-Möst, Vladimir Fedoseyev and Zubin Metha and has partnered with singers such as Placido Domingo, Jose Cura, Anna Netrebko, Samuel Ramey, Edita Gruberova, Jonas Kaufman, among others. She has given concerts and recitals across Europe, USA and Japan. Her over ninety recorded compact discs have been distinguished with numerous awards. Vesselina Kasarova holds the title Kammersängerin of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich as well as Kammersängerin of the Vienna State Opera.