Julia Lezhneva

Biography

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

In 2019, she made her debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and at the Musikverein Vienna to great acclaim. On re-invitation she returned to the Mozartwoche Salzburg in January 2020, this time under Sir András Schiff in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and will sing there in 2023 in Mozart's Don Giovanni.

Lezhneva has performed with Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Mariinsky Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the Orquestra Nacional de España, the Evgeny Svetlanov Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and the Seoul Philharmonic, and conductors Adam Fischer, Giovanni Antonini, Herbert Blomstedt, Paavo Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski and Andrea Marcon.

Lezhneva regularly gives recitals with repertoire including songs and arias by Russian, English, Italian and German composers, ranging from Baroque to Belcanto, and releases exclusively with DECCA records.

Born in 1989 in a family of geophysicists on Sakhalin Island off the Pacific Coast of Russia, Ms. Lezhneva began playing piano and singing at the age of five. She graduated from the Gretchaninov Music School and continued her vocal and piano studies at the Moscow Conservatory Academic Music College.

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