Championed in the international media, the 22-year old Russian soprano Julia Lezhneva is among ‘few young singers being widely celebrated so early in their careers’ (Independent) possessing an ‘angelic voice’ (New York Times) and ‘flawless technique’ (Guardian).
Having earned an honors degree in vocal studies and a piano diploma from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory Academic Music College as well as completing a postgraduate course at the Cardiff International Academy of Voice under the guidance of Dennis O’Neill, Julia Lezhneva recently completed her education at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Yvonne Kenny earning a Master of Music degree with distinction.
Ms. Lezhneva came to international attention at the age of seventeen as the Grand Prix winner of the sixth Elena Obraztsova International Competition for Opera Singers.
At the age of eighteen, Ms. Lezhneva shared the concert stage with Juan Diego Flórez at the opening of the 2008 Rossini Opera Festival under Alberto Zedda and made her first professional recording (Naïve) performing the second soprano part in Bach’s Mass in b minor with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble.
In January 2010 Ms. Lezhneva made her debut at the Salzburg Mozartwoche Festival performing the second soprano part in Mozart’s Mass in c-minor with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble. In April 2010 she participated in a memorial concert for late Polish president Lech Kaczynski, singing Mozart’s Requiem under Mr. Minkowski at the Main Square of Krakow.
Ms Lezhneva caused a sensation at the 2010 Classical Brit Awards, singing “Fra il padre” from Rossini’s La donna del Lago at the Royal Albert Hall upon the invitation of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa sharing the gala stage with Angela Gheorghiu, Rolando Villazón, and Bryn Terfel.
Ms Lezhneva’s European concert tour and Naïve recording of Vivaldi’s Ottone in villa with Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini, as well as debut solo concerts at the 2010 Salzburg Festival with the Mozarteum Orchestra and Mr. Minkowski, yielded extraordinary success and exceptional resonance in the international press.
Naïve released the artist’s first solo recording in spring 2011, Rossini arias with Marc Minkowski and Sinfonia Varsovia. The CD reached the number one spot in French classical charts and earned several major international awards including the Diapason d’Or de l’Annee ‘Jeune talent,’ Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice, as well a nomination for the 2012 ISCA Awards.
Highlights of the 2010-11 season included concert performances of Mozart’s Così fan tutte - singing the role of Fiordiligi - with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble, a debut at La Monnaie as Urbain in a new production by Olvier Py of Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots conducted by Mr. Minkowski, Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol and Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta at the Salzburg Festival, opposite Anna Netrebko, with Ivor Bolton conducting the Mozarteum Orchestra, Mozart’s Mass in c-minor under Giovanni Antonini also at the Salzburg Festival, and an American debut in performances of the Mozart Requiem with Louis Langrée and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra at Lincoln Center.  Ms Lezhneva’s acclaimed stage debut at La Monnaie earned the artist one of the most prestigious international opera awards - Nachwuchssangerin des Jahres 2011.
The present season sees Ms. Lezhneva’s debut with the Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst performing the Mozart’s Mass in c-minor. With Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble, the artist concertizes throughout Europe in a program of Handel arias and joins the ensemble’s “Mozart-DaPonte” tour of France and Germany.  Ms Lezhneva performs the role of Trasimede on a European tour and live recording (Virgin Classics) of Vivaldi’s Oracolo in Messenia and offers a Rossini Gala ‘Stars of Opera’ concert in Poznan.  In a return to the Salzburg Mozartwoche, the artist performs Bach’s Magnificat and Mozart’s Litanie KV243 with Mr. Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble and gives recitals with pianist Mikhail Antonenko throughout the Russian Federation and Europe, including at such venues as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Beaune, and Torroella festivals.  Ms. Lezhneva performs a special duet concert with Philippe Jaroussky in Neumarkt and appears at a gala to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Friedrich the Great at the historical court of Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, Germany.  She continues her artistic relationship with the Salzburg Festival, for the third consecutive season, singing the role of Asteria in Handel’s Tamerlano at the Grosses Festspielhaus alongside Plácido Domingo and Bejun Mehta.