With a remarkable career spanning decades, Elīna Garanča is a mezzo-soprano of international acclaim. Her journey from Riga, Latvia, to the world’s most prestigious opera houses has been marked by exceptional artistry and dedication. Garnering critical acclaim and captivating audiences worldwide, she has become a prominent figure in the realm of classical music.

Among other roles, she is particularly famed for her portrayal as Bizet’s Carmen which she has sung in the majority of leading theatres, such as Wiener Staatsoper, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Bayerische Staatsoper, Berlin State Opera, Arena di Verona, or Metropolitan Opera to critical acclaim; the NY Times named her “the finest Carmen in 25 years…”.

Recent highlights include her performance of Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder at the opening of the Lucerne Festival with conductor Riccardo Chailly and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. Following her debut at the Bayreuth Festival in the role of Kundry last year, Elīna Garanča returned this summer to the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, where the Süddeutsche Zeitung described her as “the Kundry of today.”

In September 2005, Elīna became an exclusive artist with Deutsche Grammophon (DG), and over the course of two decades of collaboration, she has released nine solo albums. Two of them (Romantique and Meditation) won the ECHO Klassik award. With her newest release, When Night Falls (2024), Elīna Garanča reflects on the different facets of night and also builds a bridge between the music of her childhood and a global audience.

Elīna has been the recipient of numerous national and international awards, greatly cherishing the title of ‘Kammersängerin’ honoured by the Wiener Staatsoper for her devotion to the House, singing over one hundred and sixty performances of eighteen roles since her debut in the House in 2003.

Elīna appears regularly at the Metropolitan Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, ROH Covent Garden, Salzburg Festival, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Bayerisches Staatsoper Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Carnegie Hall New York and Wigmore Hall London and continues to perform in various concerts, festivals and recitals all over the world.

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“ZukunftsStimmen”

For more than ten years, Elīna Garanča and Karel Mark Chichon have been sharing the stage with young, aspiring talents from the opera world as part of their Open-Air concerts in Göttweig and Kitzbühel, Austria. These appearances often started a successful international career of the young protégés.

Following this collaboration, the idea of young talent initiative “ZukunftsStimmen” with the support of Raiffeisen Bank was born. It is particularly important to Elīna Garanča that “ZukunftsStimmen” is not just a classical singing competition. Rather, it is about discovering, accompanying, helping at the beginning of a career – and of course about the opportunity to be on stage with Kammersängerin Elīna Garanča and Maestro Karel Mark Chichon during the classical Open-Air concerts in Göttweig Abbey and Kitzbühel.

“Working with young artists is a real heartfelt wish for Karel and me. We have already invited many young musical guests to our concerts, who consequently started a world career. Finding these young talents, but also accompanying them through tough classical music business and offering them a helping hand for the next step in their careers, that is a great dream for both of us. A dream coming true.” Says Elīna Garanča about the project.

Read more about “ZukunftsStimmen” initiative here

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