Oksana Volkova

Oksana Volkova was born in Minsk. She holds degrees in academic singing (Prof. Lidia Galushkina’s class) and theatre directing (Prof. Margarita Izvorska-Elizarieva’s class) from the Belarusian State Academy of Music.

She joined the opera company of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus in 2002.

Her numerous awards and prizes include, among others, two grand prizes of the Special Fund of the President of the Republic of Belarus for Support of the Talented Youth (2008, 2010), special certificate “For Artistic Realization of the Ideas of Friendship Between the Peoples of Belarus and Russia” (2014), Best Female Role in Opera at the 4th edition of the National Theatre Prize of the Republic of Belarus for her Carmen.

She was an artist of the Young Artists Opera Programme of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia from 2009 to 2010.

She has appeared at noted opera stages worldwide, including Teatro alla Scala (Milan, Italy), Teatro Massimo (Palermo, Italy), Mikhailovsky Theatre (St Petersburg, Russia), Teatro dell'Opera Giocosa (Savona, Italy), Opéra de Nice (Nice, France), Teatro di San Carlo (Naples, Italy), Metropolitan Opera (New York, USA), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Salzburger Landestheater (Salzburg, Austria), Royal Opera House (London, UK), National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing, China), Israeli Opera (Tel Aviv, Israel), Grand Théâtre de Genève (Switzerland), Estonian National Opera (Tallinn, Estonia), Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera (Warsaw, Poland), etc.

Oksana Volkova has participated in numerous festivals, including Irina Arkhipova Presents, Vladimir Spivakov Invites, Yuri Bashmet International Festival in Sochi, Sweet Cherry Forest in Moscow, Sommer in Lesmona in Bremen, and the Ópera en el Convento at the Canary Islands.

She has collaborated with such renowned conductors as Valery Gergiev, Semyon Bychkov, Vladimir Spivakov, Alexander Vedernikov, Daniel Oren, Kirill Petrenko, Constantine Orbelian, etc.

The singer's discography includes recordings of Rigoletto and Eugene Onegin with the Metropolitan Opera (Deutsche Grammophon, DVD), The Queen of Spades (BR Classic, CD), Rigoletto with Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Delos, CD), as well as the solo programme "Poison d'Amour" conducted by Orbelian (Delos, CD; the album was included in the top ten albums list of classical music according to Opera News).

In 2018, she was awarded the title of Person of the Year in the Field of Culture in the category "Theatrical Art".

In 2021, she charted the top ten list of the most promising young mezzo-sopranos in the world according to Pro Ópera.

She is a winner of the Casta Diva Russian Opera Award 2021 in the category "Ensemble of the Year" along with Vladislav Sulimsky, Olga Peretyatko, and Dmitry Ulyanov, for their performance of Tchaikovsky's Mazepa conducted by Kirill Petrenko.

Her works as of a stage director include productions of Giacomo Puccini’s Le Villi. Fatum (2020), Samson et Delila by Camille Saint-Saëns (2021), a number of concerts at the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus.

The Snow Queen     The Story of Kai and Gerda (The Snow Queen) by Sergei Banevich 
Dalila           Samson et Dalila
Carmen        Carmen 
Amneris        Aida 
Santuzza        Cavalleria rusticana 
Laura             La Gioconda 
Marguerite        La damnation de Faust 
Marina Mniszech    Boris Godunov 
Marfa            Khovanshchina 
Lyubasha        The Tsar’s Bride 
Polina            The Queen of Spades 
Maddalena         Rigoletto 
Konchakovna        Prince Igor 
Kashcheyevna         Kashchey the Immortal 
Fenena             Nabucco 
Olga            Eugene Onegin 
Suzuki            Madama Butterfly 
The Page     The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia
Lyubka        The Grey Legend 

In 2003, Volkova performed the roles of solo mezzo-soprano in the cantatas Moscow by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Alexander Nevsky by Sergey Prokofiev with the Irish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Anissimov in Dublin (Ireland).

In February 2010, Volkova made her debut with the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia as the Page in The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Volkova joined the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia as a guest soloist in 2010. Her roles with the theatre include the title role in Bizet’s Carmen, Lyubasha in The Tsar’s Bride by Rimsky-Korsakov, Olga in Eugene Onegin, Fenena in Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi, Laura in The Stone Guest by Alexander Dargomyzhsky. In 2010, she appeared in the role of Olga in Eugene Onegin during the tour of the Bolshoi Theatre in London (Royal Opera House) and Madrid (Teatro Real).

In May 2010, she sang at the Plácido Domingo International Opera Ball in Washington.

In 2012, Volkova became a guest soloist of the Latvian National Opera where she performed the title role in Andrejs Žagars’s production of Carmen.

Her international аppearances include:

Carmen in Carmen by Georges Bizet at the Teatro dell'Opera Giocosa, Latvian National Opera, Salzburger Landestheater, Estonian National Opera, Teatro Colón, Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera;

Olga in Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Tchaikovsky at the Royal Opera House, Teatro Real, Hamburg State Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Latvian National Opera, Riga Opera Festival;

Polina in The Queen of Spades by Pyotr Tchaikovsky at the Salzburg Festival, Mikhailovsky Theatre, Bolshoi Theatre of Russia;

Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni at the Teatro alla Scala, Teatro di San Carlo, Grand Théâtre de Genève;

Marguerite in La damnation de Faust by Hector Berlioz at the Opéra de Nice;

Maddalena in Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera and Israeli Opera;

Laura Adorno in La Gioconda by Amilcare Ponchielli at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo;

Preziosilla in La forza del destino by Giuseppe Verdi at the Israeli Opera;

Giulietta in Jacques Offenbach’s Les contes d'Hoffmann at the Metropolotan Opera;

Giovanna Seymour in Gaetano Donizetti’s Anna Bolena at the Estonian National Opera;

Dalila in Camille Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing;

Princess Eboli in Don Carlos by Giuseppe Verdi at the Oper Graz (Austria);

Sonyetka in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Dmitri Shostakovich at the Metropolitan Opera and the Opéra national de Paris;

Marina Mniszech in Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky at the Zürich Opera House;

Lyubov in Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Mazepa at the Berliner Philharmonie;

Amneris in Aida by Giuseppe Verdi at the Semperoper (Dresden) and Israeli Opera.

In October 2021, Oksana Volkova made her debut as Lubava in the production of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Sadko staged by Dmitri Tcherniakov at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia. In November of the same year, she performed the role of Lyubov in a concert performance of Tchaikovsky's Mazepa with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kirill Petrenko. In December, she took part in a gala concert of world opera stars at the Alisher Navoi Bolshoi Theatre in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

In February-March 2022, she appeared as Amneris in Aida at the Dresden Semperoper (five premiere performances took place from 5 to 20 March). In May, she performed a solo mezzo-soprano role in Verdi’s Requiem with Residentie Orkest in the Hague, the Netherlands. In June-July 2022, she sang the role of Amneris in Aida at the Israeli Opera in a series of premiere performances from 24 June to 8 July.

In September 2022, she performed the role of Polina in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia. On 25 September, she took part in the gala of the Casta Diva Award at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia.

In 2023, Oksana Volkova made her Bayerische Staatsoper debut as Matriosha in Sergey Prokofiev’s War and Peace (conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov).