Voice: | Soprano |
Nationality: | Russian |
Year of Birth: | 1987 |
Aida Emilevna Garifullina (Russian: Аида Эмилевна Гарифуллина) (born 30 September 1987) is a Russian operatic soprano of Tatar origin. She was the winner of the 2013 Operalia competition and has featured in a number of productions staged at the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg and the Wiener Staatsoper. She has a recording contract with Decca Records.
Aida Garifullina was born in 1987 into a Tatar family in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan. Her father is Emil Garifullin, and her mother is Layla Ildarovna Garifullina (a choir conductor) who is currently the Director of the Centre of Contemporary Music n.a. Sofia Gubaidulina. From early childhood her mother influenced her musical development and was instrumental in the development of her career. At the age of 18, she moved to Nuremberg to study music.
In 2007, she joined the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts under the tuition of Claudia Visca. Two years later Garifullina made her debut as Despina in the University production of Mozart's "Così fan tutte". In 2010, she won the Muslim Magomayev’s competition of singers in Moscow. After graduating in 2011, she performed during the closing ceremony of the XXVI Summer Universiadein Shenzhen, and sang a duet with Alessandro Safina in Kazan.
In 2012, Garifullina sang at the opening of the Russian House at the XXX Summer Olympics in London. In London she became acquainted with Valery Gergiev, the artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. In January 2013 she made her debut on the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre in the role of Susanna in the Opera Buffa of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. She later added to her repertoire the roles of Gilda (Rigoletto) and Adina (L'elisir d'amore).