Ekaterina Sementchuk, Larissa Gergieva

Mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk is among Eastern Europe's most acclaimed Verdi specialists. She is a frequent presence at major opera houses around Europe, Russia, and North America. Semenchuk (the name has been transliterated as Ekaterina Sementchuk and, in the German-speaking sphere, as Jakaterina Sementschuk) was born in Minsk, Belarus, then in the Soviet Union, on March 24, 1976. She studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, graduating in 2001, and even while still a student, she made her debut at the Mariinsky Opera the previous year, earning the role as winner of the International Rimsky-Korsakov Young Opera Singers’ Competition. She joined the Mariinsky company for touring productions at the La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy (as Sonya in Prokofiev's War and Peace), and at the Salzburg Festival (as Polina in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades). She was also a finalist in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2001. In 2005, she performed at the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. These accomplishments placed her before a variety of important audiences, and she went on to an international career. Semenchuk built a specialty in the operas of Verdi, appearing in major mezzo-soprano roles by that composer, including Amneris in Aida. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 2002 as Sonia (War and Peace) and has since appeared there in operas by Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky. Semenchuk has appeared at other major houses around Europe and North America, including the Washington National Opera, the Teatro Real Madrid, and the Opéra National de Paris. Her repertory also encompasses several major choral works, including the Verdi Requiem and the Orthodox Creed of Alexander Grechaninov. In addition to operatic recordings, Semenchuk has released several solo albums. In 2006, she issued an album of Russian songs on the Les Nouveaux Musiciens subsidiary of the Harmonia Mundi label, with pianist Larissa Gergieva (sister of conductor Valery Gergiev) as accompanist. She returned in 2020, joining Trio Wanderer as the soloist in a performance of Shostakovich's Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok, Op. 127.
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