Julia Lezhneva
Soprano Julia Lezhneva has a flexible voice that enables her to perform opera and art song in various languages. She has appeared in mezzo-soprano as well as soprano roles.
Lezhneva was born on December 5, 1989 in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Sakhalin Island in Russia's far east. Her parents were both geophysicists, but she showed obvious vocal talent as a child and was sent to the Gretchaninov Music School in Moscow, from which she graduated in 2004. Lezhneva went on to the Moscow Conservatory in 2008, earning honors in voice and piano and taking master classes from Elena Obraztsova in St. Petersburg and Alberto Zedda at the Accademia Rossiniana in Pesaro, Italy. She rounded out her education at the Cardiff International Academy of Voice in Wales, U.K., with Dennis O'Neill and also attended master classes with the likes of singers Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Ileana Cotrubas and conductor Richard Bonynge. Lezhneva made her debut in Liverpool, England, in 2009, and the following year, she sang Elena's final Rondo from Rossini's La donna del lago at the Classical Brit Awards at the Royal Albert Hall; she was introduced by Te Kanawa as her protégée. In 2009, she took a master class with Thomas Quasthoff at the Verbier Festival, and that year, she became the youngest-ever winner at the Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition. Her continental debut came at the Mozart Festival in Salzburg, Austria, in 2010, singing the soprano solo part in Mozart's Mass in C minor, K. 427. Her recording debut came in 2011 on the Naïve label with the operatic recital Julia Lezhneva Sings Rossini.
Lezhneva has performed widely around Europe, Japan, and her native Russia. She has a large repertory, including roles by such composers as Mozart and Meyerbeer, but her recordings have focused on Baroque music, especially operas by Handel. Lezhneva has shared stages with such stars as Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming, and Natalie Dessay. She is also in demand as a concert music soloist and as a song recitalist. Since 2012, Lezhneva has recorded for the Decca label. She has issued albums devoted to Handel and Vivaldi but also to lesser-known Baroque composers such as Carl Heinrich Graun and Nicola Porpora, whose opera Carlo il Calvo she recorded in 2023 with countertenors Max Emanuel Cenčić and Franco Fagioli.
© James Manheim /TiVo
Discography
14 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Rossini : Airs d'opéra
Opera Extracts - Released by naïve classique on 21 Mar 2011
Gramophone Editor's Choice16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Gloria; Nisi Dominus; Nulla in mundo pax
Julia Lezhneva, Franco Fagioli, Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 23 Mar 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Alleluia
Julia Lezhneva, Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2013
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Antonio Vivaldi : Ottone in villa (Opere teatrale, vol. 14)
Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini, Veronica Cangemi, Julia Lezhneva, Sonia Prina
Full Operas - Released by naïve on 8 Nov 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Georg Friedrich Händel : Alessandro
Max Emanuel Cencic, Julia Lezhneva, Armonia Atenea, George Petrou
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel
Julia Lezhneva, Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Sep 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Carl Heinrich Graun: Opera Arias
Julia Lezhneva, Concerto Köln, Mikhail Antonenko
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 14 Apr 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Gloria; Nisi Dominus; Nulla in mundo pax
Julia Lezhneva, Franco Fagioli, Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 23 Mar 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rossini, Vivaldi, Bach
Classical - Released by naïve classique on 4 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Zelenka: Missa Sancti Josephi; De Profundis; In Exitu Israel
Classical - Released by Carus on 28 Sep 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Alleluia (Vivaldi - Haendel - Mozart)
Julia Lezhneva, Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2013
Gramophone Editor's Choice16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Graun: Opera Arias
Julia Lezhneva, Concerto Köln, Mikhail Antonenko
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 14 Apr 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Julia Lezhneva - Handel
Julia Lezhneva, Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Sep 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Porpora: Germanico in Germania, Act 2: "Veder vicino il suo contento"
Julia Lezhneva, Capella Cracoviensis, Jan Tomasz Adamus
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 20 Oct 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo