Samuil Anna

About

Anna Samuil is among the most sought-after lyric dramatic sopranos of her generation and has been a permanent soloist at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin since 2004. Ms. Samuil's international career has quickly brought her to some of the world's most important stages: La Scala in Milan (Donna Anna, Freia, Gutrune), the Metropolitan Opera in New York (Musetta), the State Operas of Munich (Violetta, Donna Anna), Dresden (Mimì), and Hamburg (Adina, Fiordiligi, Donna Anna, Violetta), the Operas of Valencia (Donna Anna), Lyon (Maria in Mazeppa), Tel Aviv and Tokyo (Donna Anna, Rosalinde), Pittsburgh (Violetta, Tatiana), and Baltimore (Mimì), and the Grand Théâtre in Luxembourg (Violetta). A frequent guest at international festivals, she has enjoyed considerable success at the Salzburg Festival (Tatiana), Aix-en-Provence and Edinburgh (Violetta, Maria), Glyndebourne, Verbier, and Arena di Verona (Donna Anna), as well as at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Verdi's "Messa da Requiem"). Extensive collaborations have placed Anna Samuil in relation with renowned conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Sir Neville Marriner, Lorin Maazel, Antonio Pappano, Plácido Domingo, Dmitri Kitayenko, Kent Nagano, Manfred Honeck, Chung Myung-whun, Ivor Bolton, Kirill Petrenko, Vladimir Jurowski, Gustavo Dudamel, Dan Ettinger, Philippe Jordan, Asher Fisch, Andris Nelsons, Massimo Zanetti, and Stefano Ranzani. Among the directors who have guided her career are Franco Zeffirelli, Peter Stein, Andrea Breth, Jonathan Miller, Bernard Uzan, Achim Freyer, Jonathan Kent, Claus Guth, Guy Cassiers, Lindy Hume, and Marthe Keller. She studied both violin and singing at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and graduated with honors in 2003 from the singing program with Irina Arkhipova. She has won awards at major international competitions, including the "Tchaikovsky International Competition" and the "Glinka Competition" in Russia, the "Concorso Franco Corelli" and the "Concorso Riccardo Zandonai" in Italy, as well as the "Klaudia Taev Competition" in Estonia and the "Neue Stimmen Competition" in Germany. Anna Samuil celebrated her opera debut in the role of the Swan Princess at the Stanislavski Opera Theatre in Moscow, where she was subsequently engaged from 2001 to 2004. During this period, she performed the roles of Adele, the Queen of Shemakha, Violetta, and Gilda. At the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, she debuted in September 2003 as Violetta under the direction of Daniel Barenboim and has since been seen as Donna Anna, Fiordiligi, Contessa, Tatiana, Mimì and Musetta, Violetta, Elisabetta, Alice Ford, Adina, Micaëla, Rosalinde, Els, Mařenka, Frereia, Elsa, and Mařenka. Anna Samuil has given orchestral concerts and recitals (with pianists Elena Bashkirova, Matthias Samuil, and Semion Skigin) in major European music centers, for example at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and BBC Proms in London, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Waldbühne in Berlin, Philharmonie in Cologne, Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Philharmonie am Gasteig in Munich, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival and Rheingau Music Festival, Norwegian Opera in Oslo, festivals in Bad Kissingen and Colmar, and the Richard Wagner Haus in Bayreuth. In addition, she has performed concerts in other cities such as Avignon, Bratislava, Dresden, Krakow, Lisbon, Moscow, Prague, Saint Petersburg, Toulouse, Valladolid, and Vienna. In recognition of her remarkable vocal and acting performances, Ms. Samuil was honored in 2008 with the audience award "Daphne" granted by the Theater Gemeinde Berlin.