Albina Shagimuratova (soprano)

• People’s Artist of Tatarstan 
• Recipient of the Ğabdulla Tuqay State Prize of the Republic of Tatarstan  (2011) 
• Recipient of the Russian theatre prize the Golden Mask in the category “Best Female Role in Opera” (Lucia di Lammermoor in a production of the eponymous opera by the Tatar State Academic Musa Jalil Opera and Ballet Theatre) 
• Recipient of the music critics’ prize Casta Diva for her performances as Lyudmila in the Bolshoi Theatre’s production ofRuslan and Lyudmila and Lucia in the Tatar Opera and Ballet Theatre’s production of Lucia di Lammermoor 
• Recipient of the 1st prize at the Tchaikovsky International Competition (2007) 
• Prize-winner at the Francisco Viñas International Singing Competition (Barcelona, 2005) 
• Prize-winner at the Glinka International Young Opera Singers’ Competition (Chelyabinsk, 2005)

Albina Shagimuratova’s enchanting coloratura soprano first found international acclaim in 2007 when she won the 1st prize at the Tchaikovsky International Competition. Soon afterwards, she made her European opera debut as the Queen of the Night at the Salzburg Festival under the baton of Riccardo Muti. Opera News magazine gave her a rave review as a “phenomenon that must be heard to be believed” while the New York Times named her Lucia “dazzling”. 
Having made a name for herself as one of the world’s greatest interpreters of this infamously demanding role, she has appeared as the Queen of the Night at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala (available on DVD), the Wiener Staatsoper, the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, the San Francisco Opera, the Bolshoi Theatre, the Los Angeles Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, the Hamburg Staatsoper and the Lucerne Festival among other venues. She also made her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in this role in late 2012 (production by David McVicar). 
In recent seasons Albina Shagimuratova’s repertoire has expanded to include 19th century opera heroines, each of them a tremendous success. She has appeared as Violetta (La traviata) at the Bolshoi Theatre following its reconstruction and at the Houston Grand Opera. Her performance of the role of Gilda (Rigoletto) was a triumph at the opening of the 2012–2013 season at the San Francisco Opera (conducted by Nicola Luisotti). The same season, she performed the same role for her debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago under Evan Rogister. In John Doyle’s new production at the Houston Grand Opera, she performed the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor for the first time and subsequently confirmed her success at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and at the Bolshoi Theatre. Moreover, she appeared at the reopening of the Bolshoi Theatre following its reconstruction in a new production of the opera Ruslan and Lyudmila under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski (to be released on DVD). Her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival as Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) was conducted by Robin Ticciati. In the summer of 2013 she performed the role of Manon at a concert by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg. Her numerous future engagements include returns to the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden), and the Houston Grand Opera in addition to debuts at the Bayerische Staatsoper and the Opéra de Paris. 
Albina Shagimuratova has performed works from her extensive repertoire with the world’s greatest orchestras. For her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos she sang Rossini’s Stabat Mater and a role in Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while with the Houston Symphony Orchestra under Hans Graf she performed a programme of concert arias by Mozart and Poulenc’s mass Gloria. At the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Albina Shagimuratova sang the soprano role in Mozart’s Requiem under Zubin Mehta, and in the 2012–2013 season she sang Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the National Symphony Orchestra of Denmark under maestro Frühbeck de Burgos. The same year, she added Britten’s War Requiem to her repertoire, with a performance at St Paul’s Cathedral in London under Edward Gardner during the London International Arts Festival. She also has close artistic ties with such conductors as James Conlon, Patrick Summers, Peter Schneider, Ádám Fischer and Vladimir Spivakov. 
Albina Shagimuratova was born in Tashkent to a family of lawyers. From her childhood, her parents encouraged her interest in music and, at the age of fifteen, she began to make public appearances accompanied by her father who played the accordion. The family later moved to Kazan where Albina studied at the Kazan School of Music (specialising in choral conducting) and later at the Kazan Conservatoire. She completed a postgraduate study with distinction at the Moscow Conservatoire. While still a student in Moscow, Albina Shagimuratova was a soloist with the Moscow Academic Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theatre where she performed the roles of the Swan Princess from The Tale of Tsar Saltan and the Queen of Shemakha from The Golden Cockerel by Rimsky-Korsakov. At the same time, she sang the solo in Mozart’s Requiem at the premiere concert of the acclaimed Sviatoslav Richter’s December Evenings in Moscow. Other roles she has performed include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Fedoseyev. 
Albina Shagimuratova is an honorary graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. She is currently continuing her training under Dmitry Vdovin in Moscow and Renata Scotto in New York.