Olga Kondina

• People's Artist of Russia
• Prize-winner and Holder of a Special Award for Best Soprano at the Francesco Viñas International Competition (Barcelona, Spain, 1987)
• Prize-winner at the Glinka All-Union Vocalists Competition (Moscow, 1984)
• Diploma-winner at an International Vocalists Competition (Italy, 1986)

Olga Kondina was born in Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg). She graduated from the Ural State Conservatoire in violin studies (class of Professor Gashinsky) in 1982, and in solo singing (class of Professor Rodionova) In 1982. From 1983 to 1985 she continued her studies as a postgraduate at the Tchaikovsky State Conservatoire in Moscow (class of Professor Arkhipova). Olga Kondina has been a leading soloist at the Mariinsky Theatre since 1985.

Repertoire at the Mariinsky Theatre includes:
Lyudmila (Ruslan and Lyudmila)
Ksenia (Boris Godunov)
Prilepa (The Queen of Spades)
Iolante (Iolante)
Sirin (The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia)
The Queen of Shemakha (The Golden Cockerel)
The Nightingale (The Nightingale)
Ninetta (The Love for Three Oranges)
Florid Lady (The Gambler)
Anastasia (Peter I)
Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia)
Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor)
Norina (Don Pasquale)
Maria (La fille du régiment)
Maria Stuarda (Maria Stuarda)
Gilda (Rigoletto)
Violetta (La traviata)
Oscar (Un Ballo in maschera)
Voice from Heaven (Don Carlo)
Alice (Falstaff)
Mimi (La bohème)
Genevieve (Suor Angelica)
Liu (Turandot)
Leila (Les pêcheurs de perles)
Manon (Manon)
Zerlina (Don Giovanni)
The Queen of the Night and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte)
the Magical Maid Klingsor (Parsifal)

The singer's extensive chamber repertoire includes a number of solo programmes of works by French, Italian and German composers. Olga Kondina has also performed the soprano parts in Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Bach's St Matthew Passion and St John Passion, Handel's Messiah, Mozart's Requiem, Rossini's Stabat Mater, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Verdi's Requiem, and Mahler's Symphony No. 9.

Olga Kondina has toured with the Mariinsky Theatre and independently in Europe, America and Japan; she has performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Olga Kondina is a member of the jury of a number of international singing competitions (including the "Three Centuries of the Classical Romance" International Festival-Competition and the William Stenhammar International Music Competition), and is a lecturer in the singing class at the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatoire in St Petersburg. For two years she has been in charge of the Department of the History and Theory of Vocal Art.

Olga Kondina's pupils include: Yulia Novikova, a prizewinner at international competitions and a soloist at the Bonn Opera Theatre; Olga Senderskaya, a prizewinner at international competitions; Andrey Zemskov, a visiting student at the Strasbourg Opera Theatre; Yelena Vitis, winner of a diploma at an international competition and a soloist at the "Zazerkalye" Children's Music Theatre; and Yevgeny Nagovitsyn, a soloist with the St Petersburg Chamber Opera Company.

Olga Kondina performed the role of Gilda in Viktor Okuntsov's film of the opera Rigoletto (1987), and also took part in the recording of the music for Sergey Kuriokhin's film "The Designer" (1999).

The singer's discography includes the CD recordings Russian Classical Romances (1993), Sparrow Oratorio: The Four Seasons (1993), Ave Maria (1994), Reflections (1996, with the Andreyev Academic Russian Orchestra), Ten Brilliant Arias (1997) and Unique baroque music (with Erik Kurmangaliev, conductor Alexander Rudin).