Nikolai Kamensky

• Prize-winner at the International Toti da Monte Competirion (Treviso, Italy, 1993)

Nikolai Kamensky studied at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire from 1991–1993. From 1993–1997 he trained in Italy, including under Franco Bordoni in Bologna. Between 1997 and 1999 he was a trainee at La Scala in Milan, studying under Luigi Alva and Leila Gencer. Soloist with the Mariinsky Academy of Young Singers since 1999. Since 2008 he has been a soloist with the Mariinsky Opera Company.

Repertoire at the Mariinsky Theatre:
Farlaf (Ruslan and Lyudmila)
Leporello (The Stone Guest)
Police-Officer, Nikitich (Boris Godunov)
Kum (Sorochintsy Fair)
Narumov (The Queen of Spades)
Company Commander, Zaretsky (Eugene Onegin)
Kichiga (The Enchantress)
Panas, Patsyuk (Christmas Eve)
Kalenik (May Night)
King of the Sea (Sadko)
Chamberlain (Le Rossignol)
Potapych, Fat Englishman (The Gambler)
Worker and Neighbour (The Fiery Angel)
Non-Commissioned Police Officer, Salesman, Caretaker, Constable, Old Convict, Non-Commissioned Officer, Guard (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk)
Caretaker, Policeman, First Son of a Respectable Lady (The Nose)
Baburov (Moscow, Cheryomushki)
The Procurator, Chief of Police Captain (Dead Souls)
A District Police Officer, a Doctor, a Gendarme and a Nurse (The Lefthander)
Basilio, Bartolo (Il barbiere di Siviglia)
Don Profondo (Il viaggio a Reims)
Dr Dulcamara (L'elisir d'amore)
Don Magnifico (La Cenerentola)
Don Pasquale (Don Pasquale)
Monterone (Rigoletto)
Roberto (I vespri siciliani)
An Assassin (Macbeth)
Samuel (Un ballo in maschera)
Angelotti, Sacristan (Tosca)
José Castro (La fanciulla del West)
Betto di Signa, Spineloccio (Gianni Schicchi)
Sergeant Sulpice (La Fille du régiment in concert)
Balducci (Benvenuto Cellini)
Brander (La Damnation de Faust)
Panthée (Les Troyens)
Abimélech (Samson et Dalila)
Innkeeper and Naval Captain (Puccini’s Manon Lescaut)
Don Inigo (L'Heure espagnole)
Oracle of Neptune (Idomeneo)
Figaro, Bartolo (Le nozze di Figaro)
Leporello (Don Giovanni)
Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte)
Wagner (Faust)
Luther (Les Contes d’Hoffmann)
Hans Foltz (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg)
Schaunard and Benoît (La bohème)
Old Man (Jenůfa)
Fifth Jew, A Cappadocian (Salome)
Truffaldino (Ariadne auf Naxos)
Blindt (Die Fledermaus)
Servant (The Miserly Knight, chamber version)

The singer's repertoire also includes the bass roles in Mozart's Requiem, Rossini's Stabat Mater and the roles of Mathieu (Andre Chénier), Giorgio (Nina, o sia La pazza per amore) and Uberto (La serva padrona).

Together with the Mariinsky Opera Company, Nikolai Kamensky has performed at numerous prestigious opera houses and concert halls, among them the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, English National Opera, Milan's Teatro Piccolo, Swedish Royal Opera, Berlin's Deutsche Oper, the Kennedy Center (Washington), the Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo), Paris Opéra Bastille and the Théâtre du Chételet. He has also toured independently to La Scala (Milan) and the Teatro Real (Madrid).

The singer has appeared under conductors including Riccardo Muti, Valery Gergiev, Yuri Bashmet, Gianandrea Noseda, Sascha Goetzel, Bruno Bartoletti, Michael Güttler, Roberto Gabbiani and Rainer Schwartz; he has taken part in master classes given by Renata Tebaldi, Magda Olivero, Renata Scotto, Bruno de Simone, Vladimir Atlantov, Louis Quilico and Regina Resnik.