Russian soprano Aida Garifullina was the winner of the 2013 Operalia Competition. Aida’s stunning self-titled debut album was released globally by Decca Records in February 2017 to unanimous critical acclaim and has since been awarded a prestigious ECHO Klassik award.

Aida’s recent highlights include performances at the opening and closing ceremonies of the FIFA World Cup in Russia and at the 2018 ‘Concert de Paris’ for Bastille Day – both events being broadcast live on television to millions worldwide. She also performed at the BBC ‘Proms in the Park’ in London in 2019. Other recent highlights include sensational debuts at Staatsoper Berlin in a new Tcherniakov production of Prokofiev’s Bethrothal in a Monastery conducted by Daniel Barenboim, and at the Metropolitan Opera NYC in Don Giovanni.

Aida also joined conductor Long Yu for special performances of Carmina Burana in Shanghai and at the Forbidden City in Beijing, as part of Deutsche Grammophon’s 120th anniversary celebrations which have since been released on CD and DVD.

In 2019/20, Aida performed at the Alibaba Singles Day concert in China, broadcast to many millions. She made an acclaimed debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in La bohème and returned to the Wiener Staatsoper for a role debut as Mimì in La bohème and to the Bolshoi Theatre in Sadko. Aida also performed at the Wiener Opernball and gave various concerts across Russia.

This season on the concert platform Aida performs at the annual ZDF Adventskonzert aus Dresden broadcast across Europe and in a special Christmas concert from La Scala Milan.

Looking ahead, Aida will make her debut at Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, and return to the Staatsoper Berlin and make her debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in the Munich Opera Festival and at the Arena di Verona in La Traviata. She will continue to give concerts, galas, recitals, festivals, and TV broadcasts throughout Europe and beyond.

Aida was born and grew up in Kazan. It was Aida’s mother, the choirmaster Laylya Ildarovna, who gave Aida her first music lessons and inspired her to be an opera singer. Later, Aida went on to study at the Nuremberg University of Music and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna; subsequently joining the ensemble at the Wiener Staatsoper where she was a member from 2013 -2016. Aida played the role of Lily Pons in the feature film Florence Foster Jenkins, and is an ‘Honoured Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan’.