Aida Garifullina

Born in 1987 in Kazan—then the capital of Soviet Tatarstan, now part of the Russian Federation—the Tatar soprano Aida Garifullina issued her debut album in 2017, already recognized as a rising opera star in both Russia and the West. A choral conductor by profession, her mother chose the name Aida after the celebrated operatic heroine, recognized her daughter’s vocal gifts at an early age, and steered her toward a singing career. Garifullina’s first public appearance came at age five, when she performed on Russian television in a children’s singing competition. At eleven she entered the vocal program at the state conservatory in Kazan, devoting increasing attention to music as she moved through her teenage years.

A 2005 scholarship from the city of Kazan allowed her to pursue studies abroad. She relocated to Nuremberg, where she worked with Siegfried Jerusalem, acquired German, and gained command of the lieder repertoire. Her parents, however, hoped she would train in opera in Vienna, an ambition Garifullina herself embraced after hearing recordings by Anna Moffo. Two years later, without informing anyone, she boarded a train for Vienna and sat the demanding entrance examinations at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts. She passed and studied there with American soprano Claudia Visca, whose own teacher had been one of Moffo’s instructors.

Garifullina made her stage debut in 2009 in a conservatory production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. After graduating in 2011 she drew the notice of conductor Valery Gergiev, who engaged her for several roles at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. In 2013 she captured first prize at the Operalia competition, even after falling down the stairs at her hotel—a mishap she later blamed on nerves. The award brought larger parts at the Mariinsky and the role of French singer Lily Pons in Stephen Frears’s 2016 film Florence Foster Jenkins. She also appeared regularly in Vienna, particularly at the Vienna State Opera. Signed to Decca, she released her self-titled debut album in 2017, a program of arias, songs, and pieces that reflected her Central Asian heritage.