The Russian-Swiss mezzo-soprano Nadezhda Karyazina is the winner of the Herbert von Karajan Prize 2025 and has made an international name for herself as an outstanding singer with superb acting skills. In 2025 her debut at the Salzburg Easter Festival as Marfa in Musorgsky’s Khovanshchina was acclaimed by both press and public.
Nadezhda Karyazina also opened the 2024/25 season singing the role of Marfa, in concert performances under Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Helsinki Festival and at the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm. This was followed by appearances as Princess Clarisse in a new production of Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges at the Semperoper Dresden.
Highlights of recent seasons have included her much-praised role debut as Isabella (L’italiana in Algeri) under Gianluca Capuano at the Zurich Opera House, Federica (Luisa Miller) under Enrique Mazzola at the Glyndebourne Festival, Smeton (Anna Bolena) under Maurizio Benini at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia and Hannah in Weinberg’s Die Passagierin under Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla at the Teatro Real in Madrid. Nadezhda Karyazina performs regularly at the Bavarian State Opera, where her appearances have included Carmen in Marina Abramović’s 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, Ninon in Penderecki’s Die Teufel von Loudon, Ino in Handel’s Semele and Emilia in Verdi’s Otello.
Between 2020 and 2023 she was an ensemble member of the Zurich Opera House, where she sang numerous major roles such as Isabella, Orphée (Orphée et Eurydice) and Smeton. From 2015 to 2020 she was a member of the ensemble of the Hamburg State Opera, where she appeared in a wide-ranging repertory, including Carmen, Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Olga (Eugene Onegin), Federica, Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus) and Mistress Quickly (Falstaff). She also appeared in Hamburg in a staged production of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem.
On the concert platform, Nadezhda Karyazina regularly works with leading ensembles and orchestras. Highlights of past seasons include Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra under Leo McFall and Ustvolskaya’s Fourth Symphony with the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra under Kent Nagano at the Elbphilharmonie.
Nadezhda Karyazina studied at the Russian Academy for Theatre Arts in her home city of Moscow and graduated from the opera programme for young artists at the Bolshoi Theatre. From 2013 to 2015 she was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where she made her debut as Maddalena (Rigoletto). She has won numerous prizes, including at Plácido Domingo’s Operalia Competition and the international singing competition Neue Stimmen.
