Elīna Garanča

Mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča was born in 1976 in Riga into a family of musicians. She began her musical studies at the age of 5 at the piano. In 1996, she studied singing at the Latvian Academy of Music, then moved to Vienna and the United States. While still a student, she made her stage debut in 1998 as a quick replacement to play Giovanna Seymour in Donizetti’s Anna Bolena at the Opera in Riga, Bucharest and Athens. Elīna Garanča then joined the Meiningen Theater troupe, then the Frankfurt one and finally the Vienna State Opera. In 2003 Elīna Garanča became known internationally by singing the role of Annio in Mozart’s La Clémence de Titus at the Salzburg Festival under the baton of Nikolaus Harnoncourt. On the strength of her success, she begins to do a series of roles.