Born in Tulcea/ Romania, George Virban is considered asone of the most promising and outstanding lyric tenors of his generation. His refined and dazzling voice makes him predestined for a huge range of roles from Mozart’s Don Ottavio, Donizetti’s Nemorino, Verdi’s Alfredo or Tchaikovsky’s Lensky up to classical Operettas. In July 2024 he won the 2nd prize at the Sumi Jo International Singing Competition at Château de La Ferté-Imbault in France.
He started his musical education at the Dimitrie Cuclin Music School in Galati in 2009. Four years later he joined the National Conservatory in Bucharest, where he graduated in 2019. He made his stage debut in 2016 as Lenski in Eugene Onegin in the Russian town of Saransk and has won several prizes and awards at renowned singing competitions in Romania and France, including the George Enesco-Competition in Paris, Jeunes Espoirs in Avignon and the Virginea Zeani Competition. George Virban was a holder of scholarship of the Queen Margareta Foundation from 2013 to 2015.
During his later years of studies, he frequently appeared as a soloist of the Bucharest National Opera and the Bucharest Operetta Theatre, performing roles such as Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, Fenton in Falstaff, Alfred in Die Fledermaus or Koltoy in Paul Abraham’s Viktoria und ihr Husar.
From 2019 to summer 2021 he was a member of the Opera Studio of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. During the 2023/24 season he was member of the the ensemble of the Aaltotheater in Essen, where he sang among other roles Ferrando in Così fan tutte and Valentino in Louise Bertin’s Fausto.
Recent guest appearances took him to the National Opera Cluj-Napoca, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Opéra de Avignon, the Harbin Concert Hall and the Shanghai Concert Hall.
