Helena Zubanovich

Helena Zubanovich

Mezzo-Soprano

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Helena Zubanovich studied music at the Music Academy Katowice in her native Poland, and from 1994 at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg. She graduated with honors in opera, concert and oratorio singing, and attended private studies and master classes with Ingrid Kremling, Kerstin Mayer, Elio Battaglia, Brigitte Fassbaender, Teresa Zylis-Gara and Ewa Blahova.

She subsequently won several prestigious competitions and made her stage debut as a soprano in the role of Mimì in La Bohème at the Bytom Opera in 1993. In 1999 she completed her transition to mezzo soprano and made her debut at the Vienna Volksoper in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s progress.

Helena has since established herself internationally as a dramatic mezzo on countless stages throughout Germany and Europe, as well as abroad including at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing. Opera venues she has performed at include the Aaltotheater in Essen, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Teatro Bellini in Catania, Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla, National Theatre in Prague, Opéra National de Montpellier, den Norske Opera in Oslo, the National Theatre Brno, as well as at the Festspielhaus in Salzburg and the Zurich Tonhalle.

In 2013 she made her debut at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich as Ježibaba in Rusalka, where she was a member of the ensemble until 2019 and performed countless roles, including Kostelnička in Jenufa, Frugola in Il tabarro, Gertrud in Hänsel and Gretel.

In addition to her Italian repertoire, which includes the roles of Azucena, Amneris, Ulrica, Santuzza, Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica as well  as the princess in Adriana Lecouvreur, Helena Zubanovich enjoys great success as Ježibaba in Rusalka, Kostelnička in Jenufa, Klytämnestra in Elektra, the Sorceress in Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel, and Marina in Boris Godunov. She is also a successful concert performer with a repertoire that includes Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s IX. Symphony, or Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder.

Helena regularly performs with renowned conductors such as Kirill Petrenko, Simone Young, Tomas Hanus, Marco Armiliato, Pablo Halffter, Asher Fisch, Marko Letonja, Stefan Anton Reck, Pietro Rizzo, Gabriele Ferro, Alfred Eschwé, Krzysztof Pendercki, Lukasz Borowicz, Antoni Wit or Michael Jurowski and directors like Denis Krief, Willy Decker and Giancarlo del Monaco. Moreover, she has released several CD and DVD recordings.

In addition to her international opera and concert activities she obtained a doctorate degree in music and singing at the Poznań University of Music in 2016 and has served as lecturer at the music conservatories in Poznań and Szczecin. Furthermore, she has been serving as Professor of Singing at the University of Art in Graz since October 2019.

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