Maria Barakova

Mezzo-soprano Maria Barakova was born in 1998 in Kemerovo, Russia. In 2017 she completed her studies at the Novosibirsk Musical College with Svetlana Balashova, earning a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance. The same year she became a member of the Young Artist Program of the Bolshoi Theatre and started working with such coaches as Dmitry Vdovin, Alessandro Amoretti, Ewamaria Wiezer, David Blackburn, Ernesto Palacio, Makvala Kasrashvili, Michelle Wegwart, Lubov Orfenova, Irina Bogacheva, and others. Also she took part in chamber concerts at the Beethoven Hall of the Bolshoi Theatre, performing Russian, Italian, and German art songs. Barakova made her debut on the Historical Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in the role of Petrovna in The Tsar’s Bride by Rimsky-Korsakov. In summer 2018 she took part in the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, where she sang Melibea in Il viaggio a Reims at Teatro Rossini. In November 2019 she returned to Pesaro to perform the soprano secondo part in Rossini’s Stabat Mater. Barakova is the first prize winner of the International Vocal Competitions Christmas Assembly in 2015 in St. Petersburg. She also took first prize in the Natalia Spiller International Vocal Competition in Moscow in 2018, the XXVI Glinka International Vocal Competition in Kazan (2019), and both first prize and the golden medal in the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition. Her repertoire includes Isabella in Rossini’s L'italiana in Algeri, Lel in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden, and Olga in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.

Maria Barakova appears by arrangement with the Metropolitan Opera.