Centre Stage Artist Management is thrilled to announce that critically acclaimed Russian-Swiss mezzo-soprano Nadezhda Karyazina has joined the roster for general management.

Nadezhda Karyazina, winner of the Herbert von Karajan Prize 2025, is “one of the most significant singers and performers of our time.” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). With a voice described by The Guardian as “resonant and strong at the top of her range, rich and potent in the contralto low notes”, the “outstanding” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung) singer made her triumphant debut as Marfa in Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina at the 2025 Salzburg Easter Festival, where she was the “star of the evening” (Austria Presse Agentur) and received rave reviews from press and audience alike.

Karyazina opened the 2024/25 season as Marfa at the Helsinki Festival and the Baltic Sea Festival under Esa-Pekka Salonen in a concert production, before appearing at the Semperoper Dresden as Princess Clarisse in a new production of Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges.

Highlights of recent seasons include her critically acclaimed debut as Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri at the Zurich Opera House under Gianluca Capuano, Federica in Luisa Miller at the Glyndebourne Festival under Enrique Mazzola, Smeton in Anna Bolena at the Palau des Arts in Valencia under Maurizio Benini and her debut as Hannah in Weinberg’s The Passenger at the Teatro Real in Madrid under Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.

Karyazina is a regular guest at the Bavarian State Opera, appearing as Carmen in Marina Abramović’s opera project 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, as Ninon in Penderecki’s Die Teufel von Loudun, as Ino in Handel’s Semele and as Emilia in Otello.

From 2020 to 2023, the mezzo-soprano was a member of the Zurich Opera House ensemble, where she sang many important roles in her repertoire, including Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri, the title role in Gluck’s Orphée et Euridice and Smeton in Anna Bolena.

From 2015 to 2020, Nadezhda Karyazina was an ensemble member of the Hamburg State Opera. During this time, she developed a vast repertoire, including the title roles in Carmen and Hänsel and Gretel, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Olga in Eugene Onegin, Federica in Luisa Miller, Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and Mrs Quickly in Falstaff.

On the concert stage, the mezzo-soprano regularly performs with major ensembles and orchestras. Highlights of recent seasons include Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra under Leo McFall, Verdi’s Missa da Requiem under Paolo Arrivabeni in a staged production at the Hamburg State Opera and Galina Ustvolskaya’s Symphony No. 4 with the Hamburg Philharmonic under Kent Nagano at the Elbphilharmonie.

Born in Moscow, Nadezhda Karyazina studied at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts in her home city before joining the Bolshoi Theatre’s Young Artists Programme.

She has won numerous prizes, including Plácido Domingo’s Operalia Competition and the International Singing Competition Neue Stimmen.

From 2013 to 2015 she took part in the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, where she made her debut as Maddalena in Rigoletto.