• Prize-winner at the V International Izabella Yurieva Competition (Tallinn, 2004)
• Prize-winner at the International Vocal Competition in Verona (Italy, 1999)
• Diploma-recipient at the IV International Rimsky-Korsakov Young Opera Singers' Competition (St Petersburg, 2000)
• Diploma-recipient at the International Elena Obraztsova Competition (St Petersburg, 1999)
Irina Vasilieva graduated from the St Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire, specialising in "composition" (class of Professor Slonimsky) and "vocal art" (class of Yevgenia Perlasova). Soloist with the Mariinsky Academy of Young Singers from 1999 after graduating from the Conservatoire. Made her Mariinsky Theatre debut in 2000 as Wellgunde in the premiere of Wagner's Das Rheingold, joining the Mariinsky Opera Company in 2005.
Repertoire at the Mariinsky Theatre includes:
Parasia (Sorochntsy Fair)
Polovtsian Maiden (Prince Igor)
Brigitta (Iolanta in concert)
Cook (The Tale of Tsar Saltan)
Florid Lady (The Gambler)
Khivrya (Semyon Kotko)
Arsinoia (Cimarosa's Cleopatra)
Corinna (Il viaggio a Reims)
Anna (Nabucco)
High Priestess (Aida)
Alice Ford (Falstaff)
Musetta (La bohème)
Mercédès (Carmen)
Antonia (Les Contes d'Hoffmann)
Amour (Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice in concert)
Wellgunde (Das Rheingold, Götterdämmerung)
Ortlinde (Die Walküre)
Echo, Naiad (Ariadne auf Naxos)
Chrysothemis (Elektra)
Governess (The Turn of the Screw)
Jenůfa (Jenůfa)
Roxana (Król Roger)
Irina Vasilieva's repertoire also includes the roles of Agnes (The Maid of Orleans), Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), Maria (Mazepa), Iolanta (Iolanta), Zemfira (Aleko), Natasha Rostova (War and Peace), Norma (Norma), Abigaille (Nabucco), Violetta (La traviata), Leonora (Il trovatore), Maria (Simon Boccanegra), Amelia (Un ballo in maschera), Leonora (La forza del destino), Aida (Aida), Mimi (La bohème), Tosca (Tosca), Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly), Teresa (Benvenuto Cellini), Micaëla (Carmen), Giulietta (Les Contes d'Hoffmann), Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), Senta (Der Fliegende Holländer), Freia, Ortlinde, Sieglinde, Third Norn (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos), Princess Werdenberg (Der Rosenkavalier), Mermaid (Dvořák's Rusalka), and Emilia Marti (Case Macropoulos).
The singer's concert repertoire includes the soprano roles in Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Händel's The Messiah, Mozart's Requiem and Mass in C Minor, Verdi's Requiem, Mahler's Eighth Symphony, Stravinsky's Les Noces and Karamanov's Requiem.
Irina Vasilieva has toured to the USA, Finland, Germany, the UK, appearing at venues such as the Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris), the New Israeli Opera (Tel Aviv) and London's Barbican Hall. In September 2000 together with Plácido Domingo she performed Act II from Wagner's opera Parsifal at a concert at the Dorothy Pavilion (Los Angeles), and in 2006 she appeared with a solo programme at the Glenn Gould Studio (Toronto).
Irina Vasilieva has collaborated with such conductors as Valery Gergiev, Alexander Kantorov, Yevgeny Bushkov, Yuri Bashmey, Gary Bertini, Christopher Wallander, Daniele Rustioni and Esa-Pekka Salonen; she has performed with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra.
© www.mariinsky.ru