Elīna Garanča was born to a musical family in Riga and studied at the Latvian Academy of Music with her mother. She won the Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition and reached the finals of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in 2001.
She started her career as a guest artist at the Südthüringisches Staatstheater in Meiningen, where she sang principal roles. Later on, she became one of Oper Frankfurt’s guest artists. Since then, she has appeared with many of the world’s leading opera companies and symphony orchestras and has accepted repeated invitations to sing at Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall and Milan’s La Scala. At the latter, her collaboration with Daniel Barenboim, Anja Harteros, Jonas Kaufmann, René Pape and other artists in Verdi’s Requiem was a memorable one.
She has also taken the stage of the Metropolitan Opera on a number of occasions, including as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier and, later on, as Delila in Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Delila – the production that opened the institution’s 2018/19 season. She has also triumphed at the Opéra National de Paris as Eboli in Don Carlos, and she also made her début as Dido in Berlioz’s Les Troyens there in the 2018/19 season.
Her other roles include Carmen, Sesto (in La clemenza di Tito), Jane Seymour (in Donizetti’s Anna Bolena), Leonora (in La favorite) and Charlotte (in Massenet’s Werther).
Garanča has received many awards, including being named the singer of the year at the 2007 MIDEMa festival and in 2010 by Musical America, while also winning the ECHO Klassik Award in 2007 as female singer of the year. In 2005, she became a Deutsche Grammophon exclusive artist. Her two most recent albums, Romantique and Meditation, also won her Echo Klassiks, in 2013 and 2015, respectively.
In 2013, she was named a Kammersängerin of the Wiener Staatsoper, where over the course of a decade starting in 2003 she sang 18 different roles in more than 140 performances.
She started her career as a guest artist at the Südthüringisches Staatstheater in Meiningen, where she sang principal roles. Later on, she became one of Oper Frankfurt’s guest artists. Since then, she has appeared with many of the world’s leading opera companies and symphony orchestras and has accepted repeated invitations to sing at Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall and Milan’s La Scala. At the latter, her collaboration with Daniel Barenboim, Anja Harteros, Jonas Kaufmann, René Pape and other artists in Verdi’s Requiem was a memorable one.
She has also taken the stage of the Metropolitan Opera on a number of occasions, including as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier and, later on, as Delila in Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Delila – the production that opened the institution’s 2018/19 season. She has also triumphed at the Opéra National de Paris as Eboli in Don Carlos, and she also made her début as Dido in Berlioz’s Les Troyens there in the 2018/19 season.
Her other roles include Carmen, Sesto (in La clemenza di Tito), Jane Seymour (in Donizetti’s Anna Bolena), Leonora (in La favorite) and Charlotte (in Massenet’s Werther).
Garanča has received many awards, including being named the singer of the year at the 2007 MIDEMa festival and in 2010 by Musical America, while also winning the ECHO Klassik Award in 2007 as female singer of the year. In 2005, she became a Deutsche Grammophon exclusive artist. Her two most recent albums, Romantique and Meditation, also won her Echo Klassiks, in 2013 and 2015, respectively.
In 2013, she was named a Kammersängerin of the Wiener Staatsoper, where over the course of a decade starting in 2003 she sang 18 different roles in more than 140 performances.