Born in Budapest in 1986, Zsófia Kálnay played violin from the ages of seven to ten and later took up singing at age 18. Her first teachers were Erzsébet Szilágyi, Éva Vámossy and Emese F. Kármán. In 2013 she obtained her diploma in classical singing as a student of Mária Temesi, Adrienne Csengery, Péter Oberfrank and Attila Toronykőy at the University of Szeged's faculty of music. She has been a soloist with the National Theatre of Szeged since 2011 and with the Hungarian State Opera since 2014. In 2013, she took first place in the József Simándy singing competition in the BA category, along with being awarded five prestigious special prizes by the jury (winning chances to sing in Verdi's Requiem with the Szeged Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Tamás Pál, in a production of Rossini's La Cenerentola directed by Attila Toronykőy and in Richard Strauss's Die Schweigsame Frau, with Kocsis Zoltán as well as the special prizes from Duna TV and Debrecen's Csokonai Theatre). In 2014, the National Theatre of Szeged recognised her performance in La Cenerentola by naming her the young singer of the season, and in 2015, as a student in the opera department, she received the University of Szeged's József Sófi Scholarship for her professional achievements during her studies.
Her principal roles in Szeged include Cenerentola, Nicklausse/Muse (in Tales of Hoffmann), and Maddalena and Bersi (in Giordano's Andrea Chénier), and at the Hungarian State Opera are Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Cherubino (Il Nozze di Figaro), Anita (West Side Story), Rossweisse (Die Walküre) and Lola (Cavelleria rusticana), Djamileh.
She is a regular collaborator at the Wagner in Budapest Opera Festival conducted by Adam Fischer, where she performs the roles of Rossweisse and Flosshilde in the Ring.