Inga Kalna

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 Curriculum Vitae

portrait of Inga Kalna

Inga Kalna was born in Riga. After attending the E.Darzins Music School in Riga she completed her musicology studies at the Latvian Academy of Music with BMus.

Then she studied voice at the same academy and at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she graduated receiving the DipRAM, the highest award for performance. After a very successful debut as Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) she she joined at the Latvian National Opera as a soloist, where she performed parts such as Mimi in Puccini's La Bohème and Gilda in Rigoletto and took on title roles in Lucia di Lammermoor and Handel's Alcina.

In London she made quite an impression as La Contessa in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, with the orchestra conducted by Sir Colin Davis. Inga Kalna has twice been awarded the Latvian Theatre Prize for excellent performances, and is one of the few artists who has been given the Great Music Award of Latvia three times in tribute to her outstanding achievements. (get an overview of her won awards). In Great Britain she has received the Goldberg Operatic Prize and the Bruce Miller Memorial Trust Award. In Germany, she was awarded the Wilhelm-Oberdörfer-Preis.

In 1999 Inga Kalna became a soloist at the International Opera Studio of the Hamburgische Staatsoper.

The audience came to appreciate her convincing performances as Barena in Janacek's Jenufa, as La Dama in Macbeth as well as Olympia, Antonia und Stella in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann.

During the following season she was admired as Adina in L'Elisir d'Amore, Xenia in Boris Godunow, Gilda in Rigoletto, Lucia in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and as a breathtaking Violetta in "La Traviata".


Inga Kalna has been a member of the Hamburg Opera ensemble since the season of 2001/2002 until 2006/2007. She enchanted the Hamburg audience in operas such as La Bohème, Boris Godunow and Alcina among others. Moreover, she was brilliant in leading roles of the new productions of Hans Werner Henze's We Come to the River, Dialogues des Carmelites by Poulenc and Reinhard Keiser's Der Lächerliche Prinz Jodelet (The Ridiculous Prince Jodelet).


Other engagements have taken her to the Nederlanse Opera, the Vlaamse Opera, the opera houses in Tampere ( Finnland ), Lausanne and Toulouse and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. She made her Salzburg Festival debut in 2006 as the First Lady in Die Zauberflöte. A year later she was heard for the first time as Handel's Alcina at the Opéra National de Paris. In 2009 she made her La Scala debut in the same role.

Inga Kalna enjoys particularly close working relationship with two conductors: under Marc Minkowski she has been heard as Alcina at Vienna State Opera, as Piacere ( Handel's Il trionfo del Tempo ) at the Berlin State Opera and as Cinna ( Mozart's Lucio Silla ) at the 2013 Salzburg Mozart Week Festival; and undef Rene Jacobs she appeard at the Dresden Music Festival, the Innsbruck Early Music Festival, the Berlin State Opera and the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence.

In addition to the foregoing roles, artist's vast repertory also includes Mozart's Donna Anna, Fiordiligi and Elettra, Verdi's Desdemona, Leonora and Violetta, Rossini's Donna Fiorilla ( Il turco in Italia ) and the title rolesin Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, Bellini's Norma and Handel's "Agrippina" and "Rodelinda".

On CD Inga Kalna may be heard in Handel's "Rinaldo" and Mozart's Die Zauberflöte under Rene Jacobs, in Vivaldi's Motezuma under Alan Curtis and Hindemit's Mathis der Maler under Simone Young.


In addition to her comprehensive opera repertoire, Inga Kalna has fascinated her audiences with Bach's Passion music and requiems and masses by Beethoven, Gounod, Mozart, Brahms, Verdi and Fauré.

She also has sung Vier Letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) by Richard Strauss and Mahler's 4th symphony. These productions were made under conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Réne Jacobs, Alfred Eschwe, Ingo Metzmacher, Stefan Soltesz, Gerd Albrecht, Marc Soustrot, Riccardo Muti, Andrea Marcon, Stefan Soltesz, Simone Young, Andris Nelsons and Ottavio Dantone.

Her schedule permitting you will have a chance to enjoy this versatile artist at concerts and song evenings, too.


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