Yulia Matochkina

Yulia Matochkina opens her 2025/26 season with Amneris in Verdi’s Aida at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. She then goes back to her beloved Santuzza  in Cavalleria rusticana with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She returns to Hamburg Opera as Ortrud in Lohengrin and sings Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera both at the Opernhaus Zürich and at the Edinburgh Festival.

Matochkina’s recent appearances include Verdi’s Requiem in Rome with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, conducted by Daniel Harding and broadcast live. Ulrica Un ballo in maschera at the Bayerische Staatsoper München. Santuzza in a new production of Cavalleria rusticana at the Bayerische Staatsoper München as well as in concert at the Verbier Festival. Carmen with Ópera de Las Palmas, Azucena Il trovatore  at the Royal Ballet and Opera.

Other recent highlights include Venus Tannhäuser and Azucena Il trovatore at Bayerische Staatsoper, and her return to Deutsche Oper Berlin as Ortrud Lohengrin. Eboli Don Carlo at The Metropolitan Opera, Semperoper Dresden, The Royal Ballet and Opera, Amneris Aida and Ulrica Un ballo in maschera at the Spring Festival Tokyo with Riccardo Muti, Dalila Samson et Dalila with Opera de Tenerife. Verdi’s Requiem at Opernhaus Zürich, the Verbier Festival, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, the Dutch National Opera, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Carmen at Arena di Verona, Azucena Il trovatore at Opernhaus Zürich, Ulrica Un ballo in maschera at Teatro alla Scala, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Marfa Khovanshchina with Opéra national de Paris, Federica Luisa Miller at Staatsoper Hamburg and the Salzburg Festival.

Yulia took the first steps of her career with the Mariinsky Theatre and soon became its leading soloist. In her home theater she had the opportunity to build an extended repertoire of the main mezzo-soprano roles such as Amneris Aida, Eboli Don Carlo, Principessa de Bouillon Adriana Lecouvreur, Dido Les Troyens, Dalila Samson et Dalila, Venus Tannhäuser, Ortrud Lohengrin, Brangäne Tristan und Isolde, Wellgunde Das Rheingold, Kundry Parsifal, Polina Pique Dame, Ascanio Benvenuto Cellini, Dulcinée Don Quichotte, Marguerite La damnation de Faust, Joanna The Maid of Orleans and Marfa Khovanshchina, among others. 

She is the first prize-winner of the Golden Medal of the XV International Tchaikovsky competition and the first prize-winner of the 9th Rimsky-Korsakov International Competition for Young Opera Singers.  

Yulia Matochkina was born in Mirny in the Arkhangelsk Region and graduated from the Petrozavodsk State Conservatoire, named after Glazunov, where she studied with Professor Viktoria Gladchenko. She was also a member of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers between 2009–2015.