Biography
Russian soprano Pelageya Kurennaya completed her studies at the Rimsky-Korsakoff Conservatory in St Petersburg in 2016. While she a student there, she sang in the conservatory’s productions, appearing in the roles o Belinda (Dido and Aeneas), Brigitta (Iolanta), Susanna and Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro), Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Marfa (The Tsar’s Bride). In 2014 she sang the part of Prilepa in a concert production of The Queen of Spades under the baton of Mariss Jansons at Munich’s Gasteig where she returned in the following year, to appear at the MPHIL 360° festival organized by the Munich Philharmonic: in a concert conducted by Valery Gergiev, she sang the vocal part in Rodion Shchedrin’s composition Tanja – Katja (songs without words for soprano and orchestra). In May 2015 she made her debut at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, as Masha (The Queen of Spades), before becoming the company’s soloist. On 26/12/2015 she created on its stage the role of Zamarashka in the world premiere of Shchedrin’s opera A Christmas Tale, with Valery Gergiev conducting. Her subsequent creations at the Mariinsky have included the roles of Frasquita (Carmen), Flora (The Turn of the Screw), Lauretta (Betrothal in a Monastery), Dunyasha (War and Peace), Brigitta (Iolanta), or The Flea in Shchedrin’s opera Levsha/The Left-Hander, among others. In December 2017 she made three appearances in Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall, in concerts marking the 85th birthday of Rodion Shchedrin. April 2018 saw her debut in the USA, singing the solo soprano part in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s choral symphony The Bells, with the St Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu under whose baton she also sang in November of the same year in a Helsinki performance, with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Pelageya Kurennaya has to her credit awards from a number of international singing competitions.