Marina Shaguch

Vocalists — Soprano

• Manager: Michael Benchetrit
  Management Territory: Sundry Territories

About

Russian soprano, Marina Shaguch, has received a remarkable outpouring of audience and critical acclaim for concert and recital appearances throughout Europe, Asia and the United States. The most noteworthy elements of the performances of Miss Shaguch are the beauty of her voice, her technical vocal security, and her unique interpretative talent.

Recent engagements for Ms. Shaguch include Soprano I in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons. A tour of Australia and New Zealand singing Soprano II in Mahler’s Symphony No . . . . 8 with Vladimir Ashkenazy; followed by Soprano I in the same piece with the Adelaide Symphony with its music director, Arvo Volmer. Ms. Shaguch returned to London for Rachmaninov’s The Bells at the Royal Festival Hall with Vladimir Ashkenazy. Additional engagements include concerts of the Verdi Requiem with the Kirov, her home company in St. Petersburg, as well as with the Houston Symphony and of Strauss’ Four Last Songs with the Las Vegas Philharmonic for music director Harold Weller’s farewell. The Russian soprano also made a debut with the Cathedral Choral Society of Washington, DC in Britten’s War Requiem and returned to New York City for a rarity: the role of Donna Anna in Dargomizhsky’s The Stone Guest at Avery Fisher Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra under Leon Botstein.

Other recent projects include Miss Shaguch’s return to Canada for the title-role in Ariadne auf Naxos with the Opera de Montréal, concerts of Rachmaninov’s Francesca da Rimini, first in Sao Paulo with John Neschling and later in Berlin with Eliahu Inbal. She also took part in a major European tour with the European Union Youth Orchestra, performing the War Requiem with Vladimir Ashkenazy as well as returned to the New World Symphony for Shostakovich’s Seven Poems by Alexander Blok. An exciting addition to Marina Shaguch’s repertoire is the title-role in Aida, which she first sang on stage in Tallinn and in Tbilisi.

Two seasons ago, the Russian soprano made her first appearances in Canada, first in a concert performance of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta at the Festival de Lanaudière, then as Tatiana in concerts of Eugene Onegin with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and Alexander Vedernikov. Shortly afterwards, she sang an impressive program of arias by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Verdi in a televised concert for TROS in the Netherlands with Eri Klas before joining forces with him for the Verdi Requiem in Moscow. She also sang the soprano soloist in concerts of Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater with the Milwaukee Symphony under Andreas Delfs. In Europe, Miss Shaguch sang Tatiana in Eugene Onegin at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam as well as Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony, followed by his song cycle From Jewish Folk Poetry in Metz, France and the Britten War Requiem under Vladimir Ashkenazy in Reykjavik. Later, Miss Shaguch toured Europe with the Flanders Orchestra singing Strauss’ Four Last Songs and recorded the soprano solo in Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony with the prestigious Gürzenich Orchestra and Dimitri Kitajenko for the Capriccio label. Prior to that, Miss Shaguch appeared in a concert presentation of Aleko with TROS Radio in the Netherlands, the Verdi Requiem both with the Royal Scottish Orchestra and with the Minnesota Orchestra, as well as the title-role in Iolanta at the Concertgebouw. Apart from her performances with her home company, the Kirov Opera, Miss Shaguch returned to the Rotterdam Symphony with which she performed the Three Fragments from Wozzeck by Berg in November 2000. Marina Shaguch also returned to New York with Britten's War Requiem with the Cincinnati Symphony under Maestro Conlon for her Carnegie Hall debut. January 2002 found her singing Rachmaninov's The Bells with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy at Avery Fisher Hall immediately followed by her debut with the New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas in Shostakovich’s From Jewish Folk Poetry immediately before returning to The Bells for concerts and a recording of this piece in Prague with Maestro Ashkenazy. She finished the season with concerts of Tatiana’s Letter Scene from Eugene Onegin with the Atlanta Symphony and Donald Runnicles.

Highlights of her 1998-99 season included Miss Shaguch's debut as Verdi's Elisabetta in Don Carlo with Maestro Gergiev at the Kirov and her return to London in the fall for Kashchei the Immortal and in the spring for the Rachmaninov Festival for The Bells and Francesca da Rimini as well as a joint recital with Sergei Leiferkus at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Miss Shaguch also sang at Buckingham Palace in April in a Command Performance for HRH Prince Charles in Act I of Verdi's Otello, in which she partnered Placido Domingo and Valery Gergiev. She also made her Japanese debut with the Tokyo Symphony in a concert devoted to Verdi.

In 1997-1998 Miss Shaguch sang and recorded Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride and Kashchei the Immortal with Maestro Gergiev for Philips. She returned to New York for the Opening Gala of the Kirov Opera Festival at the Metropolitan Opera and the Seven Poems by Alexander Blok by Shostakovich with the Beaux Arts Trio at the Metropolitan Museum. Miss Shaguch's concert season included her much-anticipated debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra in Gurrelieder under Maestro Christoph Eschenbach, performances of Mahler's Second Symphony in Madrid (in November) and in Israel (in January), a concert performance of Otello in Utrecht followed by the Verdi Requiem in Palma de Mallorca (all under the direction of Valery Gergiev). Miss Shaguch also sang Sadko as part of the Kirov Opera's tour at Expo '98 in Lisbon, Portugal. In the Summer, she was part of the White Nights Festival and returned to the Mikkeli Festival where she sang the Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss.

Miss Shaguch began the 1995/96 season with performances of Shostakovich's Jewish Folk Poetry and Fleischmann's Rothschild's Violin with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, where performances were recorded for release on the BMG label. After more performances at the Kirov Opera, she toured Europe singing the Dvorak Stabat Mater under the direction of Helmuth Rilling; and the Verdi Requiem with the Leipzig Orchestra. During June of 1995, Miss Shaguch sang the Dvorak Stabat Mater with Helmuth Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival and recorded the work for the Hänssler label. In January of 1996, Miss Shaguch performed again with Maestro Vladimir Spivakov singing Schubert's Salve Regina in both Israel and Spain. She made her New York Philharmonic debut in Shostakovich's Jewish Folk Poetry under the direction of Maestro Valery Gergiev. She completed the season in America debuting with the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, singing performances of Mahler's Das Klagende Lied, which were released by BMG. The following season, Miss Shaguch triumphed in the role of Desdemona in Verdi's Otello at the Mikkeli Festival in Finland where she sang with the Kirov Opera and Maestro Gergiev. In January, she recorded an album of Tchaikovsky rarities with Neeme Järvi for BMG/Conifer in London. In April she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin and went on to sing Tove in Schönberg's Gurrelieder with Ben Heppner and the Minnesota Orchestra under the baton of Eiji Oue. She was part of the Kirov Opera tour of Europe in the Summer singing various roles: the title-role in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta at the St Denis Festival near Paris, excerpts from Lohengrin in a Wagner Gala at the Ravello Festival and the soprano solo in Shostakovitch's From Jewish Folk Poetry in London.

Born in Krasnodar in the former U.S.S.R., Marina Shaguch is a graduate of the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia where she studied under Tamara Novichenko, one of Russia's most famous teachers. While still a student at the conservatory, she was awarded a gold medal in Russia's most prestigious national competition, The Glinka Competition.

Shortly thereafter, Miss Shaguch became the silver-medalist of the famed International Tchaikovsky Competition of 1990, and was then selected by the Russian Ministry of Culture to represent the Soviet Union as its most promising young vocal artist in America's Rosa Ponselle International Competition For The Vocal Arts of 1992, where she won the Gold Medallion Award. It was under the auspices of this award that Marina Shaguch was presented in a New York City, Alice Tully Hall debut in March of 1994.

Specializing in the Russian, Italian, French, and German concert and operatic repertories, Shaguch's operatic roles with the Kirov (currently known as the Mariinski Theatre) include the roles of Marfa in the Tsar's Bride; Tatiana in Eugene Onegin; Oksana in The Night Before Christmas; Marguerite in Faust; Parassia in The Fair of Sorochintsy; Volkhova in Sadko, Lyudmila in Russlan and Lyudmila and Fevronyia in The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh.

Marina Shaguch has recorded for the Philips, BMG, Conifer, Capriccio, Chandos, Octavia, Supraphon and Hänssler labels.

Updated April 2011

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