Elizaveta Agrafenina
The Norwegian soprano, Elizaveta Agrafenina, was born in Yaroslavl, Russia and moved to Norway at an early age with her family. She started taking lessons in music and sang in choirs, often as a soloist. For a brief period of time, she toured with several rock and metal bands in Norway, before deciding to pursue a career in classical music.
She recently graduated from the Conservatory of Amsterdam under the tutelage of Sasja Hunnego , Pierre Mak and Jan-Paul Grijpink . She previously studied with Monica Groop at the Sibelius Academy in Finland and with Neil Mackie at the University of Agder in Norway.
Her first operatic role was Belinda from Dido and Aeneas by Purcell in 2010, and she has since then performed many roles such as Despina from Così fan tutte , Susanna from Le Nozze di Figaro , Fenena from Nabucco , Sandmännchen/Taumann from Hensel und Gretel and many more. She took a part of the Young Artist Program at Bergen National Opera in Norway and has since 2017 sung in several productions, such as Werther by Massenet , La Clemenza di Tito by Mozart and Die Lustige Witwe by Lehar .
Elizaveta is passionate about chamber music and lied. In the Netherlands, she has performed Pierrot Lunaire by Schoenberg , Shostakovitch's Seven Poems by A. Blok with Brackman Trio and Shostakovitch's From Jewish Folk Poetry in Yiddish and in Russian with ensemble Vertoon . She made a memorable performance together with the famous Norwegian violinist Ragnhild Hemsing of Edvard Grieg's Haugtussa arranged for a string sextet at the festival Fränkische Musiktage in Germany . She is both curating and performing every summer at the Finnish Pyhäjärven kamarimusiikki music festival and the Norwegian festival Grieg in Bergen.
Together with the award-winning pianist Dimitri Malignan and violinist Natalia Szmydt , the ensemble Bosmans & Beyond was founded in 2020, which aims to promote music by Dutch female composers. Together they will release a CD recording with music by the Dutch composer, Henriëtte Bosmans in 2023.
As a soloist, Elizaveta has given many recitals in various halls in The Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Italy and Indonesia together with pianists such as Kiril Kozlovsky , Dimitri Malignan , Mariam Kharatyan , Stephen Higgins and Frans van Ruth . She is quickly becoming recognized for her musical versatility in a wide-ranging repertoire that spans the Baroque period through 21st century contemporary music. Elizaveta has been awarded several scholarships to continue her musical development and honorary awards for her outstanding musicianship.
For the season of 2022, Elizaveta is going on tour in The Netherlands with The Dutch Student Orchestra , conducted by Stijn Berkouwer . She is also appearing in several chamber music festivals in Europe and recording with three different labels, projects such as From Jewish Folk Poetry , Missing Voices and Bosmans & Beyond .
She has followed masterclasses with Ramón Vargas (MEX), Nelly Miricioiou (UK), Sir Thomas Allen (UK), Ira Siff (US), Margreet Honig (NL), Jeff Cohen (FR), Jeanette Favaro-Reuter (GER), Júlia Pászthy (HUN) just to mention a few and she has worked with conductors such as Matthew Rowe (NL), Masaaki Suzuki (JAP), Magnus Loddgard (NO), Peter Szilvay (NO), Wim Dijkstra (NL) and Ed Spanjaard (NL).