Since receiving First Prize at the Francisco Viñas Vocal Competition in Barcelona in 2015, Olga Kulchynska has quickly established herself as one of the leading lyrical sopranos of her generation. Also in 2015, she made her successful debut at the Opernhaus Zürich as Giulietta in Christof Loy’s production of I Capuleti e i Montecchi alongside Joyce DiDonato and received great critical acclaim as Musetta in La bohème at the Gran Teatre del Liceu. Since then, the soprano has also appeared frequently at Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Opera Bastille in Paris, and the Metropolitan Opera.
In the upcoming 2022/23 season, Olga Kulchysnka makes four major and diverse role debuts. She begins the season as Gänsemagd in a new production of Humperdinck’s Königskinder directed by Christof Loy at Dutch National Opera before returning to Opernhaus Zürich for her first Mimí in La bohème. The soprano sings her first Natasha in a new production of Sergei Prokofiev’s monumental War and Peace at the Bayerische Staatsoper, directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov and conducted by Munich’s music director Vladimir Jurowski. Finally, Olga Kulchynska makes her eagerly anticipated Handel debut as Ginevra in Ariodante in a new production by Robert Carsen, conducted by renowned baroque specialist Harry Bicket, at Opéra de Paris.
The 2021/22 saw Olga Kulchynska make three important role debuts: she appeared as Ilia in Idomeneo, directed by Antú Romero Nunes, at Bayerische Staatsoper Festival, as Blanche in Jetske Mijnssen´s production of Dialogues of Carmélites at Opernhaus Zürich, and as Micaëla in Calixto Bieito’s production of Carmen at Wiener Staatsoper. Further, she returned to the Bolshoi Theater as Volkhova in Dmitri Tcherniakov’s production of Sadko and to Bayerische Staatsoper as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte.
At the beginning of her career, Olga Kulchynska joined the Young Artist Program of Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and was a leading member of the company from 2014 to 2017. There, she made her notable debuts as Marfa in the production of Rimsy-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride, Corinna in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims, Gilda in Rigoletto and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro.
Olga had a successful collaboration with the Opernhaus Zürich: in the 2016/17 season, she came back there as Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchi and debuted as Adina in L’elisir d’amore and as Zerlina in Don Giovanni. As a member of the Opernhaus Zürich ensemble in 2018-2020, Olga made her role debuts as Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, and appeared as Musetta in La bohème.
In 2019/20 season, the young soprano made a dazzling debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Musetta in La bohème. She successfully returned to Opernhaus Zurich as Pamina and Musetta, and to Bayerische Staatsoper as Pamina.
The 2018/19 saw Olga return to the Gran Teatre del Liceu as Leila in Les Pêcheurs de perles and make her role and house debut as Lyebyed in Dmitri Tcherniakov´s acclaimed production of Rimsky- Korsakov’s The Tale of Tsar Saltan at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels.
In the 2017/18 season, she made five significant house debuts: she appeared as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Opera Bastille in Paris, Susanna in the new production of Le nozze di Fígaro at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Musetta in La bohème at Opera di Roma and Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at the Hamburg State Opera. She could also be heard as Adina in L’elisir d’amore at Bayerische Staatsoper and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at the Castell de Peralada Festival.
Olga Kulchynska studied music theory at the R.Glier Kyiv Institute of Music and continued with vocal studies at the Pyotr Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine. In addition to her First Prize at the Francisco Viñas Competition, Olga won numerous international vocal competitions, including Third Prize at Plácido Domingo’s 2016 Operalia Competition, Third Prize in the 2012 Bul-Bul International Vocal Competition in Bakú and First Prize in the 2012 Mykola Lysenko International Music Competition in Kiev.
