Asmik Grigorian

In 1999, Asmik Grigorian graduated from National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art in Vilnius. She studied music at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre and graduated from it with a master's degree in 2006. Grigorian debuted in Lithuania, later performed at the Latvian National Opera and the Mariinsky Theater. She is a founding member of Vilnius City Opera and the recipient of the highest Lithuanian theatre award, the Golden Stage Cross twice, in 2005 and 2010.[1][2]

Since 2011, Grigorian performed in various opera houses on the international stage. She was first noted in operas by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, performing leading roles, such as Nastasya in The Enchantress at the Theater an der Wien in September 2014 and as Tatiana in Eugene Onegin at the Komische Oper Berlin in 2016.[3][4][5]

In May 2016, Grigorian was honoured at the International Opera Awards in London as the Best Newcomer ("Young Female Singer").[6] In December 2016 she performed at the Royal Swedish Opera in the premiere of the opera Fedora by Umberto Giordano in the title role.[7][8] In her debut at the Salzburg Festival in August 2017, she sang the role of Marie in Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck to critical acclaim.[9][10] Grigorian was praised as a "superb musician, with deep understanding of Bergian vocal style".[11]

Grigorian made her Edinburgh International Festival debut in August 2019 when Komische Oper Berlin brought their production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin to Edinburgh.[12]

During her 2019/20 season, Asmik performed the title role in Manon Lescaut at Oper Frankfurt, she also returned to her hometown of Vilnius where she performed the role of Polina in The Gambler. This role was reprised towards the end of her season at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. Performances of Norma, Elektra, and Jenufa were canceled due to Covid-19.

Asmik began her 2020/21 season as Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly) at the Wiener Staatsoper and then at the Mariinsky Theatre, then later in the season at the Deutsche Oper. She also sung the role of Liza in Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame at the Mariinsky Theatre, Rusalka at the Teatro Real de Madrid under the baton of Maestro Ivor Bolton and the title role in Salome at the Bolshoi Theatre conducted by Tugan Sokhiev. Her season ended with performances of Der Fliegende Holländer at the Bayreuther Festspiele and Elektra at the Salzburger Festspiele conducted by Franz Welser-Möst.

Grigorian’s 2021/22 season began with a house and role debut at the Royal Opera House in a new production of Jenufa conducted by Henrik Nánási. She then returned to the role of Salome at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and Cio-Cio San at the Royal Swedish Opera. In concert, she performed as part of the Aids-Stiftung Gala at the Staatsoper Berlin, and as Marie in Drei Bruchstücke aus Wozzeck at the Teatro del Maggio and the Elbphilharmonie. At the Wiener Staatsoper, Asmik performs the title role in Manon Lescaut.

She is the official ambassador for the Rimantas Kaukenas Charity.[13]

Asmik Grigorian is the daughter of the Armenian tenor Gegham Grigoryan (1951–2016) and the Lithuanian soprano Irena Milkevičiūtė (b. 1947), LMTA professor.

From 2000 to 2007 she was married to the opera soloist Giedrius Žalys (b. 1969) (in 2002 she gave birth to a son). In July 2015, she married a Russian theater director Vasily Barkhatov (b. 1983) and gave birth to a daughter (b. 2016).[14]

Her brother, Vartan Grigorian, is a conductor.[15]

• Ópera XXI: Female Opera Singer of the Year (2022) [22]
• Best female singer in International Opera Awards (2019)[23]
• Order for Merits to Lithuania, Knight's Cross (2018)

• With Dmitri Hvorostovsky: Dmitri Hvorostovsky Sings of War, Peace, Love and Sorrow, as duet partner in War and Peace by Sergey Prokofiev and The Demon by Anton Rubinstein. Delos International, 2016
• Rachmaninoff: Dissonance, Asmik Grigorian & Lukas Geniusas, Alpha Classics, March 25, 2022

• 2019: Strauss - Salome (Julian Pregardien, Asmik Grigorian, John Daszak, Romeo Castellucci, Anna Maria Chiuri, Gabor Bretz)

• 2021: Strauss - Elektra (Ausrine Stundyte, Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, Asmik Grigorian, Michael Laurenz, Franz Welser-Möst)
• 2021: Dvořák - Rusalka (Asmik Grigorian, Eric Cutler, Karita Mattila, Katarina Dalayman, Ivor Bolton)

Lithuanian opera

• Official website