Mezzo-soprano NADEZHDA VASSILIEVA (Mamka) has been a diploma recipient at the International Rimsky-Korsakov Opera Singers' Competition (1994, St. Petersburg). Born in Kazakhstan, she studied with the conducting and choral faculty of the Leningrad Institute of Culture and graduated from the Leningrad State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in 1984 (solo singing class of Professor Barinova). She was a soloist with the Sverdlovsk Lunacharsky Opera and Ballet Theater from 1984-1986, where she performed as the Angel (The Demon), Marina Mnishek (Boris Godunov), Olga (Eugene Onegin), Siebel (Faust), and Lyubasha (The Tsar's Bride). She performed in concerts in St. Petersburg from 1986-1993, and carried out an assistantship with Professor Kovaleva at the St. Petersburg Conservatory from 1991-1993. She became a soloist with the Mariinsky Theater in 1993, and has toured with the Mariinsky Opera Company and independently to Germany (Hamburg Opera), Italy, Japan, the USA, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the UK. She has toured the UK as a guest soloist with the Kazan Theater of Opera and Ballet, performing the role of Amneris (Aida).

Vassilieva's repertoire includes Ratmir (Ruslan and Lyudmila), the Hostess of the Inn and Nurse (Boris Godunov), Agafia Tikhonovna (The Marriage), Marthe (Iolanta), the Sister-in-Law (May Night), Solokha (Christmas Eve), Nezhata (Sadko), Petrovna (The Tsar's Bride), Babarikha (The Tale of Tsar Saltan), Kashcheyevna (Kashchei the Immortal), Alkonost (The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia), Death (The Nightingale), Smeraldina (The Love for Three Oranges), Fortune-Teller (The Fiery Angel), Duenna (Betrothal in a Monastery), Sonetka and the Woman Convict (Katerina Ismailova), the Snow Queen, Grandmother (The Story of Kay and Gerda), Berta (Il barbiere di Siviglia), and Siegrune (Die Walküre).

08/07