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About
“One of the fiercest dramatic talents in the field” (The New York Times), Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian’s “versatility is astounding” (The Times) with a “wild voice [that is] rich and dark” (Le Monde). Regularly engaged at the world’s leading opera houses, she has recently performed at the Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro Real Madrid, the Salzburger Festspiele, and Teatro alla Scala. She was a founding member of Vilnius City Opera, has twice been awarded the Golden Stage Cross (the highest award for singers in Lithuania), was named Best Female Lead in 2019 at the Austrian Music Theater Awards, Female Opera Singer of the Year in 2022 by the Ópera XXI Association, and Female Singer of the Year at the Opus Klassik Awards in 2023. In 2024, she received the prestigious Österreichischer Musiktheaterpreis in the "Special Jury Prize" category, an award celebrating exceptional contributions to Austria's opera and theater scene, and was named Opernwelt’s Opera Singer of the Year.
Life and career
Born in 1981 in Vilnius, Asmik Grigorian is the daughter of the Armenian tenor Gegham Grigoryan and the Lithuanian soprano Irena Milkevičiūtė. She studied music at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre graduating with a master's degree in 2006. Grigorian debuted in Lithuania, later performing at the Latvian National Opera and the Mariinsky Theater. She is the founding member of Vilnius City Opera and the recipient of the highest Lithuanian theatre award, the Golden Stage Cross twice, in 2005 and 2010.
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 Nastasha 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.
In May 2016, Grigorian was honored at the International Opera Awards in London as the Best Newcomer ("Young Female Singer"). At the Royal Swedish Opera, she performed in December 2016 at the premiere of the opera Fedora by Umberto Giordano in the title role. 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. Grigorian was praised as a "superb musician, with deep understanding of Bergian vocal style".
Her 2025/26 season begins with a return to Teatro Real Madrid in the role of Desdemona in Otello as well as a return to her acclaimed role in Dmitri Tcherniakov’s production of Salome at the Hamburgische Staatsoper and Senta in Der Fliegende Holländer at Monte-Carlo Opera. Later in the season, her roles include Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Salome and Macbeth at Bayerische Staatsoper, Manon Lescaut at Liceu Barcelona and Tatiana in Eugene Onegin at Metropolitan Opera and Wiener Staatsoper. Asmik reunites with pianist Lukas Geniušas for recitals at Berlin Staatsoper, Megaron Hall Athens, Opernhaus Zurich, Santa Cecilia Rome, Musikverein fur Steiermark in Graz and Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Concert performances include Vier Letzte Lieder with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra as well as Verdi’s Requiem with Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Welser-Most. She also revives her acclaimed theatrical concert Una Diva is Born with pianist and composer Hyung-Ki Joo at the Salzburg Festival, Wiener Staatsoper – this project is a unique project about her life, a story about what brought her to stardom, with operatic arias and songs by Sting, Lady Gaga and more.