As the great Giuseppe di Stefano already recognized during Ms. Makarina`s student years at the Mannes School of Music – bel canto repertoire became her trademark and the space in which she has distinctively delivered some of her signature roles and have opened her doors to some of the greatest stages worldwide.Less than a year after winning the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, Ms. Makarina has made her stage debut in New York City opera in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor. These successful performances marked the beginning of her long and fruitful worldwide career, with her base in New York City, where she sang at The Metropolitan Opera for 18 seasons and was regular on other stages of the city - the New York City Opera, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and where she now has her own studio on Manhattan, where she passionately shares her knowledge with the new generations of opera singers.
Ms. Makarina`s portfolio includes impressive number of title and leading roles in some of the most beloved and performed operas of the Italian and French repertoire – Verdi`s Violetta, Gilda and Desdemona; Donizetti's Lucia Ashton, Adina, Lucrezia Borgia and Anna Bolena; Bellini`s Amina, Elvira, Norma and Imogene; Puccini`s Mimì and Liù; Rossini`s Albina; Massnet`s Manon and Thaïs, Mayerbeer`s Marguerite de Valois, Halevy`s Eudoxie, Bizet`s Micaela, Offenbach`s Olympia and Antonia. She has also made highly acclaimed performances of Mozart`s heroines (Pamina, Vittelia, Donna Elvira, Donna Anna, Ilia, Elletra, Konstanze), R.Korsakov`s Marfa (with Olga Borodina) and Glinka`s Lyudmila; and some of the most demanding roles of contemporary repertoire, written for coloratura soprano: Stravinsky's The Nightingale, Strauss`s Zerbinetta and Italian singer, Ravel`s The Fire and Respighi`s Princess.
Outside New York, she performed on stages all over the world, including the Canadian Opera, Teatro Liceu in Barcelona, Las Palmas Opera, Opera di Roma, Teatro Regio in Rome, Opera La Coruna, Mariinsky Theater, Teatro de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Kirov Opera, National Theater in Prague, Slovak National Opera, Opera Pacific, Palm Beach Opera and Warsaw’s Grand Theater.Ms. Makarina performed in highly acclaimed festivals among which are the Spoleto festival, the Cesky Krumlov Festival with the Brno Philharmonic that was televised in Eurovision, Macau Festival, Rome’s Euro Festival Mediterraneo where she sang a concert of bel canto arias and scenes with Eve Queler and the Malta Symphony at the site of Hadrian’s Villa which was telecast in Italy, and Bard Festival.
Ms. Makarina made her stage debut singing Mozart’s C minor mass with Yehudi Menuhin. She has since performed with many top conductors such as James Levine, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Nello Santi and Bruno Campanella. Her concert appearances include numerous recitals opera houses and concert halls around the world and performances of soprano solo parts in Verdi`s Requiem, Orf`s Carmina Burana and Catuli Carmina, Mahler’s 2nd and 4th Symphony, Mozart`s Exsultate Jubilate and Coronation mass, Bach`s Cantata 51 for soprano solo, Mendelsons` Elias, Handle`s Messiah, List`s Missa Solemnis and Brahms` German Requiem. She sang the world premiere of Puccini Songs, a new ballet by choreographer, Nilas Martins based on nine songs by Puccini and repeated this work with Ballet San Jose.
Ms. Makarina has recorded three solo albums with Romeo Records: Italian Opera Arias, Olga Makarina Sings Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, and Mozart: Arias; Exsultate, Jubilate. Her performances in Rossini`s La donna dell lago and R. Strauss`s Capriccio from The Met are available as on demand HD videos.
Aside from giving private lessons in her studio on on Manhattan, Ms. Makarina travels all over the world to give master classes. She has taught in Israel, Russia, New York and Japan, and is a Management Board Member at The Elena Obraztsova International Academy of Music in St. Petersburg.
A graduate of the Mannes School of Music, Ms Makarina also has her Masters in piano and voice from the St Petersburg Conservatory, where she also studied Choral conducting, all of which gave her thorough and multi angled perspective on opera and classical music in general, that is incorporated in the way she perceives music and teaches it. She has won a number of important prizes and awards including the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, the Musicians Emergency Fund and the Liederkranz Competition.
Throughout her career she had fantastic mentors in the opera legends such as Marylin Horne and Renata Scotto (with whom she prepared the most of her signature bel canto roles) and the conductor Henry Lewis, that she often talks about as one of the most important figures in forming her artistic personality and the way she thinks about music.
All of this collected knowledge, Ms. Makarina aims to transfer to her students in a holistic manner - knowledge about singing technique (that she considers to be her legacy), traditions, styles, languages, and mindset and etiquette of being a an musician, opera singer and scholar, combined with personal experiences and on and offstage tips and tricks she collected throughout the career. Her approach is individual and tailored to each student's current level and needs, with a longtime goal to make each singer self-aware and independant when it comes to using their own instrument.
