CantoFest 2026

CAREER

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 distinctively delivered some of her signature roles, opening the doors to some of the greatest stages worldwide.

Less than a year after winning the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, Ms. Makarina made her stage debut at 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, Ms. Makarina sang at The Metropolitan Opera for 18 seasons and was a regular presence on other major stages of the city, including New York City Opera, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall. She now has her own studio in Manhattan, where she passionately shares her knowledge with new generations of opera singers.

REPERTOIRE

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 , Desdemona

Donizetti's Lucia Ashton, Adina, Lucrezia Borgia, Anna Bolena

Bellini`s Amina, Elvira, Norma,  Imogene

Puccini`s Mimì,  Liù

Rossini`s Albina

Massnet`s Manon , Thaïs

 Mayerbeer`s Marguerite de Valois

 Halevy`s Eudoxie

 Bizet`s Micaela

Offenbach`s Olympia and Antonia.

She has also made highly acclaimed performances:

Mozart`s heroines: Pamina, Vittelia, Donna Elvira, Donna Anna, Ilia, Elletra, Konstanze

R.Korsakov`s Marfa with Olga Borodina

Glinka`s Lyudmila

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

Respighi`s Princess.

HOUSES AND FESTIVALS

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.

CONCERT CAREER AND COLLABORATIONS

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 :

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

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.

DISCOGRAPHY AND VIDEOGRAPHY

Ms. Makarina has recorded three solo albums with Romeo Records: 

Italian Opera Arias,

 Olga Makarina Sings Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, 

Mozart: Arias; Exsultate, Jubilate. 

Her performances:

•Rossini`s La donna dell lago  and  R. Strauss`s Capriccio from The Met are available as on demand HD videos.

EDUCATION, AWARDS AND TEACHING STYLE

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 Portugal, Israel, Romania, Russia, Serbia, New York and Japan, and she 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.