Mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk makes her LA Opera debut as Fricka in Die Walkure (May/June 2010).

Born in Minsk, Ekaterina Semenchuk achieved international recognition as a starring member of the Mariinsky Opera. Her repertoire now extends well beyond Russian opera. She is admired as Carmen, acclaimed in Verdi, and is a noted performer of orchestral songs, including those of Berlioz and Mahler.

Her recent operatic performances include the role of Preziosilla La Forza del Destino at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, where she has also sung Pauline in The Queen of Spades, conducted by Daniel Barenboim; Marina in Boris Godunov at the Monte Carlo Opera; Olga in Eugene Onegin with the Aix-en-Provence Festival, conducted by Daniel Harding, and in London; Ascanio in Benvenuto Cellini at the Baden-Baden Festival; and Charlotte in Werther at Graz Opera. She has sung the title role of Carmen at the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Dallas Opera, at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, in Tokyo and Seoul conducted by Myung-whun Chung, and opposite José Cura in Warsaw.

With the Mariinsky Opera under Valery Gergiev, Ekaterina Semenchuk took part in international tours to such theaters as Covent Garden, La Scala, Teatro Real in Madrid, the Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall in New York, Washington Opera, the Salzburg Festival (in concert performances of The Queen of Spades, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and War and Peace), in Israel, China and many European countries. In Saint Petersburg at the Mariinsky Theater she performed in productions of Nabucco (Fenena), Carmen, Les Contes d'Hoffmann (Nicklausse), Dargomizhsky's The Stone Guest (Laura), Rimsky-Korsakov's May Night (Hanna) and many others.

As a recitalist, Ekaterina Semenchuk has made her Wigmore Hall debut and has toured in Europe, North America and Argentina. Her debut recording of Russian songs is available on the Harmonia Mundi label. Her concert performances with orchestra have included Berlioz's Romeo et Juliette with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Carlo Rizzi and La Morte de Cleopatre conducted by Valery Gergiev at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

Recent engagements include the roles of Sonya in War and Peace, Paulina in The Queen of Spades and Olga in Eugene Onegin at the Metropolitan Opera; Olga at the Royal Opera House in London; Mahler's Third Symphony with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop, Mahler's Kindertotenlieder in Japan with the Philharmonia and conductor Eliahu Inbal, Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito and Maddalena in Rigoletto for the Settimane Musicali di Stresa under Gianandrea Noseda. Future appearances include the title role of Carmen in Leipzig, in Warsaw, and in Copenhagen for Royal Danish Opera, a Verdi Requiem with Göteborg Symphony and a return to the Metropolitan Opera as Marina in Boris Godunov.