Great female voices of the world, on the stage of the Enescu Festival
This year's edition of the George Enescu International Festival will bring to the stage some of the most acclaimed sopranos and mezzo-sopranos of the moment: from Asmik Grigorian, Sonya Yoncheva, Kristine Opolais, Magdalena Kožená, Julia Lezhneva or Sarah Aristidou, to Jennifer Holloway, Aylin Perez, Elsa Dreisig , Rachel Willis-S ørensen, Ruxandra Donose, Judit Kutasi or Ramona Zaharia.
The concerts will take place between August 24 and September 21, 2025, at the Palace Hall, the Romanian Athenaeum, the Radio Hall, the Auditorium Hall of the MNAR, MINA - Museum of Immersive New Art and the Odeon Theater, and the programs include both famous works from symphonic literature and contemporary creations.
With an unmistakable timbre originality and an impressive expressive force, the famous sopranos and mezzo-sopranos present at the current edition of the Enescu Festival will offer the audience reference interpretations of repertoires in which they have demonstrated their mastery: from the velvety finesse and refinement necessary for baroque music to the vibrant power of dramatic voices, every creative era will find its authenticity in the voices of these great artists.
The great soprano Asmik Grigorian will be present on the stage of the Romanian Athenaeum on Sunday, August 31, 2025, from 10:30 PM, with a recital featuring works by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninov, George Enescu and Maurice Ravel, accompanied by pianist Lukas Geniušas.
Asmik Grigorian has established herself with her captivating voice , being applauded for the intensity of her performances and her ability to bring complex characters to life. With impeccable vocal technique and an electrifying stage presence, Asmik Grigorian is considered one of the most important sopranos of the moment. Her intense and profound interpretations have transformed her into a reference name on the world 's great lyrical stages , being appreciated by critics and audiences alike.
Her exceptional talent has been rewarded with numerous awards, including the Golden Stage Cross in Lithuania, "Best Female Vocalist" (2019) and "Special Jury Prize " (2024) – at the Austrian Musical Theater Awards, "Opera Performer of the Year" (2022) – awarded by the Ópera XXI Association, "Singer of the Year" (2023) – at the Opus Klassik Awards, etc.
Her international career took off with the resounding success of her title role in Madama Butterfly. at the Royal Swedish Opera, from where she continued to conquer the world's great stages. One of her most acclaimed roles is Salome , from Richard Strauss's opera of the same name, which she performed at the Salzburg Festival, a moment described by the Financial Times as "a landmark performance, eclipsing all that has come before". Her portfolio also includes memorable performances in roles such as Rusalka at the Royal Opera, Jenufa at the Vienna State Opera and Tatiana in "Eugene Onegin" on the stage of La Scala.
Asmik Grigorian is a constant presence at the Vienna State Opera, where he has shone in Manon Lescaut , Turandot and Nedda .
His recording career includes albums released on Alpha Classics, including Dissonance – a tribute to Rachmaninoff's romances – and recordings of masterpieces by Shostakovich and Strauss.
Sonya Yoncheva is one of the most acclaimed sopranos of her generation, winner of the 2021 Opus Klassik award for "Singer of the Year" and will perform a concert as part of the Athenaeum Concert Series, accompanied by the National Radio Orchestra - Sunday, September 21, 2025, from 4:30 PM, on the last day of the festival.
Born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, she studied piano and singing at the Geneva Conservatory, and later won prestigious competitions, including Operalia (2010), and received important distinctions, including Officière de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2024) from the French government.
Sonya Yoncheva has performed on the world's greatest stages, including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Teatro alla Scala, Bavarian State Opera, Vienna State Opera and the Paris Opéra, and her repertoire includes Baroque operas, as well as works by Bellini, Cherubini, Giordano, Mascagni, Puccini, Tchaikovsky and Verdi.
In the 2024/25 season, Yoncheva will give recitals in São Paulo and Vienna, performing key roles: Dido ("Dido and Aeneas"), Ciò-Ciò-San ("Madama Butterfly"), Tosca, Iolanta and Maddalena ("Andrea Chénier"). She will also return to the Metropolitan Opera for a major debut as Lisa in "The Queen of Spades".
Throughout her career, Yoncheva She has given legendary performances in Tosca, Norma, Medea , Fedora, La Traviata, Iolanta and La Bohème , earning acclaim on major international stages. The soprano has collaborated with famous artists such as Sting and Elvis Costello, and has recorded successful albums under the Sony Classical label.
The famous soprano Kristine Opolais, known for her brilliant tone and dramatic intensity, will perform the title role in the concert opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk op. 29 by Dmitri Shostakovich on Sunday, September 14, 2025, from 7:00 p.m., at the Palace Hall, together with the National Radio Orchestra and the Academic Radio Choir, under the baton of conductor Giancarlo Guerrero. Kristine Opolais will be joined by bass Andreas Bauer Kanabas (as Boris Izmailov ), tenor Vincent Wolfsteiner ( Zinoviy Izmailov ), tenor Pavel Černoch ( Serghei ), and mezzo-sopranos Maria Barakova ( Sonietka ) and Michelle Trainor ( Aksinia ).
Kristine Opolais has performed on the world's great stages, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, the Royal Opera House, and has collaborated with renowned international conductors: Daniel Barenboim, Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir Simon Rattle, etc.
In the 2024-2025 season, Opolais debuted at the Oper Leipzig, in the role of Katerina Izmailova in " Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk " op. 29 by Dmitri Shostakovich and will return to the role that made her famous, Cio-Cio-San in "Madama Butterfly", at the Tenerife Opera and the Sofia Opera.
Kristine Opolais is acclaimed for her outstanding performances at the Metropolitan Opera, where she made her debut in such celebrated roles as Madama Butterfly and La Bohème . At the Royal Opera House, she is considered one of the leading Puccini sopranos of the moment, performing roles such as Tosca , Manon Lescaut and Madama Butterfly . She also has a special relationship with the Bavarian State Opera, where she made her debut in 2010 as Rusalka and has continued to perform important roles in opera productions.
Opolais has participated in renowned festivals, such as the Salzburg Festival and the BBC Proms, and has performed with famous orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Opolais is also known for her discography, including the DVD "Tosca", performed under the baton of the great conductor Sir Simon Rattle.
The renowned mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená will take the stage of the Palace Hall on Saturday, August 30, 2025, at 7:30 PM, alongside Santa Cecilia National Academy Orchestra. The artist will perform, under the baton of conductor Daniel Harding, the Folk Songs by Luciano Berio, and the evening's program will be completed by the symphonic work Marea L. 109 by Claude Debussy and Sinfonia by Luciano Berio, with the participation of the British vocal ensemble London Voices.
Known for her artistic versatility, Magdalena Kožená He studied singing and piano at the Brno Conservatory and the Academy of Arts in Bratislava. He signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon in 1999 and has received numerous awards, including the Gramophone's Solo Vocal Award, Artist of the Year, Echo Klassik, Record Academy Prize Tokyo and Diapason d'Or. In 2003, the French government awarded him the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contribution to French music.
Since 2017, he has collaborated with the Pentatone label and released six award-winning albums. He has worked with renowned conductors including Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Gustavo Dudamel, Bernard Haitink, Mariss Jansons, Sir Charles Mackerras , Sir Roger Norrington and has given recitals with renowned pianists including Daniel Barenboim, Malcolm Martineau, András Schiff and Mitsuko Uchida.
Throughout her career, Magdalena Kožená A She has deepened her interpretation of historical music through collaborations with period instrument ensembles, such as the Venice Baroque Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Il Giardino Armonico and Le Concert d'Astrée, and has performed as a soloist with the Berlin, Vienna and Czech Philharmonics, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, as well as with the Cleveland, Philadelphia and Royal Concertgebouw orchestras.
In the 2024-2025 season, she returned to the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic under Giovanni Antonini. She performed Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins again with Sir Simon Rattle and toured with La Cetra Barockensemble and Andrea Marcon, with a program dedicated to the role of Alcina , reaching Zurich, Bratislava and the Concertgebouw Bruges. Kožená collaborates with the Kammerakademie Potsdam, Hamburg Symphoniker, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Philharmonie Zuidnederland and Georgisches Kammerorchester Ingolstadt and will conclude the season as Donna Elvira in "Don Giovanni" at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence.
Julia Lezhneva, the famous soprano specializing in baroque music , will give an exceptional recital on Saturday, September 20, 2025, at 10:30 PM, on the stage of the Romanian Athenaeum, as part of the Midnight Concert Series. The artist will be accompanied by Luca Pianca on lute, and the evening's program, presented under the title The Golden Age , will include arias, madrigals and songs for lute and voice, written by Italian composers Giulio Caccini, Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio Vivaldi and Giovanni Paisiello.
With exceptional vocal technique and great interpretative sensitivity, Julia Lezhneva is one of the world's best sopranos specializing in the Baroque repertoire. Her career took off in 2010, when she impressed at the Classical Brit Awards in London. Since then, she has performed with renowned orchestras and conductors, making successful debuts at the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Musikverein Vienna and La Scala in Milan.
She has participated in prestigious festivals such as the Salzburg Festival and the Lucerne Festival, and is a frequent guest of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Bavarian Radio Orchestra. In opera, she has performed roles in Alcina , Agrippina, Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro.
Sarah Aristidou will be present on the stage of the George Enescu International Festival on Tuesday, September 2, 2025, from 5:00 PM, together with the Les Siè cles ensemble and will perform, under the baton of conductor Franck Ollu, Improvisations I and II on verses by St é phane Mallarm é by Pierre Boulez and Three poems on verses by St é phane Mallarm é (arranged by Heinz Holliger) by Claude Debussy. The anniversary program also includes Pavane for a deceased infanta M. 19 by Maurice Ravel and Suite no. 1 in C major for orchestra op. 9 by George Enescu.
French soprano Sarah Aristidou is one of the most innovative artists of her generation, being the first singer to be awarded the Belmont Prize for Contemporary Music, and her solo album, Enigma, was awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.
She impressed audiences as Venus/Gepopo in productions of Ligeti’s “Le Grand Macabre”, marking her debuts at the Vienna State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera. She has sung the role of Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos) at the Vienna State Opera, the Berlin State Opera, the Frankfurt Opera and the Semperoper in Dresden. She was particularly acclaimed for the roles of Shoko (Thomas Larcher’s “The Hunting Rifle”) and Hanako (Toshio Hosokawa’s “Hanjo”) at the Bavarian State Opera.
This season she makes her debut at the Zurich Opera in the world premiere of Beat Furrer's "Das Grosse Feuer" and collaborates with The Cleveland Orchestra for Poulenc's "La Voix Humaine". The artist's schedule also includes recitals at BOZAR, performances with the Ensemble Intercontemporain at the Philharmonie de Paris and concerts with the Orchestre de Paris, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona.
His album AETHER (2021) was nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award; his discography also includes The Living Mountain by Thomas Larcher, S'Agapo with Kaan Bulak and Seme by Max Cooper, presented at the Salzburg Easter Festival in 2024.
Considered one of the most talented lyrical actresses, the well-known soprano Jennifer Holloway will perform the role of Salome in the concert opera Salomè op. 54 by Richard Strauss, together with the WDR Symphony Orchestra of Cologne, under the baton of the renowned conductor Cristian Măcelaru, on Monday, September 1, 2025, from 8:00 PM, at the Sala Palatului. The cast of the opera also includes: baritone Iain Paterson (as John ), mezzo-soprano Tanja Ariane Baumgartner ( Herodiade ), tenors Gerhard Siegel ( Irod ) and Oleksiy Palchykov ( Narraboth ).
Jennifer Holloway captivates audiences with her powerful voice and dramatic expressiveness. She made her debut as Salome at the Dutch National Opera and the Vienna State Opera in 2021-22, and has also performed the roles of Chrysothemis (Elektra) and Elisabeth (Tannhäuser) at the Hamburg State Opera, and collaborated with Palazzetto Bru Zane to rediscover César Franck 's Hulda .
Since 2016, she has focused on the German and French repertoire, performing roles such as Salomee (Dresden, Bilbao, Leipzig), Sieglinde (Hamburg, Vienna, Augsburg) and Greta Graumann (Der Ferne Klang). He also impressed as Octavian (Teatro Colón), Der Komponist (Metropolitan Opera), Donna Elvira (COC Toronto), Adalgisa (English National Opera) and Fulvia (Ezio).
Holloway began her career as a lyric mezzo-soprano and trouser roles at the Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, and Santa Fe Opera. She has worked with renowned conductors including Gustavo Dudamel and Leonard Slatkin. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, she trained in youth programs at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Santa Fe Opera, and Pittsburgh Opera, cementing her reputation as one of the most talented lyrical actresses.
Tickets for the concerts within the George Enescu International Festival can be purchased both online, from the Eventim.ro platform, https://www.cts.eventim.ro/artist/festivalul-george-enescu , and in physical format, from the Carrefour hypermarket network and the Cărturești and Humanitas bookstore chains.
Tickets for the concert at the Palace Hall are divided into six categories: VIP – 280 lei, Category 1 – 250 lei, Category 2 – 200 lei, Category 3 – 150 lei, Category 4 – 120 lei, reduced tickets for pupils/students/pensioners – 90 lei.
Tickets for the concert at the Romanian Athenaeum can be purchased in 3 price categories: Category 1 – 280 lei, Category 2 – 250 lei, discounted tickets for pupils/students/pensioners – 120 lei.
The organizers reserve the right to modify the programs. Please visit the George Enescu International Festival website, http://www.festivalenescu.ro/ , to stay up to date with the latest information.
About the George Enescu International Festival
George Enescu International Festival is one of the largest classical music events in the world, organized since 1958. The 27th edition takes place between August 24 and September 21, 2025 and marks the 70th anniversary of the death of the great Romanian composer and musician, George Enescu. This year's theme is " Anniversaries / Celebrations ", and the program includes over 95 concerts performed by over 4,000 of the world's most renowned artists, which will bring to the fore both Enescu's artistic legacy and his profound impact on universal classical music.
The George Enescu International Festival is an event held under the High Patronage of the President of Romania.
Cultural project funded by the Romanian Government through the Ministry of Culture.
Organizer: ARTEXIM
Co-organizer: ArtProduction Foundation
Co-producers: Romanian Broadcasting Company, Romanian Television Company, Bucharest City Hall through ARCUB – Cultural Center of Bucharest
Main partners: Rompetrol – KMG International, BRD – Groupe Société Générale, JTI – Immersive Experience (innovation partner), Lexus (mobility partner)
Partners: Purcari, One United Properties, Mobexpert, Nazzuro Aqua, L'OR, Althaus, Liliana and Peter Ilica Foundation, Senia Music
Monitoring partner: mediaTRUST
Details for the press:
For additional information, interviews or images from the event, please contact the festival's communications department.
CONTACT:
Bianca Boitan-Rusu
Media Relations Coordinator
ARTEXIM – George Enescu International Festival & Competition