Andrei Bondarenko, Baritone

The young Ukrainian baritone, Andrei Bondarenko, has been a member of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Singers since 2007.  Despite his young age he has already won prizes in many international competitions including the 2011 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World song prize, the 2006 International Rimsky-Korsakov competition and the first prize at the international vocal competition “Art in the 21st Century” in Vorzel (Ukraine).

This season Andrei will give his role debuts as Billy in Billy Budd at the Mikhailovsky Theatre, St. Petersburg and as Eugene Onegin at the Bolshoi Theatre Minsk. He will also sing the count in Le Nozze di Figaro at Perm Opera which will get recorded by the Sony Classics label. He will sing Yeletzky in Pique Dame with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy and record Rachmaninov songs together with Iain Burnside at the Queens Hall in Edinburgh on the Delphian Label. Andrei will continue his relationship with Gary Matthewman after their successful collaboration at Carnegie Hall, giving recitals in England and Italy. Future seasons include the title role in Onegin at Glyndebourne Festival Opera as well as Cologne Opera. 

Andrei made his North American debut singing a solo recital in Carnegie Hall, New York (Weill Hall), he had his role debut as Pelléas in Pelléas et Mélisande at the Mariinsky Theatre under the baton of Valery Gergiev, his Glyndebourne touring Opera debut as Malatesta in Don Pasquale (conducted by Enrique Mazzola) and will returned in summer 2012 to the Glyndebourne Festival Opera to sing his first Marcello in la Bohème (conducted by Kirill Karabits).  He sang in a new theatre/opera project by Michael Sturminger “The Giacomo Variations” alongside John Malkovich and has toured with Larissa Gergieva in France, Switzerland, England and Scotland. Andrei took part in the Salzburg Festival Young Singers Project, where he worked intensively with Michael Schade and received Masterclasses with Christa Ludwig, Marjana Lipovšek and Thomas Quasthoff. In 2010 he returned to the Festival to take part in the production of Gounod Roméo et Juliette under the baton of Yannik Nézet-Seguin. This year the Salzburg Festival invited him to sing the emperor in Le rossignol with Ivor Bolton and the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg.