Margarita Elia / soprano

Moscow-born soprano Margarita Elia studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Debrecen, Hungary. Upon her graduation, she received a MMus degree in Vocal Performance and Education. Margarita has performed with a number of renowned orchestras, such as the Bulgarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Kibbutz Orchestra and New Haifa Symphony Orchestra in Israel, the Moscow Virtuosi under Vladimir Spivakov as well as the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. She has also participated as a soloist in festivals of chamber music in P. R. Korea, Hungary and Cyprus and has given numerous concerts in Italy, Israel, P.R. Korea, Romania, Hungary, Cyprus, the U.K. and Puerto Rico.

Her performances embrace music of a great variety of styles, including opera, art song and oratorio, ranging from medieval to contemporary. A finalist at La Voce International Lied Competition 2005 in Bayreuth, Germany, Margarita Elia has been the soloist in world premiere performances of contemporary works. As a soloist, she has repeatedly appeared in recordings for the radio and television in Cyprus, Greece and Hungary. Her operatic appearances include the role of the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Magic Flute, the roles of the Fire and Nightingale in Ravel’s opera L’ enfant et les sortileges and the title role of Donizetti’s Caterina Cornaro.

Performances include the leading solo part in the world premiere of Aphroditi Kyprogenia by Cypriot composer Fedros Kavallaris in Paris, recitals in Moscow and Madeira, the world premiere of Requiem Domesticus by Carlos Alberto Vasquez in Puerto Rico, solo appearances in the First Pharos International Contemporary Music Festival as well as a guest appearance at the Alfred Schnittke International Symposium in London, U.K. where she performed several world premieres of works by the composer. More recently, she took part in the 6th LMS Chamber Music Festival and the Avaton Contemporary Music Festival in several premieres.

Margarita Elia is a full time voice instructor at the European University Cyprus.