INA KANCHEVA – Soprano
Ina Kancheva is an artist who inspires and touches the audience with her music. A versatile opera singer conveying lightness and gives an expression of surprising ease to her joy of singing. The broad vocal range of her dramatic coloratura soprano is reflected in an extensive repertoire ranging from baroque music through bel canto to the Lied. The virtuosity of her voice makes musical scores acquire a novel sonority and produces unique interpretations.
At the beginning of her career her repertoire is based on the great roles by Verdi, Puccini, Gounod, Bellini and she performed in the 2002 – 2005 season at the Hannover State Opera as Mimì (La Bohème), Gilda (Rigoletto), Violetta Valéry (La Traviata) and Giulietta (I Capuletti e I Montecchi).
From 2006 to 2011 Ina Kancheva was a member of the Stuttgart State Opera ensemble. She excited the audience there in numerous major roles like Micaela (Carmen), La Comtesse Adèle (Le Comte Ory), Violetta Valéry (La Traviata), Lucio Cinna (Lucio Silla) and others. She received invitations from major opera houses and guest performed as Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Contessa d ́Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Doralice (Il Ricco di un giorno), Elisetta (Il matrimonio segreto), Mimì (La Bohème), Giulia (La scala di seta), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Marguerite (Faust), Alice Ford (Falstaff) and made role debuts as Liù (Turandot), Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare), Celia (Lucio Silla), Semiramide (Semiramide), Mathilde (Guillaume Tell), La Contessa di Folleville (Il viaggio a Reims) and La Comtesse de Fourmoutiers (Le Comte Ory).
Ina Kancheva is an exceptionally versatile artist who has worked with renowned orchestras and conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Vladimir Jurowski, Vasily Petrenko, Emil Tabakov, Adrian Leaper, Cornelius Meister, David Parry, Enrique Mazzola, Manfred Honeck, Alberto Zedda, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Alessandro Vitiello, Jiri Belohlavek, Sebastian Rouland, Johannes Harneit, Julia Jones, Marc Piollet, Julian Reynolds, as well as leading baroque interpreters like René Jacobs, Martin Gester, Konrad Junghänel, Ottavio Dantone, Stefano Montanari, Alexis Kossenko and well-known dramaturges and stage directors such as Stanislav Nordey, Albrecht Puhlmann, Sergio Morabito, Gilbert Deflo, Damiano Michieletto, Igor Bauersima, Calixto Bieito, Sebastian Nübling, Karsten Wiegand, Emilio Sagi and Peter Konwitschny.
In addition to her appearances at opera houses like Covent Garden (London), La Scala (Milan), The Royal Danish Opera (Copenhagen), Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia (Valencia), Teatro Filarmonico (Verona), she has been a regular guest at international music festivals, most recently at Festival de musique Baroque d’Ambronay (France), Castell de Peralada Festival (Spain), Landmark Music Festival (USA), Rossini Opera Festival (Italy), Misteria Paschalia Festival (Poland), Festival de Royaumont (France), Ostrava Music Festival (Czech Republic), Beyttedin Festival (Lebanon), Sofia Baroque Arts Festival Luxuria Europae (Bulgaria), Prague Spring International Music Festival (Czech Republic), Festival of Flâneries Musicales de Reims (France).
Ina Kancheva holds numerous prizes and awards, among others from Centre de Perfeccionament Plácido Domingo (Valencia), European Opera Centre (Manchester), Fondazione Arena di Verona (Italy), Fondazione Accademia Musicale Chigiana Siena (Italy), Concurso Internacional de Canto Montserrat Caballé (Andorra / Spain), DEBUT Concerts (Germany), Gian Battista Viotti International Music Competition (Italy), Pancho Vladigerov National Competition (Bulgaria), Bulgarian National Radio‘s «Musician of the Year 2002» classical music – young artists (Bulgaria), Manuel Ausensi International Competition Barcelona (Spain), Premio Spiros Argiris (Italy), Young Music Talents (Bulgaria), As.Li.Co. Associazione Lirica e Concertistica (Italy) and Passau International Singing Competition (Germany).
In addition to her international operatic and concert activity, Ina Kancheva has received important artistic impulses from renowned opera singers of our time such as Krassimira Stoyanova, Anna Tomova-Sintow and Montserrat Caballé and has perfected her musical skills at masterclasses by Raina Kabaiwanska, Renato Bruson, Leo Nucci, Anna-Luisa Chova, Gianluigi Gelmetti and Alessandro Vitiello.
In 2016 she released together with the pianist Ludmil Angelov, a leading Chopin interpreter of our time, her “Pauline Viardot” CD (Toccata Classics), a collection of exquisite musical renditions of classical Russian poetry as well as new arrangements of Chopin ́s mazurkas that she has been performing also at international tours. In previous years further CDs had been released, including songs by Modest Mussorgsky (Nursery), a live recording from the 2012 Gaude Mater Festival and an album of arias by Verdi, Puccini, Bellini, Gounod and Donizetti with the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra directed by Milen Nachev.
Ina Kancheva is deeply involved in the promotion of outstanding young artists. As an artistic director of the Cultural Perspectives Foundation and CULTURAMA Fest, she has been supporting international cultural projects for years by the granting of scholarships. She is also publisher of several children’s books and is committed to the early musical education of young singers.
