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ANNA NETREBKO NAMED “MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR” 2008 BY MUSICAL AMERICA

Anna Netrebko has been named “Musician of the Year 2008” by the editors of the Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts. Only a few short years after her Metropolitan Opera debut in Prokofiev’s War and Peace, the Russian soprano – now an international critical and audience favorite – graces the cover of the 2008 Musical America, the bible of the classical music business.
Ms. Netrebko, who is currently performing Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at the Musikverein in Vienna, commented: “I am honored and humbled to be chosen as Musical America’s ‘Musician of the Year’ for 2008. It is such a great privilege to join the list of amazing artists who have received this award.
On a personal level, this award has a very special meaning to me as the United States has long been an artistic home for me. I spent many wonderful seasons with the San Francisco Opera, beginning there when I was only 24 years old. I have sung many of my roles for the first time with American opera companies, including the Washington National Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and the Opera Company of Philadelphia. Now, of course, the Metropolitan Opera has become an artistic home for me in particular [and I am proud to call myself a New Yorker since I now have an apartment here!].
To be recognized now with such a prestigious award in an artistic environment where standards are of the highest quality allows me a special moment to reflect on the work I have done in America, and reminds me how fortunate I am to be working in this country for many years to come.”
Anna Netrebko will accept the award in a ceremony at the Kaplan Penthouse in Lincoln Center's Rose Building on December 13, 2007.
Anna Netrebko, born in the southern city of Krasnodar, not far from the Black Sea, studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and soon came to the attention of Valery Gergiev, Artistic Director of St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater and Kirov Opera. Maestro Gergiev became her mentor and introduced her to audiences in Russia, Europe and the United States. She made her international breakthrough appearances at the Salzburg Festival, and has sung in most of the world’s best-known opera houses. Netrebko’s being named “Musician of the Year” follows on the heels of several noteworthy successes in the US and abroad. Her latest recording, Duets, with tenor Rolando Villazón, claimed the top spot on the Billboard classical chart shortly after its release in the US; and in Europe Duets set a record for the best debut ever for a classical album, climbing to the top of the pop charts in several countries. Anna Netrebko was also recently named to the TIME 100 list—Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Later this month, Netrebko makes her Deutsche Oper Berlin debut as Violetta Valery in Verdi’s La Traviata – a role that she will reprise at Covent Garden in January. This December she returns to New York for more performances of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at the Metropolitan Opera, including a live high-definition broadcast in movie theaters around the world on December 15. During the remainder of her season Netrebko sings Massenet’s Manon in Vienna; she makes her debut in May at the Opéra national de Paris in Vincenzo Bellini’s version of Romeo and Juliet, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, with Joyce DiDonato as Romeo; and she returns to the Salzburg Festival in summer 2008 to sing Gounod’s Juliette.