Julia Mikhaylovna Lezhneva (born 5 December 1989 in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia) is a Russian soprano specializing in the coloratura repertoire of the 18th and early 19th centuries. She studied at the Moscow Conservatory Academic Music College before training from 2008 at the Cardiff International Academy of Voice under Dennis O’Neill, and in 2009 became the youngest-ever winner of the Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition. Her London debut, at age 20, came at the 2010 Classical Brit Awards, where she was introduced by her mentor Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

Lezhneva has built an acclaimed discography for Naïve and Decca centered on Handel, Rossini, and Mozart, and her 2013 duet album of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with countertenor Philippe Jaroussky won the International Classical Music Award. Celebrated for combining pinpoint coloratura agility with an unusually pure, luminous tone, she has appeared at the Salzburg Festival, the Concertgebouw, and the Bolshoi Theatre, and remains one of the leading interpreters of Baroque and early Classical vocal repertoire on the international stage.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Lezhneva