Ярослава Козина

Born in Minsk and sent to France on Galina Vishnevskaya's advice, the mezzo-soprano Kozina graduated with distinction from the Lyon Conservatoire and entered Les Jeunes Voix du Rhin, the studio of the Opéra National du Rhin. The theatre directors' prize at the Belvedere competition in Vienna opened the international career; Opernwelt named her young artist of the year in 2007, and after her Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde the following year the Bayreuth Festival gave her one of its bursaries for young Wagner singers. She sang first at the Rhin and then in the ensemble at Bremen, guesting in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Liège, Bordeaux, Lille, Nice, Strasbourg, Berlin, Freiburg, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Essen, Wiesbaden, Aachen, Seville, Geneva and Paris, with Charlotte, Marthe, Isabella and Carmen recurring in the repertoire. It was as Carmen that she travelled with State Opera Rousse through the Netherlands and Belgium in the autumn of 2011. She later became general director of Mir Opera and has worked as a vocal coach.