Elbenita Kajtazi

Elbenita Kajtazi grew up in Mitrovica and studied at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Prishtina, working first with the Kosovo Philharmonic before moving to Germany: a young artist at the Deutsche Oper Berlin before joining the Aalto-Musiktheater in Essen, and from the 2018/19 season a member of the Hamburg State Opera. Her repertoire includes Pamina, Susanna, Mimì, Violetta, Liù, Micaëla, Manon, the Contessa, Tatyana — in appearances also at the Bavarian State Opera, English National Opera, the Salzburg Festival and the Vienna State Opera, where she was announced to make her debut as Mimì in the 2024/25 season. She took first prize at the Riccardo Zandonai competition and third prize with the audience prize at the Glyndebourne Opera Cup in 2018. Kosovo named her an honorary ambassador in 2022, and in 2024 she founded a scholarship for Albanian artists studying in Germany. Essen took her into the ensemble in the 2016-17 season, and her Salzburg debut came in 2016 through the Young Singers Project, as Crobyle in Thais. She has also appeared in Dresden and Bordeaux.