Venera Kotlarova

Venera Kotlarova took part in three editions of Raina Kabaivanska's international masterclass between 2011 and 2015, working on repertoire by Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Gounod, Massenet and Puccini. The mezzo-soprano has since sung with the State Opera in Rousse, in Cavalleria rusticana, Rossini's Stabat Mater and Nabucco. Kotlarova graduated from the National Academy of Music in 2012, having already sung the Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro, Azucena in Il trovatore and Fenena in Nabucco while still a student. She held scholarships of the Raina Kabaivanska Fund at New Bulgarian University and of the America for Bulgaria Foundation in 2012 and 2013, and worked in masterclasses at New Bulgarian University and at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. In 2014 she took third prize at the Second International Competition for Young Opera Singers "Elena Nicolai" in Panagyurishte. On 24 June 2016 she was one of the four soloists in Allegri's Miserere and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at Bulgaria Hall, with the New Symphony Orchestra under Petko Dimitrov.