LA FOLLE JOURNEE DE VARSOVIE

“Mezzo-soprano Helena Zubanovich`s inward dramatic gesture, her perfect in form interpretation with accurate timbre and great empathy for the Rückert-Mahler Kindertotenlieder budged emotionally the audience”. Freisinger Anzeiger

Polish mezzo-soprano Helena Zubanovich studied at the Academy of Music in Katowice. With a scholarship from the Deutsche Academie, she studied from 1994 to 1997 at the Musikhochschule in Hamburg and took lessons with the famous musicologist and singing teacher Ellio Battaglia in Italy.
Helena Zubanovich has been awarded first prizes at the Antonin Dvorak Singing Competition in Karlovy Vary, the Robert Stolz Competition in Hamburg and at the International Singing Competition in Palermo, as well as a special prize at the Young Talent competition in Helsinki.
Starting her career as a soprano, Helena Zubanovich sang roles like Mimi in la Bohème in Katowice and Hanna Glawari in Die lustige Witwe at the Volkstheater Rostock.
She changed from soprano to mezzo-soprano repertoire in 2003 appearing at Staatstheater of Darmstadt as Fortunata in Bruno Maderna`s Satyricon and in Passau as Eboli in Verdi`s Don Carlos (with conductor Basil Coleman), at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo as Page in Salome under Gabriele Ferro and on European tour as Azucena in Il Trovatore. In 2006, Helena Zubanovicz appeared in Seville as the Gymnasiast and Theatergarderobiere in a Willy Decker production of Berg’s Lulu.
Helena Zubanovich has been a member of the ensemble at the Wiener Volksoper. There, she sang roles such as the Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Baba the Turk in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Manja in Kálmán’s Gräfin Mariza and Mistress Quickly in Falstaff.
In 2007, she was a soloist at the Theater Erfurt, appearing in roles such as Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera, Amneris in Aida and Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana by Mascagni.
Since 2009, she has been heard in Ulm as the witch Ježibaba in Rusalka, Antonia’s Mother in Les contes d’Hoffmann, the title role in Tchaikovsky’s Jeanne d’Arc with conductor Valery Ryfkin, Judith in Bartok's Bluebeard, Fricka in Das Rheingold, Herodias in Salome und Eboli in Don Carlos.
In the grand festival hall of Salzburg, Helena Zubanovich performed Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and was invited again to perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in 2007 with the Junge Münchner Philharmonie under the baton of Mark Mast. She has also appeared as a soloist in Verdi’s Requiem.