• Recipient of the Audience Award and special Culturarte Prize at the Operalia competition (Guadalajara, Mexico, 2016)
• Prize-winner at the Competizione dell’Opera (Linz, Austria, 2014; 1st prize)
• Prize-winner at the 2nd International Rachmaninoff Vocalists’ Competition (Rostov-on-Don, 2013; 1st prize)
• Prize-winner at the 4th Georgy Sviridov International Chamber Singing Competition (Kursk, 2011; 3rd prize)
• Prize-winner at the Competizione dell’Opera (Linz, Austria, 2014; 1st prize)
• Prize-winner at the 2nd International Rachmaninoff Vocalists’ Competition (Rostov-on-Don, 2013; 1st prize)
• Prize-winner at the 4th Georgy Sviridov International Chamber Singing Competition (Kursk, 2011; 3rd prize)
Elena Stikhina was born in Sverdlovsk Oblast. In 2012 she graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory (class of Larisa Rudakova). Trained at the Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Singing Centre under Makvala Kasrashvili (2012–2014).
Since 2014 she has been a soloist of the State Primorsky Opera and Ballet Theatre (now the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre).
Elena made her Mariinsky Theatre debut as Salome at the premiere of new production in February 2017, immediately thereafter she became a member of the Mariinsky Opera Company.
For the role of Salome she was awarded the Onegin National Opera Award and St Petersburg’s most prestigious theatre prize the Golden Sofit.
Since the Operalia competition in 2016 the singer has been a much sought-after guest performer at opera houses in Europe and the USA. She has made her debuts with the Finnish National Opera and the Opéra national de Paris (Tatiana in Eugene Onegin), Boston Lyric Opera (Tosca in the eponymous opera), the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin (Mimì in La Bohème), the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Leonora in Il trovatore), the Bayerische Staatsoper (Senta in Der fliegende Holländer) and the Metropolitan Opera (Sister Angelica in Suor Angelica) among other famed theatres.
In the summer of 2019 Elena Stikhina made her debut at the Salzburg Festival, singing the title role in Cherubini’s opera Médée. In February 2021 she sang the part of Salome at the Teatro alla Scala.
The singer’s engagements include appearances at the Semperoper Dresden (Leonora in La forza del destino), the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam (Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly), the Opéra national de Paris (La forza del destino and Prince Igor) and the Grand Théâtre de Genève (the title role in Aida).
