STEFANIA DOVHAN – soprano
The Ukrainian-American soprano Stefania Dovhan made a highly acclaimed US opera debut singing the title role of Charpentier’s rarely staged Louise at the 2009 Spoleto Festival USA which quickly led to her New York City Opera debut as Donna Anna in their new production of Don Giovanni in the 2009-10 season. She returned to City Opera in 2011 as Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore. In 2012 she returned to the States to sing Marguerite in Faust with Lyric Opera of Baltimore and, with the Staatstheater Karlsruhe, sang a new production of Delius’ A Village Romeo and Juliet. She made a highly successful debut at the Royal Opera Covent Garden as Musetta in La Boheme and debuted earlier with Portland Opera as Donna Anna. Ms Dovhan joins the roster of the Metropolitan Opera covering La Boheme in the 2013-14 season.
Since 2005, Ms. Dovhan has been engaged at the Theater Hagen in Germany where this season she sang Violetta in La Traviata, Nedda in Pagliacci, and Titania and Hippolyta in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen. Previous seasons in Hagen have seen her as Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire, Gilda in Rigoletto , Pamina in Die Zauberfloete, Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare, Musetta in La Boheme and Sister Rose in Dead Man Walking. With the Monschau Open Air Klassik Festival she has sung Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte and Adina in L’Elisir. For her portrayal of Cleopatra she won “Best Emerging Young Female Singer” by the German Critics Association for 2008.
During the 2002/2003 season Ms. Dovhan was engaged at the National Opera of Ukraine where she sang Violetta in Traviata. Since that time, she has lived and worked in Germany beginning with Staatsoper Nuremberg, Staatstheater Mainz and the Saarlandisches Staatstheater before becoming fest in Hagen.
Ever since her move to Germany she has been a recipient of various awards; most recently receiving the Emmerich Smola Prize 2007, one of the highest prizes for young singers in Europe. In 2006 she was the finalist of both the Belvedere International Singing Competition in Vienna, and the International Singing Competition Alexander Girardi. Ms. Dovhan is also a recipient of the 2010 Richard F. Gold Career Grant.
Ms Dovhan is an avid recitalist and has given solo recitals in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Salzburg (Austria), Augsburg, (Germany), and Kiev.
Ms. Dovhan was born in Kiev, Ukraine. At the age of five, Ms Dovhan began taking piano lessons, and sang in the Youth Choir at the Kiev State Conservatory. She studied at The Baltimore School for the Arts where she began her vocal training with Joyce Hubbard. She holds degrees from the University of Maryland College Park and the Augsburg Academy of Music in Germany. During her education in the US she was a recipient of numerous scholarships, a winner of the local and regional National Association of Teachers of Singing competitions, the Gold Medalist in the year 2000 Rosa Ponselle "Young Classical Singers" competition, third prize in the International Vocal Competition for Operatic Artists "Puldin 2002" in Bulgaria and winner of the Leopoldskron Competition in Salzburg.