Andrei Bondarenko
Baritone
Ukrainian Andrei Bondarenko is one of the most exciting young baritones of today, having worked extensively with Valery Gergiev, Ivor Bolton, Yannik Nézet-Séguin, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vasily Petrenko, Enrique Mazzola, Kirill Karabits, Andrew Litton, Teodor Currentzis, Emanuelle Villaume, Michael Sturminger, Omer Meir Wellber and Mikhail Tatarnikov.
Recent engagements include: a new production of La Bohème and Don Pasquale at Opernhaus Zürich, the title roles in Eugene Onegin and Billy Budd at Oper Köln, Eugene Onegin at Vilnius City Opera and Elisir d’amore at Steinbruch St Margarethen. Pelléas at Scottish Opera, Eugene Onegin Deutsche Oper Berlin and L’elisir d’amore at Bayerische Staatsoper Munich. In concert he sang his first Mahler 2nd Symphony in Kiev and embarked on a recital tour of the US and Europe with Gary Matthewman, where venues included Wigmore Hall London, Carnegie Hall New York and Konzerthaus Vienna.
Other highlights include Eugene Onegin Oper Köln, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Glyndebourne Festival Opera Sao Paolo, Dallas Opera and the Mariinsky Theatre, Andrei in War and Peace in new production for the Mariinsky Theater, his solo recital debut at the Wigmore Hall accompanied by Gary Matthewman, Il Conte Le nozze di Figaro at the Teatro Real Madrid and Opera Australia, Robert Iolanta with the Gürzenich Orchestra and Dallas Opera, Marcello La Bohème at Bayerische Staatsoper Munich and the Opernhaus Zürich, and Rachmaninov’s Spring Cantata with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Despite his youth, he has already appeared at Salzburg Festival, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Glyndebourne Festival and Touring Opera, Teatro Colon, Cologne Opera, Sydney Opera House, Perm State Opera and Mariinsky Theatre. He also gave his role debut as Billy in Billy Budd in the first ever production in Russia (Mikhailovsky Theatre, St. Petersburg).
He sang in the theatre/opera project by “The Giacomo Variations” alongside John Malkovich and has toured extensively with Larissa Gergieva. Andrei took part in the Salzburg Festival Young Singers Project, following which he returned to the Festival for Gounod Roméo et Juliette with Yannik Nézet-Seguin and Le rossignol with Ivor Bolton.
Andrei has recorded Don Giovanni (title role) and Le nozze di Figaro (Conte) for Sony Classics, Rachmaninov songs with Iain Burnside at the Queens Hall in Edinburgh for Delphian Records as well as the highly acclaimed Lieutenant Kijé Suite on the BIS label.
Andrei won the 2011 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition Song Prize, was awarded a diploma at the Ukrainian competition “New Ukrainian Voices” and won first prize at the international vocal competition “Art in the 21st Century” in Vorzel (Ukraine). He was a prize-winner at the 2006 International Rimsky-Korsakov vocal competition in St. Petersburg, the 2008 all-Russian Nadezhda Obukhova Young Vocalists´ Festival and Competition and the 7th International Stanisław Moniuszko Vocal Competition in 2010.
Andrei was born in 1987 in Kamenez-Podolsky, Ukraine. He has been is soloist of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Singers for 8 years. In 2003 he entered the vocal department of the National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music in Kiev, Ukraine and in 2004 was admitted to the vocal department of the Kiev Conservatory. Andrei was then a soloist of the Ukraine National Philharmonic Society.