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KATERINA IKONOMOU
The Soprano Katerina Ikonomou was born in Tashkent
(former USSR) from greek parents. It was in this town
she had her first musical studies, where she graduated from the
conservatory. After her return in Greece, she won the Maria Callas competition
of Athens and she was awarded a scholarship wich allowed her to study during 4 years at the Music Academy of Köln in
Germany, and to attend
master courses in Italy and the USA. She made her opera debut with great success in the role of
Salome by R.Strauss and she was immediately invited to sing this role in many important Opera
houses, like the Zurich Opera, the Opera de
Paris,
the Spoleto festival in Italy and Charleston, and the
Metropolitan Opera of N.York.
For her performance of
Salome at the
Spoleto Festival she was unanimously awarded the
Pegaso D'oro, the italian critics award, formerly won by artists such Luchino Visconti,
Thomas Schippers, Maya Plisetskaya, Ingmar Bergman, Antonio Gades
and others.
Other important highlights in her career are the opening of the
Maggio musicale fiorentino at Florence in 1990 and in 1993 with the operas The Legend of the invisible city of Kitesh by
N.Rimsky Korsakov, and L.Janacek's Jenufa ; the role of
Santuzza in P.Mascagni ' s, Cavalleria
rusticana in the centenary edition of this opera, in 1990 at Livorno, composer's native town, which was recorded on CD;
the world premiere of Medea by Mikis Theodorakis in 1991 at the
Arriaga theater of Bilbao; her debut at the Arena di Verona in 1993
with Cavalleria Rusticana and at the Scala of Milano
in 1994 with S.Prokofiev's Fiery Angel under the conduction of
Riccardo Chailly.
Katerina Ikonomou has sung in many important theaters in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Greece, USA, Brasil, under the conduction of maestros such
Bruno Bartoletti, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly,
Myung Wung Chung, Valery Gergiev, Gustav Kuhn, Kent Nagano, James Levine, Spyros
Argiris, Lukas Karytinos and others. She has worked under the direction of directors such Pier Luigi Pizzi, Liliana Cavani,
Gabriele Lavia, Giancarlo Cobelli, Ulderico Manani, Jorge Lavelli,
Günter Krämer, Pet Halmen, Hiroshi Teshigahara, Spyros Evanghelatos and others.
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