Alexey Kudrya

Alexey Kudrya (born 1982) is a rising operatic lyric tenor star from Russia. According to Neue Stimmen, Kudrya grew up in a very musical family: his father, Vladimir Leonidovich Kudrya, is a professor for music and his mother teaches the flute. Kudrya was taught by his father at the Russian Academy of Music in Moscow and graduated in 2004 as flautist and conductor.

He began his musical career playing flute. As a flute player he was laureate of several internationals contests. His voice career began with the international competition Romance 2003 in Moscow, where he won the first prize and the special award Potential of the Nation. He still plays flute on stage, for example, when he performs Prince Tamino in The Magic Flute opera by Mozart.

Noting on his tenor style, Benjamin Ivry in The New York Sun commented: "Russia's Alexey Kudrya, who has won medals in several vocal competitions, has a refined lyric voice ideal for recordings and smaller opera houses."

His first engagements in his native Russia took him to the Stanislavsky Theatre in Moscow, also known as Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre, as Guest Opera Soloist, where he sang Prince Gvidon in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore and Ferrando in Così fan tutte. At the Stanislavsky Theatre he also studied the parts of Alfredo Germont (La Traviata) and Lensky (Eugene Onegin).

In 2006, he also sang under the baton of Teodor Currentzis in concert performances in Moscow and Novosibirsk to mark the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth.

CommandOpera says that "Alexey Kudrya is the most exciting Russian Tenor on the planet today: his vocal instrument positively ‘weeps’ in the most Italianate fashion."

In October 2005, Kudrya became a laureate of the prestigious international competition Neue Stimmen (2nd prize). In the final concert of the competition on 22 October 2005, he sang the arias "Kuda, kuda" from Eugene Onegin by Peter Tschaikowsky and "Lunge da lei" from La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi.

In 2005-2006, he continued to improve his vocal skills in Galina Vishnevskaya's Opera Centre.

In 2006, he debuted in Europe singing Lensky's aria from Eugene Onegin at the International Opera Singers Competition of Galina Vishnevskaya (2nd prize). He was described as the audience favorite, whose tenor is in the lyrical mold of past Russians such as Ivan Kozlovsky and Sergei Lemeshev, fluent and expressive, but with a welcome element of "vitality". Aside from singing, he also accompanied his stylish vocal performance of "Wie stark ist nicht dein Zauberton" from Die Zauberflöte on the flute.

In 2007, he won the Iris Adami Corradetti International Competition of Opera Singing.

In 2009, he won first prize in Plácido Domingo’s world famous Operalia Competition held in Hungary, and as well as the Special Prize offered by the Hungarian State Opera. In the same competition, the first prize award for soprano was Julia Novikova, also from Russia.

In March–April 2009, he played Ferrando in Così fan tutte at Vlaamse Opera in Belgium; and a Dramma Giocoso in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) based on a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte.

In the 2010/11 season, he debuted at the Vienna State opera, singing Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia in December/January. This role also mark his debut at the MET in September/October 2011.