Monika Evelin Liiv

Monika-Evelin Liiv begun music studies at Tõrva singing studio and continued professional music studies at the Georg Ots Tallinn Music School under the guidance of Tõnu Bachmann. She continued studies at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with professor Mati Palm, graduating in 2007. She has also studied singing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre with Sigutė Stonytė and in 2005, at youth singers’ summer academy at Maria Theatre in Mikkeli. She has also participated in several master courses, among the others with Irina Gavrilovic, Maria Acda, Larissa Gergiyeva, Hartmut Höll, Maria Cleva, Vladimir Atlantov and Jeffrey Goldberg.

Monika-Evelin Liiv was awarded the 3rd prize at Mart Saar Song Contest (2002) and the 2nd Prize at international song contest Studio Bel Canto (2006).

In 2007–2009, Monika-Evelin Liiv participated in young artists’ program of London Royal Opera (Jette Parker Young Artists), which gave her an opportunity to sing several roles at the stage of the London Royal Opera such as: Flora (Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata), Second Dame (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic Flute), Mércèdes (Georges Bizet’s Carmen), Second Maid (Richard Strauss’s Elektra), Ines (Verdi’s Trubadur), Artist (Alban Berg’s Lulu), Jelena Ivanova Popova (William Walton’s The Bear, Linbury Studio Theatre).

Monika-Evelin Liiv has also performed at Estonian National Opera, Finnish National Opera, Israeli Opera and participated in Saaremaa Opera Days, Opéra de Baugé Festival in France and elsewhere. Her repertoire comprises also roles of Cherubino (Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro), Olga (Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin), Polina (Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades), Voice from Above (Richard Wagner’s Parsifal), Servant and Voice of Unborn Children (R. Strauss’s The Woman Without a Shadow), Julius Caesar and Cornelia (Georg Friedrich Händel’s Julius Caesar), Suzuki (Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly), Rinaldo (Händel’s Rinaldo), Amneris (Verdi’s Aida) and Mrs. Herring (Benjamin Britten's Albert Herring).

She has appeared as soloist in large-scale works such as Sergey Prokofiev’s cantata Alexandr Nevsky, Mozart’s Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Krzysztof Penderecki’s oratorio Credo, Michael Haydn’s Requiem, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and sung mezzo part in Manuel de Falla’s ballet El amor burjo(orchestral version). Liiv has performed with orchestras like Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Estonian National Opera, Costa Rica National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Opera House Orchestra, Orchestre de Picardie, Southbank Sinfonia and collaborated with conductors Carlos Spiere, Mark Elder, Philip Hesketh, Carlo Rizzi, Antonio Pappano, John Andrew, Stefano Ranzani, Keri-Lynn Wilson, Daniel Oren, Jan Latham-Koenig, Eri Klas, Arvo Volmer, Andres Mustonen, Steven Moore, Carlos Spierer, Mikko Franck, Andrew Griffiths and others.