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The British-Russian soprano, Betty Makharinsky, trained as a violinist before becoming a singer. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music with Honours from the University of Oxford (Exeter College) (2012-2015); her Artist Masters degree (Graduate Certificate) from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London (2016-2017); and on the Barock Vokal programme in Mainz, Germany, as part of which she recently made her solo concert debuts in Germany, performing Spanish songs with guitarist Hans-Werner Huppertz at the Koblenz International Guitar Festival in June 2019, Italian concert arias with a string ensemble at Schloss Engers and the Mainz Landesmuseum in October 2019, and a master-class with Andreas Scholl & Tamar Halperin culminating in a folk-Baroque concert programme.
Betty Makharinsky has held choral scholarships at Exeter College, Oxford and St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, London; she has also sung extensively with professional choirs and consorts, including Oxford Consort of Voices, St Martin’s Voices, Blenheim Singers, The Hanover Band, Locrian Singers, The Arb Ensemble, Oxford Bach Soloists, and Sansara, through which she has toured to the USA, Germany, Italy, Spain, and France.
Betty Makharinsky is based in London working as a recitalist, opera, concert, and consort singer, as well as a producer and project manager. Recent opera credits include Flora in Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw (Dartington International Festival), The Model in WEAR (Tête à Tête Festival), Amor in Orfeo ed Euridice (New Sussex Opera), and covering Zerlina in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni (HeadFirst Productions). Other operatic experience includes Belinda in Dido and Aeneas (at St Martin-in-the-Fields and for Woodhouse Opera), Lucia in Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia (with St Peter’s Opera), Falsche Angelle in The Tsar has his Photograph Taken (at the Bloomsbury Studio), Phillidel/Cupid in King Arthur (in Westminster Abbey), Susanna in W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Vitellia in W.A. Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, Drusilla in The Prophetess, Amahl in Amahl and the Night Visitors (all at Oxford University). Chorus work includes performances with West Green House Opera, Westminster Opera Company, and as part of the Guildhall Consort with the Venice Baroque Orchestra at the Barbican Hall.
Betty Makharinsky greatly enjoys singing contemporary repertoire and returns annually to Oxford University to perform for student composition workshops with pianist Jonathan Powell. She also collaborates with Jonathan on performances and recordings of 20th Century repertoire; they have given recitals together at the Levoča Indian Summer festival in Slovakia, and in the UK at venues including Pushkin House in London, the Jacqueline du Pré Hall in Oxford, and the Brighton Fringe festival. Betty also collaborates with pianist Pavel Timofeyevsky, with whom she has given a number of UK recitals. They are looking forward to making their international recital debut together in 2021 at the Teatro Astoria in Lerici, Italy.
For the 2018 Suoni dal Golfo Festival in Italy, Betty Makharinsky sang the soprano solos of Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle (conductor: Gianluca Marcianò), as well as a recital dedicated to Nadezhda von Meck and a commissioned musical-theatrical piece composed by Anna Segal. For the 2019 Dartington International Festival, she performed the role of Michal in Saul (conductor: Laurence Cummings) and the soprano solos of Tippett’s Five Spirituals and L.v. Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia (conductor Stephen Barlow). Other oratorio experience includes George Frideric Handel’s Messiah, W.A. Mozart's Requiem, Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria, Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, Johannes Brahms’ Requiem, J.S. Bach’s Magnificat (BWV 243) & St. John Passion (BWV 245), and Will Todd’s Mass in Blue, and gala concert appearances includes the venues Cadogan Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, and Queen’s House Greenwich.
Betty Makharinsky is the soprano soloist on the EM Records world premiere recording of C.V. Stanford’s Mass in G, as well as being part of the solo-voice consort for the Pan Classics CD of Pelham Humfrey's Symphony Anthems lead by Edward Higginbottom and accompanied by Instruments of Time and Truth. |
