Mezzo-soprano Maria Kataeva successfully completed her degree in vocal studies at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg in 2012. In addition to singing, she studied piano and choral conducting there. While still a student, she became a member of the opera studio at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, where she later sang various leading parts.

Maria Kataeva has won numerous competitions. In 2019 she was awarded both the Audience Prize and the Second Prize of the Jury of Experts at the Operalia. In 2016 she won the 1st prize in the overall category and 3rd prize in the German fach of the singing competition Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and in 2014 she was awardee of the 3rd prize at the Paris Opera Competition.

In the 2022/23 season Maria Kataeva has been invited to the Hamburg State Opera, where she will sing the title role in the new production of Bizet’s Carmen. In February, Maria will make her debut at the Mozartwoche in Salzburg.

In the 2021/22 season, Maria Kataeva appeared at Deutsche Oper am Rhein as Sextus in a new production of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito and as Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. She also made a very acclaimed debut at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, Italy, where she performed as Isollier in the opera Le Comte Ory.

Maria Kataeva has made guest appearances at theaters such as the Bolshoi Theatre (Moscow), the Semper Opera (Dresden), the Grand Théâtre de Genève (Geneva), the Théâtre du Capitole Touluse (Toulouse), Opera Vlaanderen Antwerp/Gent (Geneva), Edmonton Opera Canada and others.

Maria Kataeva’s repertoire includes such roles as Carmen, Cenerentola, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Olga in Eugen Onegin, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Idamante in Idomeneo, Nicklausse in Les contes d’Hoffmann, composer in Ariadne auf Naxos and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Ruggero in Alcina, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Polina in Pique Dame, Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and Ronja in Arnecke’s Ronja, the robber’s daughter.