Azita Kazem
Dramatic-Lyric Soprano
Biography
Azita Kazem originally trained as an academic linguist, reading Modern & Medieval Languages at Cambridge University. She pursued her vocal studies with Robert Dean and Ian Kennedy from the Guildhall School of Music. She was also taught by the conductor, James Lockhart; Murray Hipkin from English National Opera; and Lillian Watson. She is currently taught by Anne Mason and Steven Maughan (Glyndebourne).
Azita was a semi-finalist in the Montecatini International Opera Competition 2019. She was also a prizewinner in the International Eisteddfod of Music in Wales and performed on S4C Welsh television. She sang in recital until taking roles in opera companies such as Opera South, European Chamber Opera, and Guildford Opera. More recently with the London Sinfonietta, she has recorded works by the contemporary composer, Joseph St. Johanser, including his opera, The Tempest, and as a soloist in his Three Last Songs.
In addition to the major oratorio and recital works, Azita has performed the following roles: Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Mistress Ford (Merry Wives of Windsor), Ariel (The Tempest), Lisa (The Land of Smiles), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Ilia (Idomeneo), Susanna (Figaro), Bess (Porgy and Bess), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Sophie (Werther), Goose (Paul Bunyan); and excerpts from Rusalka (Rusalka), Ellen (Peter Grimes), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Micaela (Carmen), Musetta (La Bohème), the Countess, and Susanna (Marriage of Figaro), and Zerlina (Don Giovanni).