A concert and chamber singer (soprano), laureate of international competitions, and Professor in the Solo Singing Department of the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow.
Ekaterina Starodubrovskaya’s entire life has been closely connected with the Gnesin Academy: in 1993 she graduated with honours from the Vocal Faculty in the class of Natalia D. Shpiller (soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre, Professor), with chamber singing under Professor N. N. Delitsiyeva, and in 1998 she completed an assistant traineeship in the class of Professor Zara A. Dolukhanova.
Since 2000 she has taught in the Solo Singing Department at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music.
Ekaterina V. Starodubrovskaya has served on the juries of 78 international and national competitions in Russia, Italy, Portugal, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Finland. She has also taught at the KBS Media Conservatory in Seoul (South Korea), the Summer Creative School in Tolyatti, and the international «Lire» courses
She maintains an active concert career in Russia and abroad, appearing to great acclaim in Germany, Austria, Finland, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, and Poland, both in solo recitals and with chamber orchestras and folk‑instrument ensembles.
She has prepared 23 solo programmes; for example, in 2000 she and her brother, pianist Alexey Starodubrovsky, presented a cycle of ten recitals entitled «Musicians of the 21st Century» at the Tsaritsyno Opera House.
Starodubrovskaya collaborates closely with contemporary composers and has given the first performances of many of their works and vocal cycles, including Vera Astrova’s mono‑operas «The Woman in the Mirror» and «Narcissus and Echo»; Nikolai Peiko’s cycle «People, Earth, and Sky»; Marina Chistova’s «White Stone»; her father Valery Starodubrovsky’s «Dotted Lines of Destiny»; Viktor Platonov’s «Lithuanian Triptych»; Vladimir Kachesov’s «The Tower of the Yellow Heron»; and works by contemporary Lithuanian composers. Many of these pieces have been recorded for Russian radio and television.
A Moscow television channel has made a music film about her entitled «Enlightenment».
In recent years she has frequently appeared in recital with the distinguished pianist Alexandra Žvirblytė, Professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, giving concerts in Vilnius and Druskininkai (Lithuania), Warsaw (Poland), and Brest (Belarus).
She has also taken part in festivals such as the «January Music Evenings» in Brest (Belarus), the M. K. Čiurlionis Festival in Palanga (Lithuania), the «Wawer Music Festival» (Poland), and «Stars of Russia and European Countries» (Russia).
At the Gnesin Academy she lectures on vocal methodology, diction (orthoepy) in singing, and phoniatrics for students on the two‑year professional retraining programme. She has created nine multimedia presentations for her own in‑service training courses for teachers in children’s art and music schools and in secondary and higher education (Gnesin Academy Continuing Professional Development Centre).
Each year Starodubrovskaya gives numerous masterclasses and seminars in Russia, Lithuania, Finland, and Italy, and participates in international conferences in Russia and abroad. Thirty students have graduated from her class, many of whom now sing successfully in theatres in Russia and other countries and teach voice in higher and secondary institutions.
She has trained 48 laureates of Russian and international competitions.
Together with her students she regularly takes part in charity concerts and creative projects in Russia, organising and performing in cycles of themed programmes.
Ekaterina V. Starodubrovskaya serves as an independent expert for the Moscow City Expert Council (Vocal Methodology Centre of Moscow).
She has won the Grand Prix at international vocal competitions in Italy (2005), Russia (2013), Poland (2014), and Finland (2014).
For many years of successful artistic, teaching, and charitable work she received in April 2014 the honorary public award «Enlightenment Devotee» medal, commemorating the 300th anniversary of Mikhail Lomonosov, and in October 2014 a Letter of Appreciation from Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky.
