Born in 1979, Russian mezzo-soprano, Ekaterina Gubanova trained as a Choir Master at the College of the Moscow Conservatoire. She then entered the conservatoire’s opera department where she studied for two years with Larissa Nikitina and Vera Kudriavsteva. In 2000, she was invited to join the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki where she has since studied with the renowned vocal teacher Liisa Linko-Malmio.

Whilst a student, Miss Gubanova appeared with the Helsinki State Orchestra singing the Erste Magd, Elektra and then in the autumn of 2001 she sang Marina Mnishek, Boris Godounov with the Estonian National Opera where returned in February 2003 for further performances of this role.

In September 2002 Miss Gubanova became the youngest member of the Vilar Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and that autumn she sang her first role there, Flora in Verdi’s La Traviata. Future roles in the 2002/03 season at Covent Garden included the Third Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and the second maid in Strauss’s Elektra. Cover engagements for this same season include Suzuki, Madama Butterfly, Margaret in Berg’s Wozzeck, Frederica in Verdi’s Luisa Miller and the Witch from Dvorak’s Rusalka.

For the 2003/04 season at Covent Garden she sang performances as Suzuki, Madama Butterfly, the Hostess in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godounov; Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor and Bianca Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. She also covered Marina in Boris Godounov, Guilietta in Les Contes d’Hoffmann and the Dryad in Ariadne auf Naxos.

In February 2003 she opened the Prokofiev season with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at the Bridgewater Hall Manchester as soloist in Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky Cantata, conducted by Sir Edward Downes. August 2003 saw her invited for this same work, Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky Canata, at the BBC Proms with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniele Gatti and in 2004 she sang the work with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2005, she has sung Das Lied von der Erde with the Sinfonia Varsovia and the RTE National Symphony Orchestra. She will also work with them on Lili Boulanger’s Faust et Hélène after doing Sibelius’s Kullervo with the Finnish Radio Symphony.

Following her time at the Young Artists Programme at Covent Garden, in 2005, aged 25, Ms Gubanova has sung the Third Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Emilia in Verdi’s Otello and Brangäne in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at Opéra National de Paris. The critical response to her debut in the role of Brangane has been outstanding and she returns to the same opera house to sing Suzuki, Madama Butterfly and Nicklausse, The Tales of Hoffmann.  2005 saw Ms Gubanova at the Theater Saint Gallen in Switzerland where she sang the role of Adalgisa in Bellini’s Norma.  In summer 2005,  she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival as the Third Lady in a new production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, role that she will sing again next summer. In 2006, she will also be Flosshilde in the new production of Das Rheingold at the Festival d’Aix en Provence.

Her future projects include Verdi’s Requiem in Tokyo under the direction of Maestro Muti, Mahler’s second symphony under the direction of Maestro Gergiev as part of a tour to Israel with the Kirov.