Dazzling Russian coloratura soprano Albina Shagimuratova first came to international attention as the winner of the Gold Medal in the 2007 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. She is a recent graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio and made her European operatic debut as Mozart's Queen of the Night at the Salzburg Festival in August 2008 under the baton of Riccardo Muti.

Ms. Shagimuratova joined the Houston Grand Opera Studio in 2006 and has sung both the Queen of the Night and Musetta with the company to great acclaim. Other roles in Houston have included the Sandman and Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel in a production by celebrated puppeteer Basil Twist.

During the 2008/9 season, Ms. Shagimuratova sings the Queen of the Night for her debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well for her debut at Los Angeles Opera in the beloved Peter Hall/Gerald Scarfe production. She makes her role and company debut as Gilda in Rigoletto at Palm Beach Opera, which she reprises later in the season for her return to Houston Grand Opera.

Future seasons will see Ms. Shagimuratova making debuts at the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, and the Canadian Opera Company.

In 2004, Ms. Shagimuratova became a member of the K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theater. She has sung the title role of La Traviata there as well as the Swan in The Tale of Tsar Sultan and the Queen of Shemakha in The Golden Cockerel of Rimsky-Korsakov. Her extensive orchestral experience includes being a soloist in the works of Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini and Fauré. In 2005, she sang Mozart's Requiem in the opening concert of the famed December Nights of Sviatoslav Richter in Moscow. She has also sung the Beethoven Ninth Symphony and Mahler Eighth Symphony with the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra there under Vladimir Fedoseyev.

Albina Shagimuratova was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She began her musical studies as a pianist and attended the Music College Auhadeez in Kazan and later Kazan State University where she received a degree in vocal and opera performance. Her later studies were at the Moscow Conservatory with esteemed soprano Galina Pisarenko. Graduating with honors, she completed her doctoral work there in 2007.