Countertenor Yuriy
Mynenko

In the 2026/2027 season, countertenor Yuriy Mynenko sings the title role in Handel’s Ottone, re di Germania at Oper Frankfurt, Ratmir in Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila at the Hamburg State Opera, and Goffredo in Handel’s Rinaldo at the Theater an der Wien.

Born in Radomyshl, Ukraine, Yuriy Mynenko studied singing under Yuriy Teterya at the Antonina Nezhdanova State Music Academy in Odessa, initially as a baritone before transitioning to countertenor. During his studies, he won multiple vocal competitions and became the first Ukrainian singer and the first countertenor to reach the finals of the prestigious BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition.

His international career has taken him to major opera houses and concert venues, including the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the National Theatre Mannheim, the Cologne Opera, Stuttgart Opera, Staatstheater Kassel, Theater an der Wien, Opéra de Lausanne, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Opéra Royal de Versailles, Opéra national de Lorraine Nancy, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Kennedy Center in Washington, Paris Opera Bastille, and the Santa Fe Opera, among others.

Mynenko has worked with many renowned conductors, such as Kazem Abdullah, Teodor Currentzis, Alan Curtis, Marc-André Dalbavie, Paul Daniel, Dan Ettinger, Diego Fasolis, Grant Gershon, Reinhard Goebel, Simon Halsey, Roman Kofman, Andris Nelsons, Christopher Moulds, Vasily Petrenko, George Petrou, Mikhail Jurowski, and Vladimir Jurowski.

His operatic repertoire spans Baroque, Classical, and Romantic works. Highlights include Xbalanque in The Indian Queen by Purcell, Corrado in Griselda by Vivaldi, David in Saul by Handel, Artaserse and Megabise in Artaserse by Vinci, Annio and Sesto in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, and Ratmir in Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmila.

In the 2016/2017 season, he sang the title role in Handel’s Rinaldo at the Theater Chemnitz, appeared in Pergolesi’s Adriano in Siria at the Theater an der Wien, and performed Lel in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Snegurochka at the Opéra de Paris. In the 2017/2018 season, he performed at the Teatro Liceu in Barcelona, the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, the Theater an der Wien, and the Opéra de Lausanne, making his debut as Sesto. In January 2018, he stepped in as Romeo in Zingarelli’s Giulietta e Romeo in a last-minute performance in Rome, organized by the Theater an der Wien.

Other notable performances include Orlando in Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso in Ferrara, Modena, and at the Bayreuth Festival; the title role in Cavalli’s Eliogabalo at the Zurich Opera; and Ottone in Handel’s Ottone at the Karlsruhe Festival—all of which received enthusiastic acclaim from both audiences and critics.

Yuriy Mynenko also featured in the legendary and multi-award-winning CD and DVD production of Artaserse, recorded with five countertenors and released by Virgin Classics.