Mezzo-soprano Gulnara Mitzanova won degrees in piano and conducting at the Moscow Conservatory, where she started her vocal training with Nina Dorliak, wife of Sviatoslav Richter. Upon coming to the United States, she continued her vocal studies at the Juilliard School and at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.She has taken advantage of many opportunities to acquire new roles and has performed with Brandenburg Opera, Genesis Opera, Opera in the Heights (TX), Liederkranz Opera Theater, Bel Canto at Caramoor, Opera in the Hamptons, Gateway Classcal Music Society and Bel Canto Lyric Opera. Her repertoire includes Carmen, Dorabella, Cherubino, Rosina, Nicklausse, Suzuki, Maddalena, Olga in Eugene Onegin, Pauline/Milovsor in Pique Dame, Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Orlofsky, Hansel, Komponist, Ljubasha in Tzar's Bride, and Konchakovna in Prince Igor.
Ms. Mitzanova has also given numerous recitals and has performed on several occasions at Alice Tully Hall singing Ginastera's Cantes del Tucuman with the Juilliard Chamber Ensemble and the rarely performed transcription for voice and harp of De Falla's Siete canciones populares Espanolas. She made her Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist with the New England Ensemble in Mozart's Solemn Vespers and Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music, she performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with several orchestras including the Riverside Symphonia and the Main Line Symphony Orchestra and she sang a concert with Will Crutchfield at the Bard Music Festival. She has appeared as soloist in oratorios and orchestral concerts, under the batons of Claudio Abbado, Helmuth Rilling, Peter Tiboris and Mariuz Smolij.
"An entertaining and charismatic artist", she has performed at such events as the opening of the Russia exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, the opening of the Russian Film Festival in New York City, and was guest artist for the Russian Consulate, the Japanese Cultural Center, Capistrano Mission in California, National Arts Club and United Nations cultural events in Central America. She has been invited to join concert tours in Croatia, Germany, Austria and Jamaica.
"Her impeccable musicianship, striking appearance" and "an unusually beautiul, power-packed mezzo-soprano voice" "of a wide range" have won her numerous awards including the New York Oratorio Society's Outstanding Vocal Achievement Award, 2001; Liederkranz Foundation Finalist, 2001; Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Finalist, 2000 among others.