Ioanna Avraam is a Cypriot ballet dancer, and a first solo dancer at the Vienna State Ballet since 2022. She is one of eight female first solo dancers at the Vienna State Ballet, its most senior dancers. [1]
Avraam was born in Nicosia, Cyprus. [2] [3] She lived with her grandparents until aged three, as her parents were studying overseas. [3] They then moved to Limassol, as her father was a refugee from Famagusta. [3] She trained at the Nadina Loizidou Ballet School in Limassol, and at the Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung/Ballet Academy in Munich. [2]
She started her career with Cyprus' Diastasis Ballet and the Bavarian State Ballet. [2] In 2008, she joined the Vienna State Opera and Volksoper Ballet. [2] In 2010, she was promoted to semi-soloist in 2014 to soloist. [2] In September 2022, she was appointed a first solo dancer by the company's ballet director Martin Schläpfer. [4]
In October 2024, Avraam will be awarded a "Special Recognition" by the jury of the Helena Vaz da Silva European Award for Raising Public Awareness on Europe's Cultural Heritage. [5]
Edita Gruberová was a Slovak coloratura soprano. She made her stage debut in Bratislava in 1968 as Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, and successfully auditioned at the Vienna State Opera the following year, which became her base. She received international recognition for roles such as Mozart's Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss.
Olga Neuwirth is an Austrian contemporary classical composer, visual artist and author. She is famed especially for her operas and music theater works, many of which have treated sociopolitical themes. She has emphasized an open-ended, interdisciplinary approach in her work, collaborating frequently with Elfriede Jelinek, exploiting live electronics, and incorporating video. In her opera Lost Highway, she adapted David Lynch's surrealist film with the same name. She has also written music for historic and contemporary films. Luigi Nono has inspired her both musically and politically.
Anne Teresa, Baroness De Keersmaeker is a contemporary dance choreographer. The dance company constructed around her, Rosas, was in residence at La Monnaie in Brussels from 1992 to 2007.
Grete Wiesenthal was an Austrian dancer, actor, choreographer, and dance teacher. She transformed the Viennese Waltz from a staple of the ballroom into a wildly ecstatic dance. She was trained at the Vienna Court Opera, but left to develop her own more expressive approach, creating ballets to music by Franz Schreker, Clemens von Franckenstein, and Franz Salmhofer, as well as dancing in her own style to the waltzes of Johann Strauss II. She is considered a leading figure in modern dance in Austria.
Igor Kolb is a principal dancer of Mariinsky Ballet. He graduated Byelorussia State Ballet School, and joined Mariinsky ballet in 1996. He became a soloist in 1998, and promoted to principal dancer in 2003. He made his debut at the Rome Opera in Rudolf Nureyev's version of Sleeping Beauty in 2002, and in 2006 he made his debut at the Wiener Staatsoper in Rudolf Nureyev's version of Swan Lake. Igor Kolb left Mariinsky Ballet in 2022 for heading the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus (Minsk) ballet in position of Principal Ballet Master.
Lilian Harmel was an Austrian dancer, choreographer and pedagogue.
Natalia Petrovna Osipova is a Russian ballerina, currently a principal ballerina with The Royal Ballet in London.
Valentina Nafornița is a Moldovan operatic soprano. She is best known for her interpretation of Mozart and bel canto repertoire.
Olga Esina is a Russian ballerina who was educated at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2010, she became a First Solo Dancer at the Vienna State Ballet.
Vienna State Ballet, Wiener Staatsballett, is considered one of the world's top ballet companies. It was formerly named the Vienna State Opera Ballet as it is based at the Vienna State Opera building. In 2005 the ballets of the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Volksoper were merged under the name Das Ballett der Wiener Staatsoper und Volksoper and Gyula Harangozo became the artistic director. On 1 September 2010, a further name change was accompanied by a change in leadership. Manuel Legris, former principal dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet, succeeded as the artistic director.
Eno Peçi is an Albanian male ballet dancer, living in Austria. Born in Tirana, Albania, he was educated at the Tirana Academy of Ballet and the Ballet School of the Vienna State Opera. He joined the Vienna State Opera in 2000, becoming a Demi-soloist in 2003. He is recognized as the first Albanian dancer to perform live in concert in Vienna. In 2009 he was appointed soloist of the Bellett der Wiener Staatsoper und Volksoper. He began his career as a choreographer in 2009.
Oksana Yaroslavivna Lyniv is a Ukrainian conductor, since 2022 music director of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. She founded the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in 2016. She conducted on 25 July 2021 the opening of the Bayreuth Festival, a new production of Der fliegende Holländer, as the first female conductor at the festival.
Asmik Grigorian is a Lithuanian operatic soprano of Armenian ancestry.
Leo Stopfer is an Austrian artist who is widely acclaimed as the "Painter of the Ballet-Stars." He is especially identified with the subject of ballet, and more than half of his works depict famous dancers of world fame.
Natascha Mair is an Austrian ballet dancer. She joined the Vienna State Ballet in 2012, and was promoted to first soloist in 2018. In 2020, she joined the English National Ballet as a principal dancer.
Nikisha Fogo is a Swedish ballet dancer who is currently a principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet and previously a principal at the Vienna State Ballet.
Liselotte Maikl was an Austrian soprano and ballet dancer.
Helena Vaz da Silva was one of the first and most influential cultural journalists in Portugal. She was a member of the European Parliament between 1994 and 1999.
Miriam Albano is an Italian opera singer (soprano). She has won numerous international competitions and was a soloist at the Vienna State Opera until 2019.
Johanna Wallroth is a Swedish operatic soprano who made an international career in opera and concert.