A recent graduate of the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Romanian born Simona Mihai has been praised by critics as being “a knockout, pure , in full command of the taxing vocal line”, “remarkably expressive” and “acting with consummate artistry” (The Stage, Metro and Sunday Telegraph). 

In 2009, she made her Royal Opera House debut and has since sung there under Sir Charles Mackerras, Antonio Pappano, Ingo Metzmacher and Robin Ticciati.

Her operatic engagements have included leading roles for Glyndebourne Festival, Glyndebourne on tour, BBC Proms, Teatro Massimo, Palermo, Teatro Municipal de Santiago, and Academia di Santa Caecilia, Rome.

In the 2010-11 season, Simona’s engagements included her Austrian debut singing Adina L’elisir d’Amore at Salzburg’s Landestheatre with the Mozarteum Orchestra, Pousette Manon with the Royal Opera House on tour in Japan and Mendelssohn Symphony No.2 with the Camerata Salzburg. Future engagements include her debut in La Scala Milan Manon and a new production of Peter Grimes and Musetta La Bohème at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London.

A committed and enthusiastic recitalist Simona has performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen; Queen Elizabeth Hall, Buxton Opera House; Edinburgh International Festival; Brighton Festival and Bath Festival, Birmingham Symphony Hall, the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool, Fairfield Halls, Wigmore Hall, St John’s Smith Square and Cadogan Hall and in Italy, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Poland, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and the US.

Ms Mihai trained in the UK where she attended the European Opera Centre, the Royal College of Music, London and the Benjamin Britten International Opera School as a Queen Mother Scholar. She was awarded the Rosemary Bugden Junior Fellowship and the David Bowerman Junior Fellowship at the RCM and is a Samling Foundation Scholar

Simona is the recipient of numerous singing prizes including first prize at the Takasaky International Competition in Japan (1996); the Kathleen Ferrier Bursary for Young Singers; the National Mozart Competition; the Miriam Licette Prize and the Maggie Teyte Scholarship (in both 2003 and 2004); the Joaninha Trust Award and the Clonter Opera Prize.