Eszter SÜMEGI obtained her diploma in opera singing from the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy in 1993 and has been one of the Hungarian State Opera’s leading soloists ever since, with more than thirty leading roles to her name in her career thus far. Her international career also commenced in 1993, when she sang the role of Ines in Donizetti's La favorite under the professional guidance of Luciano Pavarotti. In 2012, she became one of the first to be awarded the title of Chamber Singer of the Hungarian State Opera, which she won again in 2015. She has been a guest on many of the world’s opera stages, having sung at Berlin’s Komische Oper, as well as in Salzburg, Bregenz, Reykjavik, Toronto, Karlsruhe and Bellinzona, working together with some of the world’s leading singers, conductors and directors, including Christoph Eschenbach and Robert Wilson. One of the most sought-after concert singers, she has performed together with José Cura, Giuseppe Giacomini and László Polgár from a repertoire that includes works by Rossini, Brahms, Mozart and Verdi. Her Tosca has thrilled audiences in Vienna, Frankfurt and Toronto, and elsewhere, as has her Aida in Pittsburgh, Barcelona and Beijing. Over the course of her career, she has sung all of the main Puccini roles, and in more recent years has discovered the great roles of Strauss (the title role in Arabella, the Empress from Die Frau ohne Schatten and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier) and Wagner (Senta in Der fliegende Holländer, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser and Elsa in Lohengrin, etc.), which have met with unanimous acclaim from both the audience and within the profession. As Sulamith (in Károly Goldmark's The Queen of Sheba), she gave a portrayal that was a revelation, and her world-class performance in Die Frau ohne Schatten was hailed in the music press. In 2018, for her work she received the Kossuth Prize, the highest acknowledgement by the Hungarian State for work in the field of Hungarian culture.