Yolanda Hernández

Soprano. Founder of the National Lyric Theater of Cuba.

She was born in La Habana, Cuba. She currently resides in Germany for several decades and has performed regularly in recitals before very diverse audiences (Former USSR, Germany, Finland, France and Poland) and in several concerts of the National Symphony Orchestra, during her frequent visits to her homeland.

At a very young age she studied music at the García Caturla Conservatory and developed her wide soprano voice with Nadja Aladjen at the Opera School of the National Council of Culture.

She obtained first place in the first edition of the UNEAC singing competition in 1970 and the following year she made her debut as the leading figure, in the role of Leonora, in Il trovatore, by Verdi.

Between 1972 and 1975 she studied at the P. I. Chaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow to expand her knowledge. Upon her return she performed in the titles Tosca, Il tabarro, Cecilia Valdés.

In the late 1960s she founded the National Lyric Theater, where she played the leading role in the presentation of the opera Halka. She recorded for EGREM an anthology LP with the lieder by Gisela Hernández (1973), accompanied by pianist Emma Norka Ruiz. In 1974 she received the Grand Prize with Special Mention for interpretive quality at the Tchaikovsky Competition.

During her career she has had many other leading roles in various operas at the Bolshoi Theater, the Warsaw Opera, the Lyon Opera, the Nantes Opera and the Tokyo Opera; she has also given recitals in numerous countries, achieving accolades on the most demanding stages of world lyric art such as the Tchaikovsky Grand Hall in Moscow, the UNESCO headquarters, the Casa de las Américas in Spain, the Brazilian Embassy in Paris, the Gran Teatro de Gijón, the Museum of Instruments in Munich, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Church of Our Lady of Peace in Macon, the churches of the Holy Trinity and San Vicente de Paul in Paris and others.

Yolanda Hernández studied singing, piano and percussion in La Habana, perfected herself at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and in Poland. She was awarded the Grand Prize with Special Mention for interpretive quality at the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1974.

Yolanda is the founder of the National Lyric Theater of Cuba where she was in charge of the leading role in the presentation of the opera Halka. She has had many other leading roles in various operas at the Bolshoi Theater, the Warsaw Opera, the Lyon Opera, the Nantes Opera and the Tokyo Opera; she has also given recitals in numerous countries, achieving accolades on the most demanding stages of world lyric art such as the Tchaikovsky Grand Hall in Moscow, the UNESCO headquarters, the Casa de las Américas in Spain, the Brazilian Embassy in Paris, the Gran Teatro de Gijón, the Museum of Instruments in Munich, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Church of Our Lady of Peace in Macon, the churches of the Holy Trinity and San Vicente de Paul in Paris and others.