Born in Belgrade, Snežana Stamenković studied singing with KS Professor Biserka Cvejić at the Belgrade University of Arts where she received the Danica Mastilović award, the “October Award of the City of Belgrade for exceptional artistic achievement", and the Bahrija Nuri-Hadžić (Alban Berg’s first Lulù) award as the most talented singing graduate. She also began her vocal pedagogic career at the Belgrade University of the Arts as an assistant to her teacher Professor Cvejić.
In 1987 she won first prize at the ‘Concours International de Chant Mme. Mady Mesplé’ in Nantes as well as the FIDOF prize for the best Lied and Mozart interpretation. In the same year she made her debut at the Belgrade National Opera as Susanna in ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’. This was followed by engagements in Zagreb as Ilia in the first ever performance in Yugoslavia of Mozart’s ‘Idomeneo’. Further engagements at this time included Susanna in Ljubljana.
After permanent engagements in Trier and Bern, she was engaged at the Leipzig Opera from 1997 where she sang many of her most important operatic roles including Micaëla, Nedda, Mimì, Tatjana, Pamina, Donna Elvira, Contessa (‘Le Nozze di Figaro’) and Marie (‘The Bartered Bride’). She has performed in opera and concert in Zurich, Leipzig, Dortmund, Hannover, Antwerp, Paris, Nantes, Warsaw, Athens, Linz, Innsbruck, Bonn and Belgrade.
She has worked with directors such as Kurt Horres, Alfred Kirschner, Peter Konwitschny, Marius Trelinski, Eike Gramms, Dominik Neuner and Nicolas Brieger, and with conductors such as Ralf Weikert, Hans Wallat, Miguel Gomez-Martinez, Michail Yurowski, Jiri Kout and Lothar Zagrosek.
Since April 2002 Snežana Stamenković is Professor of Voice at the Mannheim State University of Music and Performing Arts where she became head of the vocal department in 2007.
Her students have won first prize at international singing competitions including the ‘Montreal Music Competition’, ‘Queen Sonja International Voice Competition’, 'International Maria Callas Grand Prix’ and 'Debut' International Singing Competition. They have become members of International Opera Studios at theatres including the Metropolitan Opera (Lindemann Young Singers Programm), La Scala di Milano (Academia della Scala di Milano), Zurich Opera, Cologne Opera, Opera Graz, Nationaltheater Mannheim and the Strasbourg Opera.
Graduates of Professor Stamenkovic’s voice class include soloists at renowned opera houses such as Arena die Verona, Bolschoy Theater Moskau, Opera Zürich, National Opera Peking, Opera Graz, Teatro Real Madrid, Teatro Liceo Lissabon, Opera Köln, Bastille Paris, Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, Opera Montreal, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Aalto Theater Essen, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Staatsoper Hamburg as well as many other theaters and concert halls worldwide.
