Yuriy Mynenko was born in Radomyshl in the Ukraine and studied singing with Yuriy Teterya at the Antonina Nezhdanova National Academy of Music in Odessa, initially as a baritone, later as a countertenor. Even as a student, he was already winning major singing competitions. He was the first Ukrainian singer and the first countertenor to reach the final of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. Since then his career has taken him to leading opera houses and concert halls in Europe and the USA. Among the venues where he has sung are the Moscow Bolshoi, the Mannheim National Theatre, the Cologne Opera, the Kassel State Theatre, the Chemnitz Theatre, the Theater an der Wien, the Opéra de Lausanne, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Opéra Royal in Versailles, the Opéra national de Lorraine in Nancy, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Kennedy Center in Washington and the Santa Fe Opera.
Among the eminent conductors with whom he has worked are Kazem Abdullah, Teodor Currentzis, Alan Curtis, Marc-André Dalbavie, Paul Daniel, Dan Ettinger, Diego Fasolis, Grant Gershon, Reinhard Goebel, Simon Halsey, Michail Jurowski, Vladimir Jurowski, Roman Kofman, Andris Nelsons, Vasily Petrenko and George Petrou. His repertoire includes numerous Baroque operas as well as Classical and Romantic works. Notable roles are Xbalanque in Purcell’s The Indian Queen, Corrado in Vivaldi’s Griselda, Handel’s David (Saul), Rinaldo and Scipione, both the title role and Megabise in Vinci’s Artaserse, the title role in Pergolesi’s Adriano in Siria, Annio in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito and Ratmir in Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila.
Yuriy Mynenko made his Paris Opéra debut in April 2017 as Lel in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden. In January 2018 he took over at short notice as Romeo in Zingarelli’s Giulietta e Romeo at the Theater an der Wien and in March 2018 made his acclaimed role debut as Sesto (La clemenza di Tito) in Lausanne, followed by his debut at the Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona as the Angel in Rubinstein’s The Demon. He also appeared as Adelberto in Handel’s Ottone in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow.
Yuriy Mynenko was one of five countertenors in the acclaimed production of Vinci’s Artaserse, DVD and CD recordings of which won several international prizes.
In 2020 he made his first guest appearance at the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival as Otone in the concert performance of Gismondo, re di Polonia. In 2023 he appeared as Aci in Porpora’s Polifemo in Wiesbaden and as Vitige in Handel’s Flavio in Bayreuth, both under the direction of Max Emanuel Cencic.
