Alto Mirjam Kalin, a principal of the SNG Opera in balet Ljubljana (Slovenian National Theatre Opera and Ballet Ljubljana), pursued her study of solo singing under Slovenian prima donna Zlata Ognjenović only after she had finished Pedagogical Gymnasium in Ljubljana. During her studies she regularly performed with various choirs and thus obtained her first opportunities for solo appearances.

Following her successful audition at the SNG Opera in balet Ljubljana (Slovenian National Theatre Opera and Ballet Ljubljana), in 1994, she was engaged for her first role of Governess in The Queen of Spades by P. I. Tchaikovsky. She has been a permanent member of the Ljubljana Opera solo ensemble since 1996. Since then she has created about 45 leading roles, including: Junon (Orpheus in the Underworld), Marcellina (The Marriage of Figaro), Praskowia (The Merry Widow), Grandmother Buryjevka (Jenůfa), Kabanicha (Kat’a Kabanova), Ulrica (A Masked Ball), Madelaine (Andrea Chenier), Martha (Faust),Mother Majda (The Nightingale of Gorenjska), Hedwiga (The Rhine Nixies), Filippyevna (Eugene Onegin), Ježi baba (Rusalka), Jela (Equinox), Dulcinea (Don Quixote), Princess Clarice (The Love for Three Oranges), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Berta (The Barber of Seville), Delilah (Samson and Delilah), Háta (The Bartered Bride), Herodias (Salome), Azucena (Il trovatore) and Federica (Luisa Miller).

She was awarded a Wagner Fund Scholarship as a young and promising singer in 1996 and the Zlata ptica (Golden Bird) Award for her interpretation of Jela in Kozina's Equinox, in 1998. Throughout her career she has remained faithful to concert stages, appearing in almost 70 vocal-instrumental pieces with renowned Slovenian and foreign orchestras.

On her artistic journey as a soloist she has toured around Europe (Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, etc.). She has sung with internationally renowned conductors, such as: Zubin Mehta, Fuat Mansurov, George Pahlivanian, Hartmut Haenchen, Jacek Kaspzyk, Janos Kovacs, Leopold Hager, Theodor Guschlbauer, Anton Nanut, Uroš Lajovic, etc.

Being especially fond of the songs for solo voice (lieder) by domestic and foreign composers, she has so far sung an enviable repertoire of the songs by Beethoven, Brahms, Dvořák, Grieg, Mahler, Alma Mahler, Musorgsky, Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Zemlinsky, Ciglič, Ipavec, Kozina, Kogoj, Krek, Lajovic, Lipovšek and others.

In 2005 she received the Prešeren Fund Award for her masterful interpretations of compositions by Krek, Petrič, Srebotnjak and Vremšak as well as for the Euroradio Mahler Evening, in 2002. In 2011 she received the Smerkolj Award, presented by the Slovenian Chamber Theatre.

In the 2016/2017 SNG Opera in balet season she appeared in the following roles: as mezzo-soprano in the Quartet (EVERGREEN – Is There One Who Would Not Weep), Mother Majda (The Nightingale of Gorenjska), Marcellina (The Marriage of Figaro).

Last updated in October 2018