‘A Journey’ is Pretty Yende’s debut recording, and each track celebrates a milestone of this extraordinary musical journey.

Born 1985 in a remote town in South Africa, Pretty Yende first got into touch with operatic music aged 16 when she heard the Flower Duet from Delibes’s opera Lakmé on a British Airways commercial. Yende decided at that moment to become an opera singer and has risen to the top of the opera world with unparalleled speed, with competition successes and engagements at the world’s foremost opera houses.

Her success in competitions is incredible, and includes being the first artist in history to win first prize in every category of the International Belvedere Competition in 2009, and in 2011 Yende won first prize in Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition in Moscow, again in all categories.

In 2013 Yende made her Metropolitan Opera New York debut, stepping in at a month’s notice to replace Nino Machaidze opposite star tenor Juan Diego Flórez, and gaining rapturous international acclaim.

Yende has already appeared at opera houses in Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, Barcelona and Hamburg, and has frequently sung at La Scala. Forthcoming seasons will also see her appear at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, the Royal Opera House in London, the Opéra National de Paris.