Antonida is an Oxford-based barrister and soprano currently studying Vocal & Operatic Performance with Cathy Benson at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, supported by a conservatoire scholarship. She was the 2018 winner of the Roy Harvey Memorial Cup for best opera or oratorio performance at the Oxford Music Festival, and at the RBC she was the winner of the Edward Brookes Lieder Prize and 2nd place in the Delius Society Prize 2023 and was finalist in the Edward Brookes Lieder Prize, Ashleyan Opera Prize, and Mario Lanza Opera Prize in 2022.
Antonida most recently played the title role in Orchestra Vox's "Ophelia: In Her Own Words", which staged the character's scenes from the original Shakespeare together with Prokofiev's Ophelia songs. Other recent roles include the title character in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel (Orchestra Vox/The People's Opera, 2023), the two roles of the Forester's Wife and the Owl in Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, 2023), the cover of Sarah Roberts in Stephen McNeff's Banished (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, 2022), and Mary Cui's A Feast in Time of Plague (Oxford Opera Society, 2021). In opera scenes, Antonida has performed the roles of Agathe (Der Freischütz), Elsa (Lohengrin), Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), Wellgunde (Das Rheingold), Suor Angelica, and will next be performing the role of Iolanta.
In concert, Antonida regularly appears around Oxford, London, and Birmingham, and her most recent engagement was to open Aida Garifullina's recital at the Oxford Union. In addition, she has been a soloist for the Cherubim Trust's Purcell (2022) and Handel (2023) weekends and has also appeared as a soloist in oratorio with Oxford University Chorus, NewChoir Oxford, and St Hilda's College, Oxford.
In addition, Antonida has also sung in chorus with the Oxford Opera Company (2018), New Chamber Opera (2017), Cavatina Opera (2018), and VOPERA’s award-winning virtual production of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (2020). Her solo experience with oratorio includes Schubert’s Das Paradies und die Peri (2019, Oxford University Chorus), Vivaldi’s Gloria (2017, NewChoir), and in Haydn’s Nelson Mass (2017), Mozart’s Coronation Mass (2015), Handel’s The Messiah (2013) and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater (2011) with the choir of St Hilda’s College.
As President of the Oxford Opera Society, Antonida has been producer on the Society’s 2019 production of Gluck’s Orfeo, 2021 filmed production of Cui's A Feast in Time of Plague, and its 2018, 2020, and 2024 productions of Opera Scenes Concerts. As part of her desire to broaden access to opera, she created the Pub Opera Nights 2022 in partnership with The Oxford Blue, and the inaugural Puccini Concert & Talk at the New Theatre, Oxford.
Originally from St Petersburg, Antonida has a personal interest in Russian music, and has worked as a Russian coach and prepared translations and transliterations for opera. She has given recitals of Russian romances and recorded a selection of early 20th century revolutionary Russian songs.
Antonida is keen to collaborate on all sorts of projects, and has, in addition to formal concert experience, performed at weddings, deputised for evensongs, made demo recordings for new operatic and song compositions, as well as voiceovers for podcasts and title voiceovers for a student radio station.