Ileana Cotrubas was born in Romania and made her first public appearance as soloist of the Children’s Chorus of the Romanian Radio. She studied at the Bucarest Coservatory and the Vienna Academy of Music, and she made her debut as Yniold at the “Opera Romana” in Bucharest. After winning the International Singing Competition in s’Hertogensbosch and the Munich Radio Competition, she was engaged for 3 years at the Frankfurt Opera. International engagements followed soon: the festivals in Salzburg, Glyndebourne and Florence, and the two opera houses, where she appeared regularly every season, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and the Wiener Staatsoper. Miss Cotrubas sang at all the major opera houses as the Paris Opera, La Scala Milano, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, in San Francisco, and at the Metropolitan Opera New York, where she appeared as Mimi, Gilda, Violetta, Ilia and Tatyana. In Germany her performances of La Traviata at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich with Carlos Kleiber have been much acclaimed and also been recorded for Deutsche Grammophon. At the Salzburg Festival she sang Pamina (1978-84), Konstanze (1980, 81) and recitals and concerts with orchestra. Her main repertoire included the roles of Susanna, Zerlina, Pamina, Amina, Norina, Adina, Gilda, Violetta, Mimi, Micaela, Antonia, Manon (Massenet), Melisande, Tatyana, Sophie; in a later part of her career she sang also Rosalinde, Elisabetta (Don Carlo), Nedda, Margueritte, Amelia (Simone Boccanegra), Alice, Desdemona and Charlotte (Werther). In addition to opera, Miss Cotrubas appeared in concerts with the leading European orchestras; she gave Lieder recitals in the Musikverein Wien, the Royal Opera House Garden, La Scala Milano, Carnegie Hall New York, in Paris, Munich, Salzburg, Zurich, Geneve etc. and concert tours took her to Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Rio de Jainerio, the Macao Festival and Taiwan. Her recordings include Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, L’elisir d’amore, Alzira, La Traviata, Rigoletto, Les Pecheurs de Perles, Carmen, Manon, Louise, and a recital disc with arias by Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, Charpentier and Puccini. In 1990 Miss Cotrubas retired from stage to devote her time to education and guidance of young talented singers. 1998 her book “Opernwahrheiten” (“Truth on Opera”) was published, in which she stands up against the manipulation of opera productions by stage directors who don’t respect the intentions of the composer.