Patrizia Ciofi was born in Tuscany at Casole d’Elsa, studied in Siena with the Polish soprano Anastasia Tomaszewska Scheips and graduated at the Conservatorio Mascagni in Livorno. She attended master-classes at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena and Massa with teachers including Carlo Bergonzi, Shirley Verrett, Alberto Zedda and Giorgio Gualerzi. Winner of various national and international competitions, she made her début in 1989 at the Florence Teatro Comunale in Gino Negri’s Giovanni Sebastiano, followed by participation in Claudio Desderi’s Mozart-Da Ponte Project, singing Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. Her career has continued with leading rôles in major operatic repertoire in most of the main Italian and international theatres, including La Scala in Milan, the Paris Opéra Garnier, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Opéra Bastille and Covent Garden in London. She has collaborated with the most distinguished conductors and in many award-winning recordings, notably as an EMI/Virgin artist from 2002. In 1997 she won the La Siola d’Oro Lina Pagliughi award and in 2000 the Premio Abbiati from Italian reviewers as best singer of the year. In 2005 she won GRAMMY^® Awards for Le nozze di Figaro (Harmonia Mundi) as best opera recording of the year.