Mezzo-soprano Мila Shkirtil graduated from the Musical College N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov of St Petersburg and the Rimsky-Korsakov St Petersburg State Conservatory. She made her debut in Vivaldi’s Gloria in 1994 at the St Petersburg Philharmonic Hall.

Since 1997, Shkirtil has appeared in performances at the Opera and Ballet Theatre of the St Petersburg State Conservatory, and made her overseas debut in 2001 in Don Carlo at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, Austria. Shkirtil performs across Russia and Europe, appearing in opera roles, cantatas and oratorios. She has appeared in chamber recitals at prestigious venues in St Petersburg and internationally, in France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Norway, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Brazil, the US and Japan.

Shkirtil has recorded several albums for Delos of the vocal works of Shostakovich and Glinka, and for Northern Flowers songs and vocal cycles by Glazunov, Smirnov, Sviridov and B. Tchaikovsky, Gavrilin and Rubinstein, as well as appearing on three albums for Naxos featuring the works of Kuzmin, Tishchenko and Sviridov.