Born in Russia, Polina holds a Master’s degree in Economics and worked as a Product Designer in startups for over a decade. During her university studies, she worked with visual arts and later opened her gallery of contemporary art and design. She wrote art criticism for the Russian Art Newspaper, Hypertext, and Sobaka magazine.

While staying in Lithuania, she worked as a press strategist for the Lithuanian National Opera. Polina also wrote editorial materials and criticism for online and print magazines, such as Bravissimo, Nwind, and Nemunas.

Already in her early reviews for OperaWire, Polina pointed out common problems of the industry, which she started to investigate and analyze in her later editorial materials. Today, Polina runs OperaWire’s Editorial Section.

During the pandemic, she actively covered and analyzed labor rights violations of musicians and stage workers in Europe and America, with a particular focus on the workers’ unions’ negotiations with theaters in the United States and the battle with the MET Opera.

Now, Polina lives with her family in Italy and along with writing, studies Russian literature, and restores antique jewelry for the historical Florentine store Occasioni Musicali.