Born in 1974, Ildikó Cserna started her education at Városmajor High School and the Béla Bartók Conservatory (under voice teacher Brigitta Kovács). At the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, she first earned a degree in voice and art pedagogy as a student of Márta Ónody's and then went on to take a degree in operatic voice in 2000 after studying under Dénes Gulyás and Ádám Medveczky in the course headed by Balázs Kovalik. She has won prizes at several singing competitions as well as the Annie Fischer Scholarship, and has released six CDs so far under the Hungaroton label. She has made many international appearances, including at festivals in Austria, Lithuania, Italy, the Netherlands, Armenia, Belgium, Germany and the Canary Islands (in Las Palmas and Tenerife), as well as in the United States. At Finland's Savonlinna Opera Festival in July 2011, she gave several highly acclaimed performances as Queen Elisabeth in Verdi's Don Carlo. She has served as the vocal coach in the Liszt Academy's folk music department since autumn 2012. Her 2015 portrayal of the Honeycoat Fairy in Zsófia Tallér's opera Leander and Linseed at the Erkel Theatre was praised by the critics. Since autumn 2015 she has been employed in the drama department of Budapest's Vienna Conservatory helping acting students develop their vocal skills and artistic expressiveness. She won the Artisjus Award and the Margit Szilvássy Commemorative Plaque in 1999 and the Ferenc Liszt Award in 2005.
