After obtaining her diploma from the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in 1984 as a student of Mária Ónodi, Ildikó Komlósi went on to Milan and London to continue her studies with Vera Rózsa. In that same year, she also signed with the Opera, remaining a member until 1994, and a guest artist ever since then. Her international career started in 1986, when she won the Pavarotti Singing Competition and got the chance to debut alongside Luciano Pavarotti in Verdi's Requiem. She is a recurring guest at New York's Metropolitan Opera, the Wiener Staatsoper, Milan's La Scala, The Arena di Verona, Semperoper Dresden and London's Royal Opera House. Considered one of the world's most accomplished interpreters of the role of Judith in Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle, she was named a Chamber Singer of the Hungarian State Opera in the 2015/2016 season. Received the Kossuth Prize in 2016.

Principal roles: Carmen, Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana), Charlotte (Massenet: Werther), Sextus (La clemenza di Tito), Laura (Ponchielli: La Gioconda), Herodias (Salome), Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier), the composer (Ariadne auf Naxos), Eboli (Don Carlos), Amneris (Aida), Fricka (Die Walküre).