Yana Ivanilova graduated from the Theoretical and Vocal Departments of the Gnesins Russian Academy of Music (V. Levko's class) and received a postgraduate education at the Moscow Conservatory (N. Dorliak's class). She trained in Vienna with I. Wamser (Solo Singing) and P. Berne (Musical Stylistics), as well as in Montreal with M. Devalue.

She is the winner of the Schneider-Trnavsky international competition (Slovakia, 1999), and of a special prize for the role of Violetta in Verdi's ‘La Traviata’. Over the years, she has been a soloist at the Moscow Novaya Opera theater, and has collaborated with such ensembles of ancient music as Madrigal, Academy of Ancient Music, and Orfarion. In 2008, she was invited to join the Bolshoi theatre company, with which she successfully toured to London's Covent Garden theatre in 2010.

She has given concerts at the Great Hall of the Conservatory and the International Music House in Moscow, the UNESCO Hall in Paris, the Victoria Hall in Geneva, Westminster Abbey in London, the Millennium theatre in New York, and the Glen Gould Studio in Toronto. She has collaborated with such famous musicians as Y. Svetlanov, V. Fedoseyev, M. Pletnev, A. Boreyko, P. Kogan, V. Spivakov, V. Minin, S. Sondeckis, E. Kolobov, A. Rudin, A. Lyubimov, B. Berezovsky, T.  Grindenko, S. Stadler. She took part in the premieres of works by L. Desyatnikov, and in the world premieres of restored operas by B. Galuppi "The Shepherd King", J. Sarti's "Aeneas and Lazio", Russian premiere of T. Traetta's opera "Antigone".

The singer's repertoire in terms of leading opera and cantata-oratorio arias is quite impressive and covers almost the entire history of world music. Chamber music holds a special place in the singer's work, including monographic programmes from works by Russian and foreign composers.