Dmitry Golovnin graduated from the St Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire in 1997 as a trumpet-player. After graduation, he was a soloist of the trumpet group of the St Petersburg Capella Symphonic Orchestra and a member of the Neva Brass Band. At the age of 27, he took his first singing classes. In 2001–2004, he was a student of the Music and Theatre High School in Hamburg. In 2001, he performed his first role — Boni in Kalman’s Silva. He was a trainee of Virgilijus Noreika, Elena Obraztsova, and other renowned vocalists. In the season 2003/2004, he performed parts of Don José in Bizet’s Carmen (Seville tour of the Lübben Theatre) and Lyonel in Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond by Friedrich von Flotow (production of the Solingen Theatre).
In 2007, he joined the Mikhailovsky Opera. Here he performed Lensky in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Vladimir in Borodin’s Prince Igor, Lykov in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride, and Don José in Carmen (productions by Stanislav Gaudasinsky). In 2016, he performed Albert, Dante, and Paolo in Rachmaninoff’s Miserly Knight and Francesca da Rimini in the concert dedicated to the anniversary of Sergei Leiferkus. With the Mikhailovsky Opera, he has toured to Japan and Estonia.
Nowadays, at the Theatre he performs leading tenor parts in the operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, Richard Wagner, Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Pietro Mascagni, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
