Inga Kalna was born in Riga. She has graduated from Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, finishing the Class of Musicology (1994) and Vocal class of Ludmila Ryabova – Brauna, professor of the Department of Vocal Art (1997), as well as the Opera Faculty of the Royal Academy of Music, Great Britain, where she was coached by Joy Mammen (1999). Her vocal mastery was also further facilitated by Irina Gavrilovici in Vienna.

At the beginning of her career Inga Kalna was an opera soloist at Latvian National Opera (1995–1999), later on a soloist at Hamburg State Opera (1999–2007). As a freelancer she has also sung at Paris National Opera, Viennese State Opera, La Scala Theatre in Milan, Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow, Opera of the Netherlands, Flemish Opera, Opera Houses of Tampere, Lausanne, Toulouse, and at the Salzburg Festival.

The wide repertoire of the singer embraces the role of Fiorilla at The Turk in Italy by Gioachino Antonio Rossini, the roles of Pamina and the first lady at The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the role of Donna Anna at Mozart’s Don Juan, the role of Fiordiligi at Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte, Electra at Mozart’s Idomenea, Mimi at La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini, Gilda at  Rigoletto by Giuzeppe Verdi, Desdemona at Verdi’s Othello, Violetta at Verdi’s Traviata, Leonora at Verdi’s Il Trovatore, Adina at L’elisir d’amore by Gaetano Donizetti, Ksenya at Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky, and the title-roles at Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Maria Stuart, Bellini’s Norma, Handel’s Agrippina, Rodelinda and Alcina.

In addition, her concert repertoire includes passions by Johann Sebastian Bach, masses and requiems by Ludwig van Beethoven, Charles Gounod, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johannes Brahms and other composers. She has also performed Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss, and parts in Symphony No 4 by Gustav Mahler.

Inga Kalna has closely cooperated with such conductors as Sir Colin Davis, Marc Jacobs, Marc Minkovski, Rene Jacobs, Alfred Eschwe, Ingo Metzmacher, Stefan Soltesz, Simone Young, Andris Nelsons and Ottavio Dantone.

Inga Kalna is the five-time winner of the Latvian Great Music Award (1995, 1998, 2002, 2014, 2016), winner of the Goldberg Operatic Prize (Great Britain, 1997) and the first prize winner of Bruce Millar-Gulliver Memorial Trust Award Competition (Great Britain, 1999).