Magdalena Kožená

Born in 1973 in Brno, Czech Republic, mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená began her musical education in 1987 at the conservatory of her native city and continued her studies with Eva Blahová in Bratislava from 1991 to 1995. Several international prizes, including victory at the Mozart Competition in Salzburg in 1995, launched her professional career. In 1996, she became a member of the ensemble of the Vienna Volksoper, and since 1997 she has been a freelance artist. Her operatic repertoire ranges from Monteverdi to contemporary works. At the Salzburg Festival, Kožená has appeared as Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Idamante in Idomeneo, and at the Easter Festival there she has performed Dorabella in Così fan tutte and Bizet's Carmen. Lucerne Festival named her “artiste étoile” in the summer of 2009. Kožená is closely associated with the Berlin Staatsoper, where she has appeared as Debussy’s Mélisande, Marguerite in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust, Martinů’s Juliette, and Phaedra in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie, among others. She has sung Cherubino in Mozart’s Figaro at the Bavarian Staatsoper, Rossini’s Cenerentola at the Royal Opera House in London, and Lady Macbeth in the world premiere of Dusapin’s Macbeth Underworld at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. She has also been invited to perform at the Metropolitan Opera, the Opéra du Châtelet in Paris, and the Edinburgh and Aldeburgh Festivals. In the summer of 2021, she took part in the world premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence in Aix-en-Provence. Kožená has worked with such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Gustavo Dudamel, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and Mariss Jansons. She has been awarded the Echo Klassik, the Gramophone Award, and the Diapason d’or for her recordings; most recently, in the fall of 2019, she released the album Soirée: Magdalena Kožená and Friends. Magdalena Kožená has been a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres since 2003.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on 22 March 1997 with Les Musiciens du Louvre conducted by Marc Minkowski in sacred music works by Handel and Charpentier.

July 2021