AGNIESZKA KOZŁOWSKA

Agnieszka Kozłowska. Fot. Wojciech Olszanka

Soprano, soloist of the Polish Royal Opera, performing the parallel function of assistant director. She also teaches a solo singing class at the Secondary State Music School at Bednarska street in Warsaw.

A graduate of State Secondary Music School in Szczecin, violin class, and the Faculty of Vocal Performance and Acting at the Academy of Music in Poznań, where she studied under Krystyna Pakulska (graduated with honors). A former holder of the scholarship of the Minister of Culture and Art. In February 2021, she obtained a doctorate of Arts at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

When she was still a student, she made her debut on stage in the Grand Theatre in Poznań, where she played the role of Papagena in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The successful debut of the young singer resulted in the role of Basia in J. Stefani’s Cud mniemany, czyli Krakowiacy i górale and Young Galina in Galina by M. Landowski. She also sang the latter part during the Expo 2000 event in Hanover and during guest performances of the Poznań ensemble of the Grand Theater in Heilbronn, Germany.

From March 2001 to August 2017, Kozłowska was one of the top soloists in the Warsaw Chamber Opera, where she debuted as the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Director Stefan Sutkowski then entrusted her with the performance of many significant Mozart roles, including Konstanze in Abduction from the Seraglio, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Sandrina in La finta giardiniera, Rosina in La finta semplice, Fortuna in Il sogno di Scipione, Der Weltgeist in Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots, Amital in Betulia Liberata, the soprano part in Requiem, Grabmusik and Davide penitente.

The singer is endowed with a lyrical-coloratura soprano, which allows the artist to present her vocal qualities in baroque, bel canto, romantic, and contemporary repertoire. For this reason, on the stage of the Warsaw Chamber Opera she successfully performed the parts of Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Elvira in The Italian Girl in Algiers, Semiramide in Semiramide and Amenaide in Tancredi by Rossini, Annchen in K. M. von Weber’s The Marksman, Zofia in Halka by S. Moniuszko, Serpilla in Scene buffe by A. Scarlatti, Second woman in Dido and Aeneas by H. Purcell and Betsy in the opera Henryk VI na łowach by K. Kurpiński.

In addition to her home theater, the singer performed on the stage of the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, where she performed the extremely difficult title part in L. Delibes’ opera Lakmé, at the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk in the emblematic part of Gilda in G. Verdi’s opera Rigoletto, on the stage of the Castle Opera in Szczecin as Adela in the evening Bal u księcia Orłowskiego by J. Strauss and during the open-air concert Queens of the Night, dedicated to Marcelina Sembrich-Kochańska on the 150th anniversary of her birth. In November 2017, she took part in the world premiere of L. Możdżer’s opera Immanuel Kant at the Wrocław Opera, where she played the role of the Millionaire. The premiere of the opera by this famous Polish jazz musician prompted the singer to reflect on the interpretation of the role of the Millionaire in the context of the prevailing compositional trends in Polish contemporary opera, which she included in an extensive and highly assessed doctoral dissertation.

She also performed on the stage of the National Philharmonic, where she performed the parts of The Princess, Fire, and Nightingale in M. Ravel’s opera L’Enfant et les sortilèges and K. Kurpiński’s Te Deum, both conducted by Antoni Wit. She has performed with the Polish Radio Orchestra, Poznań Philharmonic, Szczecin Philharmonic, Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic, Płock Symphony Orchestra, Brandenburger Symphoniker and Sinfonietta Wuppertal. She has toured abroad with the ensemble of the Warsaw Chamber Opera, giving concerts in Japan, Lebanon, Oman, Switzerland, Germany, France, and Spain. The singer has given concerts in Great Britain, where she presented solo recitals of vocal music, among others for the Derby Chamber Music Society.

The artist often performs together with her stage partner Bogusław Morka, with whom she appeared alongside José Cura at the concert José Cura and guests in Zabrze in November 2014.

The soprano singer is a laureate of many vocal competitions in Poland (3rd prize at the K. Kurpiński National Vocal Competition in Włoszakowice) and abroad (2nd prize and a special award in the form of a contract with the Opernhaus Halle for the part of the  Queen of the Night part in W. A. Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the International Vocal Competition in Passau, Germany). She also received a distinction for outstanding artistic achievements from the Polish Minister of Culture Waldemar Dąbrowski.

Since October 2017, the singer has been a soloist of the Polish Royal Opera in Warsaw, where she can be heard as Kasia in the opera Misery Contented by M. Kamieński, Second Woman in the opera Dido and Aeneas by H. Purcell, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Arminda in La finta giardiniera and Papagena in The Magic Flute by W.A. Mozart, Serpilla in Scene buffe by A. Scarlatti, and Serpina in La serva padrona by G.B. Pergolesi. Thanks to the artist’s extensive stage experience and vocal talent, as well as her excellent acting skills, she was also entrusted with the function of assistant director.

 

Photo by Wojciech Olszanka