Born in 1973 in Brno (in the current Czech Republic), the mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená began her musical training in 1987 at the conservatory of her native city, continuing her studies from 1991 to 1995 with Eva Blahová in Bratislava. She launched her professional career with several international awards, including at the Mozart Competition in Salzburg in 1995. In 1996 she became a member of the ensemble at the Vienna Volksoper; since 1997 she has worked as a freelance artist. Her operatic repertoire ranges from Monteverdi through Handel, Gluck, and Mozart to Strauss, Janáček, and Martinů. Kožená has performed Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Idamante in Idomeneo at the Salzburg Festival as well as Dorabella in Così fan tutte and Bizet’s Carmen at the Salzburg Easter Festival. Among her credits are Debussy’s Mélisande and Marguerite in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust at the Staatsoper Berlin, Cherubino in Figaro at the Bavarian Staatsoper, and Rossini’s Cenerentola at the Royal Opera House in London. She has also performed at the Metropolitan Opera, the Opéra du Châtelet in Paris, and the Edinburgh, Aix-en-Provence, and Aldeburgh Festivals. LUCERNE FESTIVAL named her “artiste étoile” in the summer of 2009. In the 2017-18 season, Kožená concertized with the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Venice Baroque Orchestra, and the Concert d’Astrée. In November 2018 she will appear in a new production of Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie at the Staats-
oper Berlin. Her recordings have garnered such awards as the Echo Klassik, the Gramophone Award, and the Diapason d’or; most recently, in the fall of 2017, she released a collection of songs by Cole Porter. Magdalena Ko-žená 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 2018