Iwona Sobotka
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Iwona Sobotka (born 19 October 1981) is a Polish
soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...
and Grand Prix Winner of the Queen Elizabeth Music Competition.


Education

Sobotka was born in
Mława Mława (; ''Mlave'') is a town in north-eastern Poland with 30,403 inhabitants in 2020. It is the capital of Mława County. It is situated in the Masovian Voivodeship. During the invasion of Poland in 1939, the battle of Mława was fought to the ...
. She graduated from the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and continued her studies with Tom Krause at the
Reina Sofía School of Music The Reina Sofía School of Music (Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Spanish) is a private music school founded in Madrid, Spain, in 1991 by Paloma O'Shea. It belongs to the Albéniz Foundation, and it bears the name of its Honorary Pr ...
in Madrid.


Career

At the age of 22, she became the youngest winner of singing edition of the Queen Elizabeth Music Competition. Other awards include first prizes at the Warsaw Polish Art Song Competition, the Paderewski Competition in Bydgoszcz and the East & West Artists International Auditions in New York, where she was awarded her debut concert in
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
. Sobotka has performed all over Europe, in the Americas and Japan, in leading venues as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Royal Albert Hall in London, Palais de Beaux Arts in Brusseles and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. She has performed with the most important Polish orchestras, as well as other European orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Symphoniker, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, NDR Sinfonieorchester, Bayerischer Rundfunkorchester, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, having worked with many of today's pre-eminent conductors including Sir Colin Davies, Sir Simon Rattle, Marco Armiliato, Sylvain Cambreling, Jesus Lopez Cobos, Jacek Kaspszyk, Aleksandar Markovic, Juanjo Mena, Massimo Zanetti and Antoni Wit She made her opera debut in 2007 at the
Opéra National de Paris The Paris Opera ( ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be kn ...
and appeared also on stage of
Komische Oper Berlin The Komische Oper Berlin is a German opera company based in Berlin. The company produces operas, operettas and musicals. The opera house is located on Behrenstraße, near Unter den Linden. Since 2004, the Komische Oper Berlin, along with the Be ...
, Polish National Opera in Warsaw, Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre, Grand Theatre, Łódź, etc. Her operatic repertoire include roles of Violetta ('' La traviata''), Tatyana (''
Eugene Onegin ''Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse'' (, Reforms of Russian orthography, pre-reform Russian: Евгеній Онѣгинъ, романъ въ стихахъ, ) is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin. ''Onegin'' is considered a classic of ...
''), Pamina (''
The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (, ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a ''Singspiel'', a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on ...
''), Donna Anna (''
Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legen ...
''), Mimi (''
La bohème ''La bohème'' ( , ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '':wikt:quadro, quadri'', ''wikt:tableau, tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto b ...
''), Juliette ('' Roméo et Juliette''), Liù (''
Turandot ''Turandot'' ( ; see #Origin and pronunciation of the name, below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. Puccini left the opera unfinished at the time of his death in 1924; it ...
'') or Micaëla (''
Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...
''). Sobotka is widely acknowledged for her interpretations of Polish vocal repertoire – in particular the works of
Karol Szymanowski Karol Maciej Szymanowski (; 3 October 188229 March 1937) was a Polish composer and pianist. He was a member of the modernism (music), modernist Young Poland movement that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century. Szymanowski's early w ...
. In 2004, she contributed to a complete collection of his songs released by the Dutch label Channel Classics and was distinguished by National Academy of Recording Arts in Poland with the "Fryderyk" Award for the most outstanding recording of Polish music. On a subsequent release for
EMI Classics EMI Classics was a record label founded by Thorn EMI in 1990 to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogues for internationally distributed classical music releases. After Thorn EMI demerged in 1996, its recorded mus ...
in 2006, she performed Songs of a Fairytale Princess with Sir Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, which received five stars from the ''
BBC Music Magazine ''BBC Music Magazine'' is a British monthly magazine that focuses primarily on classical music. The first issue appeared in September 1992. BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC, was the original owner and publisher together with ...
''. In 2010 she participated in a 'Szymanowski Focus' program curated by Piotr Anderszewski to promote the music of Symanowski with concerts in Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall. Sobotka is a frequent guest of Rundfunkchor Berlin with whom she appeared several times in Berlin Philharmonic Concert Hall, and also participated at the International Festival of Music and Dance of Granada, along with American superstar organist Cameron Carpenter. Other common projects include recording of Deutsche Motette op. 62 by Richard Strauss for Coviello Classics and appearance at Berliner Cathedral for Christmas Concert along with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (2016). Concert performances highlights includes concert tour with Berliner Philharmoniker to Japan and Taiwan in a performance of Beethoven 9th Symphony conducted by Sir Simon Rattle (2016), participation in educational project "The Two Fiddlers" in Berlin recorded for Digital Concert Hall also with Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle, Mahler 8th Symphony with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Royal Albert Hall, Verdi Requiem with Radio Orchestra Berlin and Simon Halsey and Turandot concert performance with NDR Radiophilharmonie Hamburg. Sobotka is a permanent guest of the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where she received the 2007 Audience Award as well as a frequent guest at festivals such as the La Folle Journée,
Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival The Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (SHMF) is a classical music festival held each summer throughout the state of Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany. History The festival was founded in 1986 by German concert pianist and conductor Justus Fr ...
, Musical Olympus Festival, Wratislavia Cantans. In 2010 she made her debut in the
Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival The Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (SHMF) is a classical music festival held each summer throughout the state of Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany. History The festival was founded in 1986 by German concert pianist and conductor Justus Fr ...
in the title role in Stanisław Moniuszko's opera '' Halka'', and continued that association in the summer of 2011, in the role of Liù in ''Turandot'' to great critical acclaim.


Discography


References


External links


Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sobotka, Iwona 1981 births Living people People from Mława Prize-winners of the Queen Elisabeth Competition Polish operatic sopranos 21st-century Polish women opera singers Chopin University of Music alumni