Magdalena Kožená

Born in Brno, mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená studied at the Brno Conservatory and then with Eva Blahová at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. She rose to international prominence in 1995 by winning first prize at the Salzburg International Mozart Competition. An exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist from 1999, she released numerous critically acclaimed recordings before joining Pentatone in 2017. Her discography spans baroque opera, Czech and French mélodies, as well as significant recording collaborations with Yefim Bronfman and Mitsuko Uchida, earning her several accolades, including Gramophone magazine's Artist of the Year, the Echo Klassik, the Record Academy Prize Tokyo, and the Diapason d'Or. Magdalena Kožená regularly performs with the world's leading orchestras, including the Berlin, Vienna, and Prague Philharmonics, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, as well as the Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestras, and has worked with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, and Gustavo Dudamel. Equally celebrated as a recitalist, she has performed with partners such as Daniel Barenboim, Kirill Gerstein, András Schiff, and Mitsuko Uchida at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, and the Salzburg, Aldeburgh, and Edinburgh Festivals. On the opera stage, she has sung at some of the most prestigious theaters, from the Salzburg Festival to the Metropolitan Opera, as well as the Berlin Staatsoper, Glyndebourne Festival, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Barcelona's Liceu, and many others, performing roles in operas ranging from Monteverdi to Kaija Saariaho. This season, she returns to her beloved Berlin Staatsoper for her role debuts as the Vixen in Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen and Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande, and makes her debut in the role of Ariodante during a major European tour with La Cetra Barockensemble. Concert highlights for the 2025/26 season include Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde at the Lucerne Festival, a European tour of Berio's Folk Songs with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Daniel Harding, Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été with the Vienna Philharmonic, as well as other concerts with the Czech Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and other ensembles. Magdalena Kožená was appointed Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2003.