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MAGDALENA KOŽENÁ
Contact
Imogen Lewis Holland (Managing Director):
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(c) Julia Wesely
Born in Brno, mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená studied at the Brno Conservatory and with Eva Bláhová at Bratislava’s Academy of Performing Arts. She won widespread recognition in 1995 after taking first prize at the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg.
An exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist from 1999, she released numerous acclaimed recordings, before moving to Pentatone in 2017. Her discography spans Baroque opera, Czech song, French mélodie and major recital collaborations with Yefim Bronfman and Mitsuko Uchida, earning her awards including Gramophone Artist of the Year, the Echo Klassik, Record Academy Prize Tokyo and Diapason d’Or.
Kožená regularly appears with the world’s foremost orchestras, including the Berlin, Vienna and Czech Philharmonics, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and 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 appeared with partners including Daniel Barenboim, Kirill Gerstein, András Schiff and Mitsuko Uchida at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and the Salzburg, Aldeburgh and Edinburgh Festivals.
On the opera stage she has sung in some of the most important theatres from Salzburg Festival to the Metropolitan Opera, Staatsoper Berlin, Glyndebourne Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Liceu Barcelona and many more, performing roles in operas by Monteverdi through to Kaja Saariaho. This season, she returns to her beloved Staatsoper Berlin for her role debut as the Fox Cunning Little Vixen and Mélisande Pélleas et Mélisande, and makes her role debut as Ariodante in a weighty European tour with La Cetra Barockensemble.
Concert highlights of 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 Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Daniel Harding, Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été with the Vienna Philharmonic, and further concerts with the Czech Philharmonic and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and others.
Magdalena was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2003.
Showreel
Discography
Special Projects
El amor: entre el cielo y el infierno
Inspired by her studies of the flamenco style and culture whilst preparing for the role of Carmen, in this project Magdalena Kožená entwines the roots of raw flamenco with the music of the Spanish Baroque era.
Joined by Private Musicke (who perform the sound of serene Spanish Baroque, which lends itself to the roots of the flamenco tradition in its story-telling nature and echoes of the flamenco dance forms) and Antonio El Pipa, Compañía de Flamenco (the frenzied, fiery, acclaimed dancer), they ignite the stage with the passion of flamenco dance and song.
The project has toured Europe extensively, with concerts at the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, as well as at the heart of flamenco itself, Madrid and Barcelona.
We look forward to the project's return in future seasons.
Cole Porter
In an extraordinary diversion from her usual repertoire, in this project, Magdalena Kožena collaborates with one of Europe’s top swing jazz bands: Ondřej Havelka and his Melody Makers.
Together, Magdalena they explore the songbook of Cole Porter, taking the audience on a nostalgic journey of romance through authentic hot swing numbers and big band tunes from the 1930s and ’40s.
The Melody Makers bring a show to the stage, featuring virtuosic jazz soloists and the charismatic Ondřej Havelka, a true swing jazz era entertainer. This fantastic partnership sees Magdalena indulge her sultry, witty side in a deliciously entertaining homage to one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century.
Magdalena Kožená and Friends
Capturing the atmosphere of informal, domestic music making, Magdalena Kožená brings together an outstanding group of musical friends, including Sir Simon Rattle, for an intimate and highly personal collection of songs.
The international programme – which mirrors her most recent recording with Dutch label Pentatone, Soirée – features the songs of Brahms, Strauss, Chausson, Ravel, Stravinsky, Dvořák and Janáček, including new arrangements by conductor and composer Duncan Ward.
Joined onstage by Sir Simon Rattle (in his recording debut as a pianist), violinists Giovanni Guzzo and Rahel Rilling, viola player Amihai Grosz, cellist Dávid Adorján, flautist Kaspar Zehnder and clarinettist Andrew Marriner, the project originally toured in 2016, and was brought back by popular demand in recent seasons to Switzerland to Poland, via France, Spain and Greece.
Monteverdi and Berio / La Cetra
Together, Magdalena Kožená and Basel’s La Cetra Barockorchester perform a programme which highlights the beautiful melodies and variety of early baroque repertoire, including works by Monteverdi, Uccelini, Merula and others.
In his epic poem ‘Jerusalem Delivered’ completed in 1574, the poet Torquato Tasso described the love story between King Tancred and the warrior, Clorinda. Their story reaches a tragic end when they duel in full armour without knowing the other’s identity. This dramatic scene is set by Claudio Monteverdi in his ‘Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda’ and is the climax of Magdalena Kožená’s exciting baroque programme.
With the aid of set design by Martin Černý and stage direction of long time collaborator Ondřej Havelka, the story of this extraordinary piece of musical theatre comes to life.
Created and first toured in Europe in 2014, this project has since experienced regular European revivals over the past decade.
Repertoire
OPERA
Hector BERLIOZ
Marguerite La Damnation de Faust
George BIZET
Carmen Carmen
Marc-Antoine CHARPENTIER
Médée Médée
Claude DEBUSSY
Mélisande Pelléas et Mélisande
Pascal DUSAPIN
Lady Macbeth Macbeth in the Underworld
GF HANDEL
Alcina (title role)
Ariodante (title role)
Agrippina (title role)
Sesto Giulio Cesare
Leoš JANÁČEK
Varvara Katja Kabanova
Fox Cunning Little Vixen
Bohuslav MARTINŮ
Julietta Julietta
Claudio MONTEVERDI
Nerone L’incoronazione di Poppea
Penelope Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria
WA MOZART
Sesto La Clemenza di Tito
Idamante Idomeneo
Donna Elvira Don Giovanni
Bohuslav MARTINŮ
Julietta Julietta
Giacomo PUCCINI
Un musico Manon Lescaut
Jean-Philippe RAMEAU
Phèdre Hippolyte et Aricie
Kaija SAARIAHO
Waitress Innocence
Richard STRAUSS
Octavian Der Rosenkavalier
CONCERT
JS BACH
St. Matthew Passion
St. John Passion
Various arias
Luciano BERIO
Sequenza III
Folk Songs for mezzo-soprano
Claude DEBUSSY
Nocturnes
Ariettes oubliées
Maurice DERUFLÉ
Requiem
Antonín DVOŘÁK
Biblical Songs
Edward ELGAR
The Dream of Gerontius
Manuel DE FALLA
Psyché
GF HANDEL
Messiah
Cantatas and Arias
Gustav MAHLER
Das Lied von der Erde
Kindertotenlieder
Rückert-Lieder
Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Symphony no.2
Joseph Canteloube DE MALARET
Chants d’Auvergne (Selection)
Claudio MONTEVERDI
Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda
WA MOZART
C Minor Mass
Concert and opera arias
Maurice RAVEL
Shéhérazade
L'Enfant et les Sortilèges
Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé
Antonio VIVALDI
Various