Iwona Sobotka gained international recognition as the Grand Prize winner of the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Belgium. She has also been honoured with First Prize at the Warsaw Polish Art Song Competition and First Prize at the East & West Artists International Auditions in New York, leading to her debut performance at Carnegie Hall.

In the upcoming 2023-2024 season, Sobotka is set to become a resident artist with the Rubinstein Philharmonic in Poland. She will be the featured soloist in four exceptional programs, presenting Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, and making her debut as Isolde in a concert rendition of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. Beyond this, she will also take on the role of featured soloist during the season inauguration concerts for both the Warsaw Philharmonic and the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, alongside other commitments. On the opera stage, Sobotka is set to debut in the roles of Manon Lescaut, Desdemona in Otello, and Leonora in Il Trovatore. Additionally, she will reprise her acclaimed portrayals of Violetta Valery in La Traviata and the title role of Dvořák’s masterpiece Rusalka, performing across Poland, Spain, Estonia, and Slovakia. 

Highlights of previous seasons encompassed numerous symphonic programs with Sir Simon Rattle, including Beethoven’s Christ on the Mount of Olives and his Symphony No.9 with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass with Staatskapelle Berlin, Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, and Brahms’ German Requiem with the London Symphony Orchestra. Elsewhere, she appeared with orchestras of note, including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Vienna Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and Nashville Symphony, among others, working with many of today’s pre-eminent conductors, such as Sir Colin Davis, Marek Janowski, Vladimir Jurowski, Marco Armiliato, Teodor Currentzis, Jesus Lopez Cobos, Juanjo Mena, and Massimo Zanetti.

Iwona Sobotka made her operatic debut at the National Opera in Paris in 2004, portraying roles of the First Lady in The Magic Flute and Ygraine in Dukas’ Ariane et Barbe-Bleue. She also participated in the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival, taking on the title role in Halka and performing as Liù in Turandot. Her Osterfestspiele Baden-Baden debut saw her as a Blumenmädchen in Wagner’s Parsifal, performing with the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle. Notably, she portrayed Pamina in Barrie Kosky’s renowned production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute at Komische Oper Berlin, followed by an international tour across Australia, New Zealand, Macao, and Taiwan. 

She has also enjoyed remarkable success in other roles, including Roxana (King Roger) at Chicago Opera Theater, Daughter (The Nose) at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Tatyana (Eugene Onegin) and Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) at the Tchaikovsky Perm State Opera. She portrayed Violetta (La Traviata) and Mimi (La bohème) for the Polish National Opera in Warsaw and Opera Podlaska. Additionally, she took on the role of Magda in La Rondine at the Silesian Opera, as well as the title roles of Madame Butterfly Tosca, and Rusalka at Teatr Wielki in Poznan.

Following her studies at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Iwona further pursued her musical education under the mentorship of the esteemed artist and pedagogue Tom Krause at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid.


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September 2023. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.

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