IWONA SOBOTKA achieved instant international acclaim as Grand Prix winner of the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition of Belgium in 2004. Other awards include first prizes at the East and West Artists International Auditions in New York, the Warsaw Polish Art Song Competion, and in the Bydgoszcz Paderewski Competion.

She has performed all over Europe, in the Americas and Japan, in such prestigious venues as the Wiener Konzerthaus, Carnegie Hall, the Palais de Beaux Arts in Brussels, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic.

Iwona Sobotka has worked with such distinguished conductors as Sir Colin Davis, Sir Simon Rattle, Sylvain Cambreling, Thomas Hengelbrock, Walter Proost, Hansjörg Schellenberger, Gabriel Chmura, Jacek Kaspszyk, Kazimierz Kord, Jerzy Maksymiuk and Antoni Wit.  She has performed with the Orchestre de l'Opéra national de Paris, Wiener Symphoniker, Wiener Kammerorchester, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Orchestre Symphonique de la Monnaie, Orchestra della Fondazione Arturo Toscanini, Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, Staatskapelle Weimar, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and with all the major Polish orchestras.

In 2004 her first solo recording, in which she contributes to a complete collection of Karol Szymanowski?s songs, was released by the Dutch label Channel Classics. The CD received a Polish Fryderyk prize for best recording of Polish music. On her subsequent release, for EMI Classics in 2006, again featuring Szymanowski?s music, she performs his Songs of a Fairytale Princess with Sir Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.  She has also recorded Szymanowski?s orchestral songs for Polish Radio with the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Kazimierz Kord.  Her new album of Chopin songs has recently been released by BeArton.

In the 2007/2008 season Iwona Sobotka  made her début at the Opéra national de Paris as Ygraine in Paul Dukas? Ariane et Barbe-Bleue. The same production toured Japan in summer 2008.  The following season she returned to Paris as First Lady in Mozart?s Die Zauberflöte and also made her first appearance with the Polish National Opera in Warsaw as Zuzia in Moniuszko?s Verbum Nobile.  She was also invited by Hansjörg Schellenberger to sing the main role, Vespina, in a concert performance of Haydn?s L'infedelt? delusa.

Iwona Sobotka has performed at various music festivals, such as Musical Olympus in St. Petersburg, Wratislavia Cantans, Chopin and his Europe in Warsaw, Kraków?s Festival of Polish Music, the MDR
Music Summer festival in Saxony and the Dubrovnik Summer Festival.  She is also regularly invited to the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Music Festival where she was awarded the 2007 audience prize.

Future engagements include a return to Carnegie Hall at the invitation of pianist Piotr Anderszewski as well as recitals in  London, Washington and at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival ? where she will also appear in the title role of Moniuszko?s Halka.

She graduated from the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and continued her studies with renowned artist and pedagogue Tom Krause at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid.

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