Employees

dr

Joanna Freszel

singing

A soprano born in Warsaw. Three-time scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture, Pro Polonia programme, ISA2012, awarded with the Magna cum Laude medal (2013), Młoda Polska [Young Poland] scholarship (2014) and Les Orphées d’Or – Prix de la SACD of L’Académie du Disque Lyrique for the best interpretation of contemporary music (2016). Nominated in two categories for the Fryderyk 2016 award for her debut album real life song as well as for the Coryphaeus 2017 award. A Polityka Passport Award winner (2017). In 2020, she received a Coryphaeus award in the category Event of the Year for her participation in the dramma per musica Drach by Aleksander Nowak to the libretto by Szczepan Twardoch. In 2021, she won a Fryderyk award in the category Album of the Year – Oratorio and Opera Music for her recording of the opera ahat-ilī – Sister of Gods by A. Nowak to the words by Olga Tokarczuk.

She has won prizes in such competitions as the Halska Competition, the Szymanowski Competition, the Reszke Competition, Gabor Belvedere, J:opera Voice Competition ISA’12. Finalist of the Viotti Competition.

She has recorded music for films and radio plays. Ms Freszel has participated in such festivals as Premieres, Warsaw Autumn, Aix-en Provence, Contrechamps, Sacrum Profanum, Silesian Quartet and Guests, Saaremaa Opera Days, Opera in the Town Hall Festival, Musica Polonica Nova, Melos-Etos, etc. She works with the Estonian National Opera, the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera in Warsaw and the Grand Theatre in Poznań.

She has performed as Musetta in La Bohème by Puccini, Vénus and a Phrygian woman in Dardanus by Rameau, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte by Mozart, Marguerite in Faust by Gounod, Machine in Nici [Threads] by Wołek, Susanna in Figaro Gets a Divorce by Langer, Psyche in Eros and Psyche by Różycki, Inanna in ahat-ilī by Nowak, Ellenai in Anhelli by Przybylski, Rosina in The Barber of Seville by Rossini or Hanna in The Haunted Manor by Moniuszko.

She has been invited to cooperate by the following Orchestras: Warsaw Philharmonic, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Białystok, Cracow, Silesian, Świętokrzyska, Szczecin and Zielona Góra Philharmonic Orchestras, Sinfonia Varsovia, Sinfonia Iuventus, Beethoven Academy Orchestra, Lviv, Odesa and Donetsk Orchestras, Österreichisches Ensemble für Neue Musik, Ereprijs, AUKSO, New Music Orchestra and many others. She specialises in contemporary music performance, although she successfully interprets works of all eras.

She has been a guest singer on the albums of, e.g. the Silesian Quartet and of such artists as Ewa Liebchen, Rafał Łuc, Andrzej Karałow or Leszek Długosz.

In 2020, together with Łukasz Chrzęszczyk, she released her second album Śpiewnik polski [A Polish Songbook] (Orphée Classics), and at the end of 2021, together with Bartłomiej Kominek, the album Akwarelle [Aquarelles], which is the first recording of complete songs by Grażyna Bacewicz (DUX).

Joanna Freszel is also the author of educational programmes such as poGŁOSka [HEARsay] and samoŚPIEW [selfSINGING]. They deal with the most interesting phenomena of the contemporary vocal art and voice education. They are available to the general public on the Internet.

She is a Master of Science in Environmental Protection of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. In 2019, she received the title of Doctor of Musical Arts with honours.