Called the queen of Polish bel canto, Joanna Woś graduated from the Academy of Music in Łódź, having studied under Professor Jadwiga Pietraszkiewicz. She is a laureate of Poland's most significant singing competitions and winner of the Bilbao International Singing Competition. He made a debut singing Lucia in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at the Grand Theatre in Łódź, whose soloist she later became.
Repertoire includes: Elvira in Bellini's I puritani, Norina in Donizetti's DonPasquale, Olumpia in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, The Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute, Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni, and the Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville, Oscar in Verdi's A Masked Ball, Nanetta in Verdi's Falstaff, Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto, Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata, and Wife in Schnitke's Life with an Idiot.
At the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera she sang on the opening nights of La Rondine (2003) as Magda, The Magic Flute (2006) as The Queen of the Night, and Lucia di Lammermoor (2008), Lucrezia Borgia (2009), Orfeo ed Euridice (2009), and La Traviata (2010), taking on the title roles. Apart from operatic pieces, her repertoire includes Pergolesi's, Rossini's and Szymanowski's Stabat Mater, Mozart's Requiem, Exultate, jubilate and masses, Gounod's St. Cecilia Mass, Orff's Requiem Fauré and Carmina Burana.
She collaborates with: Polish National Opera, Kraków Oper, Poznań Opera House, Baltic Opera, Warsaw Philharmonic and Kraków Philharmonic. She has guested at: Alte Oper Frankfurt, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Rome Auditorium, the Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Centre, Lithuanian National Opera, Croatian National Theatre, as well as opera houses and concerts halls in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, and France. She performs under conductors such as: Antoni Wit, Jonas Aleksy, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Tadeusz Kozłowski, Jan Krenz, Jacek Kaspszyk, Marco Baldieri, Andrea Licata, Massimiliano Caldi. She has sang alongside Renato Bruson, Salvatore Licitra, Salvatore Fisichelli, Garvin Bradley.
In 2008 she recorded together with Kevin Kenner a recital of arias from eighteen operas by Józef Michał Poniatowski for the Polish Radio. In 2009 she recorded Chopin's Songs with Marek Drewnowski. In 2010 she sang Henryk Mikołaj Górecki's Symphony No. 3 with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, London. A year after she wowed with her creation of Dinizetti's Maria Stuarda at the Poznań Opera House and Gilda (Rigoletto) at the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera. She thrilled critics as Donizetti's Anna Bolena at the Saint Moritz Festival.
In 2012 she sang Adina in the premiere of L'elisir d'amore at the Kraków Opera (directed by Henryk Baranowski). At the Grand Theatre in Łódź she once again took on the role of Anna Bolena, sang in the premiere of La Traviata (2013), performed in Puccini's La bohème as Musetta (2013) and in Don Giovanni as Donna Anna (2015). For her creation of Anna Bolena, Joanna Woś received a Złota Maska (Gold Mask) for the best operatic role of the 2012/2013 season.
Photo: M. Piasta
