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Magdalena Ko¾ená was born in Brno, studied at the Brno Conservatoire and with Eva Blahová at the College of Performing Arts in Bratislava. She was awarded several major prizes in both the Czech Republic and internationally, culminating in the 6th International Mozart Competition in Salzburg in 1995.
She is an exclusive artist with Deutsche Grammophon, and her first solo recital disc of Dvorak, Janacek and Martinu won the Gramophone Solo Vocal Award, 2001. Recent recordings with DG include Mozart, Gluck and Myslivecek arias with the Prague Philharmonia and Michel Swierczewski; French arias with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Minkowski; Gluck’s “Paride ed Elena” with the Gabrieli Consort and McCreesh; a recital with Malcolm Martineau; and an acclaimed disc of cantatas by members of the Bach family (“Lamento”) with Musica Antiqua Koeln and Reinhard Goebel. Future releases include a Mozart album with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Sir Simon Rattle, and a Handel disc with the Venice Baroque and Andrea Marcon. She was the 2004 Gramophone Awards Artist of the Year.
Magdalena Ko¾ená is well established as a major concert and recital artist. Recital appearances have taken her to London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Vienna, Hamburg, Lisbon, Prague, Copenhagen, Tokyo, San Francisco, and New York’s Carnegie Hall. She has also appeared at the Munich, Salzburg, Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, Aldeburgh and Edinburgh festivals.
Her concert appearances include the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle; the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Sir Charles Mackerras; the Wiener Philharmoniker and Daniel Harding; and the Accademia Santa Cecilia with Myung-Whun Chung.
Operatic engagements have included Gluck's "Orphée" with Gardiner in Paris; Nerone (“L’Incoronazione di Poppea”) with Minkowski in Vienna; Mélisande with Minkowski in Leipzig and Paris; Cherubino in Aix-en-Provence and Munich; Sesto (“Giulio Cesare”) in Amsterdam. At the Salzburg Festivals her roles have included Zerlina (“Don Giovanni”) with Harnoncourt, Idamantes with Norrington and Rattle and Dorabella with Rattle. At the Metropolitan Opera she has sung Varvara (“Katja Kabanova”) with Belohlavek and Cherubino, Dorabella and Idamantes with Levine.
Magdalena Ko¾ená returns to Paris for Melisande at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées for Mélisande with Haitink. Other future engagements include the title role in the premiere of Henze’s “Phaedra” at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and La Monnaie in Brussels, and her debut appearance at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in the title role of “La Cenerentola”.
In 2003 she was awarded the title of Chevalier de lOrdre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.