IWONA HOSSA

A graduate of the Vocal and Acting Department of the Academy of Music in Poznań in the vocal class of Prof. Ewa Wdowicka, she graduated with honours in 1998. She improved her skills during numerous vocal courses. She has won many prizes, including third prize and the Mozart Special Prize at the 6th Ada Sari International Vocal Competition in Nowy Sącz in 1995 and the Grand Prix at the International Maria Callas Vocal Competition in Athens in 1999. She was the finalist of "Orfeo 2000" International Vocal Competition in Hannover. For the part of Constance in Mozart's The Abduction From the Seraglio she received the Amber Ring award in 1998; in 2001 the Medal of Golden Art for her achievements on the opera stages, and in 2004 the Andrzej Hiolski Award. She received a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and Art in 1995 and a scholarship for young artists from the Poznań artistic community in 1998, awarded by the Poznań Art Award Commission. She debuted in 1996 as Violetta in the premiere performance of Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata at the Wielki Theatre in Poznań. In the same year she became the soloist of Poznań's Teatr Wielki. Since 2000 she has been cooperating with the Great Theatre - the National Opera in Warsaw. She performed under the baton of such conductors as: David Lloyd-Jones, David Agler, Maurizio Benini, John Neschling, Gabriel Chmura, Kazimierz Kord, Jan Krenz, Jacek Kaspszyk, Jerzy Masymiuk, Grzegorz Nowak, Krzysztof Penderecki, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Antoni Wit. She has taken part in the Bydgoszcz Opera Festival, the Modern Music Festival “Warsaw Autumn”, in the Opera Festival in Carcassonne in France, the Wexford Opera Festival in Ireland and the Rossini Festival in Pesaro in Italy. The artist has in her repertoire few dozens of the opera, operetta, and oratorio- cantata parts. She has recorded copious premieres of the pieces of the modern music, among others by Wojciech Kilar, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Marek Jasiński and Paweł Serafiński. She is the author of copious CD’s the example can be CD with the Haunted Manor, edited by EMI. Furthermore, she participated in the program recorded by BBC: Holocaust in memoriam- music meditation, which was awarded by the International Emmy Award 2005 in the category: the best program devoted to art.