CD album – “Śpiewnik polski”

Graduate of the Vocal Faculty, Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, in Prof Jadwiga Rappé’s class. A two-time recipient of the Polish Ministry of Education’s scholarship, as well as scholarships in the Pro Polonia programme and ISA2012 programme, she was awarded the Young Poland scholarship and the Magna cum Laude medal for the best graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music (2013), where she is now a doctoral student. In 2017 she was nominated for the Coryphaeus Award and won the Polityka weekly’s Passport Award.

Joanna Freszel has won many prizes at national and international competitions, including the 2nd Prize at the Halina Halska Competition in Wrocław, 3rd Prize and Special Prize at the Karol Szymanowski Competition in Łódź, 1st Prize and three Special Prizes at the Reszke Competition in Częstochowa, Special Prize at the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition in Vienna, and 1st Prize and Special Prize at the J:opera Voice Competition ISA’12 in Frankfurt. She was also a finalist at the Viotti Competition in Vercelli.
Her festival appearances include performances at the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music (2010, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018), Contrechamps Festival in Geneva, Saaremaa Opera Days in Estonia, Melos-Étos in Bratislava, and 7 Trends and 7 Premieres Festival organised to mark the 70th Anniversary of the Polish Composers’ Union. In 2011 she gave a recital at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris. In that same year she made her debut as Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème (Poland), Vénus and Phrygienne in Rameau’s Dardanus (Ireland, the UK), and Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte (Poland, Italy).
She sang Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust at the Estonian National Opera House, Machine in Wołek’s Nici (Needles) at the National Forum of Music in Wrocław, Susanna in Langer and Pountney’s Figaro Gets a Divorce in Poznań, and Psyche in Różycki’s Eros and Psyche at the National Opera in Warsaw. Joanna Freszel successfully tackles compositions from all periods, although she specialises in contemporary music (performing works like Credentials or Think, Think Lucky by Haubenstock-Ramati, Shakespeare’s Sonnets by Mykietyn and Les Noces by Stravinsky). She has appeared in a dozen of premieres, including Pärt’s Stabat Mater, Nikodijević’s Sadness Untitled, Bianchi’s Primordia Rerum, Caine’s In Memoriam, Knapik’s Canticum Puerorum, Krzanowski’s Audycja V and Duchnowski’s Wściekłość.

The artist has performed with many orchestras in Poland and abroad: the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Iuventus, Beethoven Academy Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic, Kraków Symphony Orchestra, Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Kielce Philharmonic Orchestra, Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestra, Pomeranian Philharmonic Orchestra – Capella Bydgostiensis, New Music Orchestra, AUKSO – Chamber Orchestra of Tychy, Orkestr de ereprijs (the Netherlands), Österreichisches Ensemble für Neue Musik (Austria), Symphony Orchestra Camerata Viva, singing under the baton of conductors like Jerzy Maksymiuk, Gabriel Chmura, Jacek Kaspszyk, Krzesimir Dębski, Jerzy Salwarowski, Marek Moś, Paul Esswood, Wim Boerman, Szymon Bywalec, Tadeusz Strugała, Jacek Rogala, Adam Klocek, Arturo Tamayo and Michał Dworzyński.
On a tour of Ukraine, she performed Witold Lutosławski’s Chantefleurs et chantefables with the Philharmonic Orchestras of Lviv, Odessa, Chernihiv, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk.
In 2015 DUX released her debut album real life song featuring pieces composed especially for her soprano by young Polish composers: M Bembinow, A Kościów, R. Janiak, A. Zubel, S. Zamuszka, A. Borzym Jr, J. Szmytka and K. Szwed. The album was nominated for the 2016 Fryderyk Award in two categories and the Orphée d’Or awarded by the Academie du Disque Lyrique for the best interpretation of contemporary music.