Joanna Dobrakowska
Joanna Dobrakowska, a native of Wrocław, combines the velvety warmth of her mezzo-soprano voice with refined technique and stylistic sensitivity, allowing her to move effortlessly between different musical eras and genres. She graduated with distinction from the Academy of Music in Wrocław, where she studied with Professor Bogdan Makal, and later continued her vocal training at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna under the guidance of Professor Helena Łazarska. Her artistic development was further enriched through masterclasses in Poland, Spain, Austria, and Germany with distinguished artists including Ildiko Raimondi, Rolando Panerai, and Kirsten Schötteldreier.She has appeared at numerous prestigious festivals and concert venues, including Wratislavia Cantans, the Beethoven Easter Festival in Warsaw, the Bach Archiv in Leipzig, the Journées Mozart in Lausanne, and the Dubrovnik Opera Festival, as well as on stages in Paris, Damascus, Zagreb, and Istanbul. Equally at home in early and contemporary music, she has participated in world premieres of works by Johanna Doderer, Ella Milch-Sheriff, and David Gaines.
Dobrakowska has created a wide range of operatic roles, including the Third Lady in The Magic Flute, Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri, Don Ramiro in La finta giardiniera, Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro, Miss Eveline Huck in Karol Szymanowski’s operetta The Lottery for Husbands, or Fiancé No. 69, Jadwiga in The Haunted Manor, Sister Luisa in The Devils of Loudun, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Fenena in Nabucco, and Mother Duck in The Ugly Duckling. Her repertoire also includes the title roles in Amadigi and Carmen. She has performed these roles at the Kraków Opera, the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic, and the Polish National Opera, among others.
Alongside her operatic career, she is deeply devoted to the art of song recitals, valuing the intimacy of chamber performance and the opportunity to share subtle emotions with audiences in a direct and personal way.
Throughout her career, she has collaborated with many distinguished conductors, including Jacek Kaspszyk, Tadeusz Kozłowski, Andrzej Kosendiak, Jan Tomasz Adamus, José Maria Florêncio, Andrew Parrott, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Giancarlo Guerrero, Ernst Kovacic, Frank Ollu, Laurence Equilbey, and Ariane Matiakh.
She is a prizewinner of numerous vocal competitions and a recipient of scholarships from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Austrian Government.
Her discography includes more than a dozen recordings, ranging from Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Vespers for the French label Naïve to albums with the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra and recordings dedicated to Polish music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A recording of Bononcini’s oratorio under the baton of Andrzej Kosendiak received a nomination for the ICMA 2020 Award. She also took part in the world premiere and DVD recording of Karol Szymanowski’s operetta The Lottery for Husbands, or Fiancé No. 69, conducted by Piotr Sułkowski. More recently, she recorded Concertino quasi una Fantasia with the Sudeten Philharmonic Orchestra under Bartosz Żurakowski.
During the pandemic, as part of the “Culture Online” and “Muse Online” initiatives, she created an online performance project of Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch. At the invitation of the Sudeten Philharmonic Orchestra, she also performed Ravel’s Shéhérazade.
In 2024, she was invited to perform Ludomir Michał Rogowski’s Fantasmagoria with the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra in a concert commemorating the 70th anniversary of the composer’s death and the 45th anniversary of Dubrovnik’s inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Joanna Dobrakowska, photo: Emilia Stobiecka
