She graduated from the Academy of Music in Warsaw in Alina Bolechowska’s singing class.
She is a laureate of the 7th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, as well as vocal competitions in Athens, Barcelona, Geneva, Rio de Janeiro, and Toulouse.
In 1984, she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in Rinaldo by Georg Friedrich Handel. She performs in the largest opera theatres in the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, San Diego Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Milwaukee’s Florentine Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Minnesota Opera, Atlanta Opera, Vancouver Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Alte Oper in Frankfurt am Main, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro Bellini, Teatro alla Scala, La Fenice, Teatro San Carlo, Théâtre du Châtelet and Opéra Bastille in Paris, Teatro Real in Madrid and the Warsaw Wielki Theatre – National Opera. In the 2008-2009 season, the artist returned to the Metropolitan Opera as La Cieca in Amilcare Ponchielli’s La Gioconda.
Ewa Podleś is also a valued stage singer. She has performed with the accompaniment of such famous orchestras as Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Seattle Symphony, American Symphony, New World Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Toronto Symphony, NHK Tokyo, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, National Arts Centre Orchestra, National Orchestra of Spain, Berliner Philharmoniker, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia symphony orchestras, Hong Kong and Dresden Philharmonics, Warsaw National Philharmonic, conducted by such conductors as David Atherton, Antoni Wit, Leon Botstein, Kazimierz Kord, Myung-Whun Chung, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Armin Jordan, Jerzy Semkow, Lorin Maazel, Wojciech Michniewski, Victor Pablo Perez, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Constantine Orbelian, Alberto Zedda, Jacek Kaspszyk, Will Crutchfield, Pinchas Zuckerman, Nicholas McGegan, Donald Runnicles, Libor Peška, Neeme Järvi, Gerard Schwarz, Charles Dutoit.
Her recitals have been held in New York (Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, 92nd Street Y), Cleveland, Atlanta, St. Paul, Chicago, Boston (Jordan Hall), Vancouver (Chan Centre), Toronto, Montreal, San Juan, Québec, Paris, Amsterdam, London (Wigmore Hall), Pittsburgh, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Warsaw. She has performed at many festivals, including Bard and Caramoor in New York, Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier, Lanaudière, Łańcut, Edinburgh, and the Flanders Festival.
Ewa Podleś has made many recordings (nearly 30) for Decca, DG, EMI, Erato, Forlane, Naxos, Delos, and DUX. Her discography includes Krzysztof Penderecki’s Te Deum conducted by the composer (first recording of this work), Airs Célébres (Grand Prix du Disque "Orphée d’Or"), Mélodies Russes with pianist Graham Johnson (Grand Prix de l’Académie Franćaise du Disque), Gioacchino Rossini’s Tancredi conducted by Albert Zedda (title of The Best Buy 1995 awarded by CD Classic’s London magazine and nomination for a 1996 Grammy Award), Rossini’s arias (Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten-Kritik 1996, Record of the Year 1996 according to Studio magazine), Armide by Christoph Willibald Gluck and Haendel’s Ariodante recorded with Les Musiciens du Louvre conducted by Marc Minkowski, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 performed by the Orchestre National de Lille conducted by Jean-Claude Casadesus (Palmarés des Palmarés Nouvelle Académie du Disque award), recital at the National Philharmonic and Pieśni Chopina (Chopin’s Songs, trans. MG; both recorded with Garrick Ohlsson for Arabesque), Arie Haendla (Händel’s Arias, trans. MG) and Arie Rosyjskie (Russian Arias, trans. MG; Delos).
The artist has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Dora Mavor Moore Award for the main role in Händel’s Julius Caesar performed in Toronto, the Andrzej Hiolski Award for the title role in Rossini’s Tancrede at the Wielki Theatre in Warsaw, the Gold Gloria Artis Medal, the American Music Critics Award (1997) and the Kosciuszko Foundation Award (2005) for her outstanding contribution to the promotion of Polish and American culture, Medal of Merit for Promoting Russian Culture awarded by the President of Russia (2006), Gold Medal of the Gran Teatre del Liceu Foundation in Barcelona (2013), and the Commander’s Cross of the Polonia Restituta Order.
The group of international music critics from Classic FM Magazine ranked Ewa Podleś among the 10 best mezzo-soprano voices of the first decade of the 21st century, and Operaarts.com among the exclusive group of 100 opera legends of the last half-century. In 2002, the New York-based American Iris Society named a new cultivar ‘Ewa Podleś’ especially in her honour. An extensive biography of the artist entitled Ewa Podleś – Contralto assoluto by the French writer Brigitte Cormier was published by Edition Symétrie in France and PWM in Poland.
Artist's website: www.podles.pl
Originally written in Polish by Małgorzata Kosińska, Polish Music Information Centre, Polish Composers' Union, October 2002. Translated and updated by Marcin Gozdanek, December 2019.