dr hab. Olga Ksenicz

She graduated from the Vocal Department of the Academy of Music in Wrocław, where she studied under Prof. Piotr Łykowski (diploma with distinction in 2004). She is currently a researcher at her alma mater, having started work there immediately after graduating. Before undertaking her musical studies, the soprano graduated (with distinction) from the State Music School of the 2nd degree in Zielona Góra (class of Anna Ulwańska) and performed as a soloist and chamber musician with the Cappella Gedanensis Early Music Ensemble based in Gdańsk. In July 2007, she completed her doctoral studies at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice (approved in September of the same year), and since October of that year she has been teaching her own solo singing class at the Vocal Department of the Academy of Music in Wrocław.

She also lectures on “Early Music Performance Seminar.” Since 2005, she has been collaborating as a soloist with the Warsaw Chamber Opera, where she made her debut as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute.

The same role also marked her debut at the Szczecin Opera at the Castle in February 2007. The singer has also performed at the Wrocław Philharmonic, the Lower Silesian Philharmonic in Jelenia Góra, with the Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in Katowice and the Częstochowa Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of conductors such as Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk, Jacek Kraszewski, Ruben Silva and Jerzy Swoboda. The singer also collaborates on a regular basis as a vocalist in performances at the J. Kochanowski Theater in Opole.

During her music studies, the singer participated in numerous interpretation and master classes (held, among others, as part of the international festivals “Wratislavia Cantans”), working under the guidance of outstanding Polish and foreign artists and teachers, including Prof. Christiane Hampe, Izabella Kłosińska, Jadwiga Romańska-Gabryś, Ewa Iżykowska (master's degree in 2002), Ingrid Kremling-Domanski (master's degree in 2003 and 2005), Ralf Döring, and Paul Esswood. From October 2003 to February 2004, the soprano held a scholarship at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, working under the guidance of the internationally renowned singer and outstanding teacher Prof. Barbara Schlick. In the 2003/2004 academic year, Olga Ksenicz was also a scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture. The singer combines her current teaching activities with regular participation in interpretation courses, including those led by Prof. Helga Meyer-Wagner, Prof. Ingrid Kremling-Domanski, and Prof. Piotr Kusiewicz, as well as with concert performances. The soprano has also recorded an album for the Musicon record label with the world premiere of contemporary religious works by Józef Elsner, produced as part of the innovative Musica Claromontana project (restoring works preserved in the music archives of the Jasna Góra monastery to musical circulation).

Olga Ksenicz is the winner of the following awards:

- distinction for the performance of a Baroque aria at the 1st Halina Halska National Soprano Competition in Wrocław (in 2001)

- distinction for the performance of works by the patron of the competition at the 2nd Karol Kurpiński Song and Aria Competition in Włoszakowice (in 2002)

- Third prize and special prize (for her performance of “Roksana's Song” from Karol Szymanowski's opera “King Roger”) at the 6th Intercollegiate Slavic Music Competition in Katowice (in 2003)

She also took part in the final stage of the Concorso Internazionale di canto per IV centrnario dell’opera in Verona (2007).

The singer's repertoire covers a wide range of works from the Renaissance to the present day, with a particular emphasis on Baroque and Classical oratorio and cantata music, especially from the Italian and German cultural circles (works by C. Monteverdi, A. Scarlatti, G. B. Pergolesi, A. Vivaldi, G. F. Handel, J. S. Bach, J. Haydn, W. A. Mozart).