Full Biography
American soprano Kathryn Lewek is a born communicator. Combining charismatic stage presence with a voice of sumptuous range, crystalline purity, and rich emotional power, she headlines major productions at the foremost opera houses and festivals worldwide, from New York’s Metropolitan Opera to Austria’s Salzburg Festival. Lauded in an increasing array of leading lyric and dramatic coloratura roles, including Mozart’s Queen of the Night, the signature role with which she has repeatedly broken records, Lewek also wins accolades for her orchestral collaborations and sensitive interpretations of contemporary art song. As the New York Times recognizes, “singing like Lewek’s is what the magic of opera is all about.”
Lewek continues to expand her repertoire with a series of role debuts in the 2025/26 season. The soprano makes her highly anticipated debut in the title role of Alcina in concert performances in Paris, Barcelona and Montpellier with the Ensemble Artaserse and maestro Philippe Jaroussky. Lewek also takes on the role of Elettra for the first time in Calixto Bieito’s new production of Idomeneo at La Monnaie. Later in the season, the soprano makes another exciting debut in the title role of Salomé at the Cincinnati Opera. Lewek reprises her portrayal of Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette in the concert performance with the Orchestre National de France conducted by Clelia Cafiero at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Opéra de Nice sees Lewek’s interpretation of Violetta in La Traviata staged by Silvia Paoli and conducted by Andrea Sanguineti.
Kathryn Lewek also revisits Mozart’s Queen of the Night in four productions of The Magic Flute. At the Royal Opera House in London, she joins David McVicar’s production conducted by Marie Jacquot. At the Berlin State Opera, Lewek stars alongside René Pape in August Everding’s staging of the opera, which reconstructs the iconic 1816 set design; with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, she graces semi-staged performances on a four-city tour. In Rolando Villazón’s new production with Roberto González-Monjas conducting, Lewek stars as the Queen of the Night at the Mozart Week festival. Among other highlights of the concert season is a baroque concert in Madrid with Ensemble Artaserse under the baton of Philippe Jaroussky and two concerts at Carnegie Hall: Handel’s Messiah with the Oratorio Society of New York and the Classics for Christmas with Musica Sacra.
Highlights of recent seasons include Lewek’s acclaimed debut as Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto at LA Opera and Cincinnati Opera, her first performances as Micaëla in Nashville Opera’s Carmen, as well as her house and role debuts as Puccini’s Musetta in Opera Colorado’s La bohème. Lewek also created the soprano role in the 2024 world premiere of Music for New Bodies, a DaCamera co-commission from Matthew Aucoin and Peter Sellars, which is soon to be released as a studio album. Lewek portrayed all Four Heroines in Les contes d’Hoffmann at the 2024 Salzburg Festival, repeating her previous success at Deutsche Oper Berlin and Florida’s Palm Beach Opera; headlined Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at Palm Beach Opera and Ohio’s Toledo Opera; and starred in the title role of Delibes’s Lakmé at Opéra de Nice and in a concert performance with the China National Opera House Symphony in Beijing.
Lewek is today’s reigning Queen of the Night. Since making her first appearance as Mozart’s antiheroine in 2011, she has sung the formidably challenging role more than 300 times with leading companies worldwide. These include London’s Royal Opera House, the Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, Madrid’s Teatro Real, the Royal Danish Opera, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera and New York’s Metropolitan Opera, where she has performed it a record-breaking 73 times. As the New Yorker’s Alex Ross observes, “she executes this stratospherically difficult role better than anyone alive.”
Among other career highlights is Lewek’s Salzburg Festival and role debuts as Ginevra opposite Cecilia Bartoli in Handel’s Ariodante, with which Lewek travelled to Opéra de Monte-Carlo before returning to Salzburg to make her role debut as Eurydice in new staging of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld. Other key firsts include her role debuts as Countess Adèle in Rossini’s Le comte Ory at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Teresa in Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, and as Cunegonde, in Bernstein’s Candide for Glimmerglass Opera. It was Lewek who created the role of Jessica in the Bregenz Festival’s world premiere production of André Tchaikowsky’s The Merchant of Venice, winner of the International Opera Award for Best World Premiere of 2014. Lewek’s other notable operatic engagements include her portrayal of Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail for Lyric Opera of Kansas City, following previous appearances in the role at Deutsche Oper Berlin and Munich’s Bavarian State Opera. She made her house and title role debuts in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda at Canada’s Edmonton Opera; gave her first performances as La Fée in New Orleans Opera’s company premiere of Massenet’s Cendrillon; and sang Angelica in Handel’s Orlando on a European tour with Italy’s Il Pomo d’Oro ensemble, after debuting the role at Australia’s Hobart Baroque Festival, for which she won the coveted Helpmann Award. At Toledo Opera, where she is a firm audience favorite, Lewek has made role debuts as Violetta in a new treatment of Verdi’s La traviata, as Rosina in a new staging of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, and as Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Since making her house and title role debuts in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor at Opera Carolina, in a co-production with Toledo Opera, she has reprised the role for a new production at Opéra de Nice.
When Lewek made her Carnegie Hall debut with the Oratorio Society of New York in 2012, she impressed the New York Times with the “communicative verve and thrilling beauty” of her performance. This marked the first of her annual performances of Handel’s Messiah at the venue, for which she has since returned each holiday season with both the Oratorio Society and Musica Sacra New York. Other concert highlights include “Celebrating Leonard Bernstein at 100” with Washington National Opera, Bach’s B-minor Mass with Chicago’s Soli deo Gloria ensemble, his Christmas Oratorio with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Dallas Symphony, and Haydn’s Creation under John Nelson’s leadership. Performing choral works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Carissimi, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Monteverdi, Mozart, Orff, Verdi and Zelenka, she has appeared at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall and other venues with ensembles including the Rochester Philharmonic, Santa Barbara Symphony and Chicago’s Music of the Baroque. She also regularly performs in gala concerts and solo recitals nationwide, sometimes in collaboration with her husband, tenor Zach Borichevsky. In response to the global food crisis, the couple recently streamed a special concert to benefit the United Nations World Food Program. Lewek is also dedicating herself to teaching, having held a residency at Belmont University and serving as artist-in-residence at the University of Memphis in 2025/26.
Lewek made her operatic album debut with a pair of German rarities, Orff’s Gisei and Weingartner’s Die Dorfschule, both recorded live for the CPO label at Deutsche Oper Berlin. More recently, two of her Salzburg successes were captured live for Blu-Ray DVD release by Unitel Edition: Ariodante and Orphée aux Enfers, which was nominated for a 2021 International Classical Music Award. Other operatic releases include Handel’s Apollo e Dafne and Armida abbandonata, both recorded with Il Pomo D’Oro for Pentatone. Her star turn in the Metropolitan Opera’s Magic Flute has twice streamed live to cinema audiences worldwide in the company’s award-winning Live in HD series: first in Julie Taymor’s holiday production and then, capturing the soprano’s record-breaking 50th Met performance as Mozart’s Queen of the Night, in the celebrated staging by Simon McBurney. Lewek also performs contemporary American Art Song on two Albany Records titles: Kathryn Lewek sings Cary Ratcliff, recorded with the composer at the piano, and Quicksilver, which features her account of David Liptak’s Songs for Persephone.
At the 2013 Operalia World Opera Competition, Kathryn Lewek took two top prizes, the highly competitive Audience Favorite Award among them. A graduate of the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in voice performance and literature, she lives in Connecticut with her husband and their two young children.
