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.”
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 range with role debuts in two classic operas in the 2024-25 season. Singing opposite her husband, tenor Zach Borichevsky, in both productions, she gives her first performances as Micaela in Nashville Opera’s season-opening staging of Bizet’s Carmen, before making her house and role debuts as Puccini’s Musetta in Opera Colorado’s La bohème. To complete her operatic lineup, she revisits Mozart’s Queen of the Night in three productions of The Magic Flute. At the Berlin State Opera, she stars alongside René Pape in August Everding’s staging of the opera, which reconstructs the iconic 1816 set design, and at New York’s Metropolitan Opera she reprises her star turns in both Julie Taymor’s family-friendly treatment of the opera and Simon McBurney’s uproarious full-length production.
Last season, Lewek made two title role debuts: in Laurent Pelly’s season-opening new staging of Delibes’s Lakmé at Opéra de Nice and in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at Ohio’s Toledo Opera. She graced three presentations of Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann, singing Olympia at Dresden’s Semperoper and portraying all Four Heroines at Florida’s Palm Beach Opera and in a new Salzburg Festival staging, as well as starring in three productions of The Magic Flute, at the Metropolitan Opera, Semperoper, and with the Cleveland Orchestra. At Salzburg’s 2024 Mozart Week Festival, she sang Mozart and Salieri in concert with the Vienna Philharmonic, and at Houston’s Rice University, she created the soprano role in the world premiere of Music for New Bodies, a DaCamera co-commission from Matthew Aucoin and Peter Sellars. As in previous years, she joined the Oratorio Society of New York for holiday performances of Handel’s Messiah at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
Highlights of earlier seasons include her Salzburg Festival and role debuts as Ginevra opposite Cecilia Bartoli in a new Christof Loy production of Handel’s Ariodante, with which Lewek traveled to Opéra de Monte-Carlo before returning to Salzburg to make her role debut as Eurydice in Barrie Kosky’s 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 and as Offenbach’s Four Heroines at Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as house and role debuts as Teresa, in a new Terry Gilliam production of Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, and as Cunegonde, in Francesca Zambello’s new treatment of 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 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 64 times. As the New Yorker’s Alex Ross observes, “she executes this stratospherically difficult role better than anyone alive.”
Lewek’s other notable operatic engagements include her portrayal of Konstanze in Alison Moritz’s season-opening new production of Mozart’s 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
