soprano and composer; b. 20 July 1983. She studied singing with Zdzisława Donat and composition with Marian Borkowski at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. She completed postgraduate studies with Philip Doghan and Ian Partridge at the Vocal Faculty of the Royal Academy of Music. She received scholarships from the Witold Lutosławski Society, Solti Foundation, Royal Academy of Music and the Evangelical Reformed Church in Warsaw. The artist developed her vocal skills at courses taught by Barbara Bonney, Tom Krause, Rosemary Hardy, Alberto Zedda, Teresa Żylis-Gara, Robert Tear, Wolfgang Holzmair, Margreet Honig and Franz Lukasovski.
As a singer she won the 1st prize at the 15th Concorso Internazionale di Musica “Euterpe" in Italy (with pianist Michał Pietrzak, 2013). For many years she has sung at the Teatr Wielki-National Opera in Warsaw, where she made her debut in Aleksander Nowak’s opera Sudden Rain conducted by Marek Moś. She also sings the role of Pamina in The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Serpina in La serva padrona by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, and the Second Soprano in Medeamaterial by Pascal Dusapin.
Łucja Szablewska specialises in performing contemporary music and large-scale vocal-instrumental works. She premiered several dozen new Polish compositions and sung parts in monumental works with excellent orchestras at numerous concerts in Poland and abroad. In 2007 she performed Stabat Mater by Joseph Haydn (with Concerto Avenna under Krzysztof Kusiel-Moroz), in 2013 - Missa pastorita by Janusz Zajdler (with Sinfonia Viva and Warsaw Archcathedral Choir under Dariusz Zimnicki), in 2014 - Lobgesang by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, Bach-Chor, Collegium Vocale, Vokalensemble an der Liebfrauenkirche Koblenz under Enrico Delamboye) and Coronation Mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Motet et Madrigal Choir, Bydgoszcz Chamber Choir, Wawel Cathedral Mixed Choir, Warsaw Archcathedral Choir, Cantores Sancte Barbarae, Józef Elsner Music School Symphony Orchestra under Zbigniew Szablewski).
The aritst has given performances at such festivals as the Koblenzer Mendelssohn-Tage (Germany), Oxford Lieder Festival (England), Radnicke hudebni (Czech Republic), Warsaw Autumn, Festival of Witold Lutosławski "Chain", Laboratory of Contemporary Music, Warsaw Days of Passion Music, Ars Moriendi, Musica Sacra, Musica Moderna, Gaude Mater, Festival of Polish Composers’ Songs, Sacrum – Non Profanum, Karol Szymanowski Music Days, as well as the 6th Festival of Traditional and Avant-garde Music KODY in Lublin.
Her cycle of 4 quasi-songs for vocal sextet and amplified cello was commissioned by the "Miód Materia" Artistic Association as part of the "Collections - Composing Commissions" programme implemented by the Institute of Music and Dance.
Some of Łucja Szablewska’s best performances have been released on CDs. In 2006 she recorded Zbigniew Bujarski's Burning Bushes live with pianist David Højer for GEMA Germany. In 2013 DUX released her recording of Witold Lutosławski’s Chantefleurs et Chantefables and Lacrimosa with the Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra (dir. Daniel Raiskin). Her debut album with the proMODERN Contemporary Vocal Sextet Where Are You. Pieces from Warsaw was published under the Sarton label in 2014. In the same year she recorded for DUX Responsoria Tenebrae by Paweł Łukaszewski. The albums won three Fryderyk Awards of the Polish Phonographic Academy.
At present Łucja Szablewska is a soloist at the Teatr Wielki-National Opera in Warsaw and a member of the proMODERN Contemporary Vocal Sextet.
updated: October 2015 (wa)
