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Polish mezzo-soprano Marta Wryk is a first year member of the Opera Studio of the Opera Cologne and has already made her debut as Cherubino in Opera Cologne’s new production of Le Nozze di Figaro. She recently made her American debut with the Virginia Opera as Aglaonice in “a strong and thought provoking” [Washington Post] production of Philip Glass' Orphée. Her performance was described as "great" by the Washington City Paper and the Washington Times wrote “special hat tips due to Marta Wryk”. In 2011/2012 season she also performed L’enfant in L’enfant et les sortilièges in Port of Spain, Trinidad and covered the roles of Mother and the Witch in Hansel and Gretel and Katisha in The Mikado at Virginia Opera as well as the title role in Carmen at Lyric Opera Virginia. This was followed by singing the role of Marianne and covering the role of Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier at Chautauqua Music Festival in New York. In Opera Cologne Ms Wryk will be featured this season in Parsifal and Suora Angelica as well as in several production of the Kinderoper. She is also covering the roles of Annio from La Clemenza di Tito and Smetone from Anna Bolena.
A recent graduate of Manhattan School of Music, Ms. Wryk has sung the roles of Mirtillo in Handel’s Il Pastor Fido and Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus. For these portrayals she has been praised in Q on Stage for her “radiance [and her] clear sound and assured presence,” and in the Polish Daily News for her “noble sound and natural stage presence”. Other recent opera credits include Third Lady in The Magic Flute with Manhattan School of Music Outreach Program and Elisabeth Proctor in The Crucible with Chautauqua Institution. She also covered Gondi in Maria di Rohan and Clotilde in Norma at the Bel Canto at the Caramoor Festival in 2010.
Equally at home on the recital stage Marta Wryk performed in Symphony Space in New York with pianist Anne-Marie McDermott and in Kiva Auditorium in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with the pianist Kevin Kenner and the cellist William De Rosa. She has appeared in the Music at the White Hall concert series at the invitation of the Henryk Wieniawski Music Society in Poznan, Poland, and has performed at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory at the invitation of Dr. James Watson, the Nobel Prize laureate. Other important concert appearances include the Caramoor Music Festival, the Chopin Foundation of the United States and the Kosciuszko Foundation. In Europe she has appeared at Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg in Germany, the University Hall in Poznan, the International Festival Art-Connection in Rotterdam and at the Chopin Konfrontacje Festival in Antonin.
Ms. Wryk received prizes from Career Bridges Competition and Marcella Sembrich Voice Competition. She also won first prize at the International Voice Competition in Gorizia, Italy.
In addition to musical performance, Ms. Wryk is a musicologist and writer. Her work has been published in Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland’s major daily newspaper, and in literature journals and magazines including Zeszyty Literackie and Arkusz. Her music journalism appears in Polish Daily News. She teaches classes about opera to gifted children through the Polish Children’s Fund’s Summer Workshop. She has received awards from the Prime Minister of Poland and the Ministry of Education, and scholarships from the Leszek Czarnecki Foundation, the Business and Professional Women`s Club, the Lions Club Polonia and the Polish and Slavic Federal Credit Union. She was also awarded the Carolyn Marlow Vocal Scholarship from the Manhattan School of Music. Ms Wryk holds a degree from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and from Manhattan School of Music. She participated in Young Artist Programs at Virginia Opera, Lyric Opera Virginia and Bel Canto at Caramoor.
