About
After her successful American debut as Aglaonice in Philip Glass’ Orphée at the Virginia Opera in 2011, young Polish mezzo-soprano Marta Wryk came to the attention of European audiences and the press when she stepped in the role of Smeton in Anna Bolena at Oper Köln. Critics praised her for having “the most promising voice with spectacular high notes” (ResMusica) and for her “remarkable Italianitá” (Der neue Merker). While still a member of the Oper Köln Opera Studio, she was featured in several leading roles, including Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, Oberto in Alcina and Gianetta in L’elisir d’Amore. She then joined the ensemble of Oper Köln and added to her reportoire the roles of Mercédès in Carmen, Second Lady in The Magic Flute and Laura in Tschaikovsky’s Jolantha. For her guest appearance in the demanding role of Ascanio in Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini at Oper Bonn in November 2015, she received great critical acclaim, being called “the astonishment of the evening” (Der Neue Merker) and “a singer at a start of a remarkable career” (Kölner Stadtanzeiger).
She has since sung numerous operatic roles while also enjoying a successful concert career which took her to concert venues such as Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Düsseldorf Tonhalle, Kölner Philharmonie, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall in Katowice and Symphony Space in New York.
Since 2021/2022 season Ms Wryk has been a member of the ensemble of Oper Bielefeld. In the current 2023/2024 season she performs the roles of Rosina in the new production of Il barbiere di Siviglia directed by Nadja Loschky, Vavara in Katja Kabanova directed by Georg Zlabinger and several roles in The Convert directed by Nick Westbrook .She will also be featured in a concert with Bielefelder Philharmoniker, performing Mahler’s Third Symphony. With acclaimer pianists Sina Kloke she will perform in Theater Schweinfurt and Rudolf Oetker Halle in Bielefeld with an original program ”Mothers. Lovers. Revolutionists. Songs of forgotten female composers”. Last season she received acclaim for the portrayals of Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, Olga in Onegin and Daisy in Anthropocene. She also successfully toured Poland and Germany with her first original project – Das moderne Mädel – a cabaret show, presenting the story of the emancipation of women in Poland and Germany, with music of i.a. Mischa Spoliansky, Kurt Weill, Friederich Holländer, Claire Waldoff and Jerzy Petersburski. Together with pianist Tomasz Prasqual, a journalist Anna Kowalczyk and actress Margaux Kier she brought the show to places like Shakespeare Theater in Danzig, China Club Berlin, Collegium Music in Köln and Theater Schweinfurt.
In the season 2021/2022 she performed in Bielefeld in the productions of Rusalka, Ariadne auf Naxos and Egmont by Christian Jost. She also returned to the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall in Katowice to sing in the premiere of Conversations about Love by Tomasz Prasqual which was followed by performances in Berlin and Cologne. Other concert engagements include Mozart’s Requiem at the Mozart Festival in Warsaw.
Highlights of 2020/2021 season include Narciso in Händels Agrippina at Oper Bonn, Orsinda in Filandro by N. Porpora in Bydgoszcz Baroque Stage Festival, Mozart’s Requiem at the 30. Mozart Festival in Warsaw and the Chopin Society’s Festival in Dortmund. She also took part in an interdisciplinary project 8 Frauen at the Institut Français in Cologne and collaborated with composer PRASQUAL on creating a new piece for mezzo-soprano and electronics as part of a grant from Kunststiftung NRW. She was also invited to sing as an Alto Soloist in Rossini’s Pettite Messe Solannelle at the Kölner Philharmonie.
Ms Wryk’s most important operatic engagments of the past few seasons include: Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel (Oper Köln, Oper Wuppertal), Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte (Festival SINFONIA in Périgeuex, Bach Festival in Świdnica), Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro (Oper Köln, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern), Suzuki in Madama Butterfly (Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Oper Theater Münster), Maddalena in Rigoletto (Oper Köln), Wellgunde in Das Rheingold and Götterdämmerung and Siegrune in Die Walküre (Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden), Javotte in Manon (Oper Köln), 2. Magd in Elektra (Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden) and Gato in El gato con botas (Oper Köln).
Her admiration for historically informed performance led her to collaborate with orchestras such as Capella Cracoviensis, Les Ambassadeurs, {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna and Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviens. She has performed at the Bach Festival in Świdnica, Sinfonia en Perigord Festival in Périgueux, Mozart Festival in Warsaw and Baroque Stage Festival in Bydgoszcz. She also appeared as Alcina in Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola di Alcina during Internationale Maifestspiele Festival in Wiesbaden.
Contemporary music and the music of the 20th century has a special place in Marta Wryk’s repertoire. Having previously studied musicology and theater during the prestigious Interdisciplinary Individual Studies in the Humanities at Warsaw University, she is particularly interested in collaboration with artists and scholars of different disciplines and performing pieces that challenge today’s understanding of what a musical performance is. She is currently collaborating with Cologne-based composer PRASQUAL who wrote a part in the Conversations with Deaths (world premiere in Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall in Katowice in 2019) specially for her and the two of them are currently developing a piece for mezzo-soprano and electronics, based on a joint research and applied improvisation. In 2015 she performed Luciano Berio’s Recital for Cathy in a semi-staged version directed by Kai Anne Schuhmacher in Düsseldorf Tonhalle and Ghent Muziekcentrum, together with notabu.ensemble and Spectra Ensemble. She has also sung in operas by composers such as Philippe Glass (Orphée), Wolfgang Rihm (Jacob Lenz), Marius Felix Lange (Schneewittchen), Robert Wards (The Crucible) and Andreas Tarkmann (Raüber Hotzenplotz).
Marta Wryk has often been praised for her performance of song and chamber music. Her passion for communicating through sound and poetry is closely linked to the fact that before she started her operatic career, she has been known in Poland as an author and poet. Her poems, prose and essays about art have been published in major Polish magazines. With her song repertoire she has appeared in Kölner Philharmonie, Kościuszko Foundation in New York, Chopin Foundation in Miami, Krzysztof Penderecki International Music Centre in Lusławice, Kammermusik für Köln concert series at Santa Klara Keller in Köln and Chopin w Barwach Jesieni International Festival in Poland, where she was named by critics as the discovery of the festival. She was selected to sing in the Stipendiantenkonzert at Großes Haus der Stadthalle Bayreuth during the Bayreuth Festival. She performed at Symphony Space in New York with pianist Anne-Marie McDermott and in Kiva Auditorium in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with pianist Kevin Kenner and the cellist William De Rosa. She has also 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 and Chautauqua Institution in New York.
While still residing in the USA, Marta Wryk sung the role of Price Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and Mirtillo in Il pastor fido at Manhattan School of Music as well as Elisabeth Proctor in The Crucible with Chautauqua Institution. She also covered the roles of Octavian at the Chautauqua Institution and the title role in Carmen at Lyric Opera Virginia. She also performed L’Enfant in L’Enfant et Les Sortilièges in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
Marta Wryk won the first prize at the International Voice Competition in Gorizia, Italy, 3rd prize at the Marcella Sembrich Competition in New York and an encouragement prize from the Career Bridges Competiton in New York. In July 2014 she was named a semi-finalist of the 33rd International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition. She also received scholarship awards from the Manhattan School of Music and Leszek and Jolanta Czarnecki’s Foundation.
She took part in master classes by Helen Donath, Stephanie Blythe, Elly Ameling, Roger Vignoles and Helmut Deutsch. A degree holder from the F.Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and Manhattan School of Music in New York, she also participated in Young Artists Programs at Virginia Opera, Lyric Opera Virginia, Bel Canto at Caramoor, Chautauqua Institution and The Schubert Institute. Her voice teachers include Charles Kellis, Maitland Peters, Marlena Malas, Mariola Mainka and Monika Kopp.
Ms Wryk is also a sought after educator and has co-designed and taught workshops in improvisation and creativity for institutions like Oper Bonn, BTVN 2020, European University Alliance for Global Health, Wuppertal Bergische Musikschule and for non-profit organizations like National Children`s Fund in Poland or KLUG e.V in Germany. Click here to learn more about her projects.