Kateřina Kněžíková

Kateřina Kněžíková – soprano was born in 1982 in the North Moravian town of Bohumín. A pupil of Professor Jiřina Přívratská, she graduated from the Prague Conservatory in 2007 and continued her studies of classical singing at the Music Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts, completing the master’s degree course in 2010.She has participated in and triumphed at a number of singing contests, including a national competition of Elementary Music School students in solo and chamber singing, competitions held in Prague and named after Mozart’s friend, the Czech pianist, composer and pedagogue František Xaver Dušek, contests of students of Czech conservatories in Pardubice, as well as the Dvořák International Singing Competition in Karlovy Vary, where she won the awards of the Prague National Theatre, the National Theatre of Moravia and Silesia in Ostrava and the Editio Bärenbreiter publishing house in Prague.She embarked on her professional career as a guest singer in the F. X. Šalda Theatre in Liberec, rendering the roles of Melia in W. A. Mozart’s opera Apollon and Hyacinth, and Mar?? in Charles Gounod’s Faust. She also appears as a guest singer in the National Theatre of Moravia and Silesia in Ostrava (the roles of Nannetta in Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff and Esmeralda in Bedřich. Smetana’s Bartered Bride) and the National Theatre in Brno (Esmeralda in The Bartered Bride, Pamina in The Magic Flute and Terinka in Jacobin).In the Prague National Theatre, she made her début in 2005 as Zerlina in DonGiovanni. Her other roles include Barbarina in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro andBarče in Smetana’s opera The Kiss; the latter won her a place on the long list ofnominees for the Thalia Prize. Currently she is a regular member of the Prague National Theatre opera ensemble, appearing mainly in Mozartean roles – as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Serpetta in La finta giardiniera, Servilia in La clemeza di Tito, Despina in Cosi fan tutte, Ilja? in Idomeneo. She also sings Almirena in Rinaldo, First Nymph in Rusalka, and Esmeralda in The Bartered Bride. In 2008, her rendering of Nannetta in Verdi’s Falstaff brought her once again a place on the long list of the Thalia Prize candidates.In the course of her career, Kateřina Kněžínková has sung under the baton of many outstanding conductors, such as Serge Baudo, Manfred Honeck, Asher Fisch, Enrique Mazzola, Ralf Reuter, Heribert Beissel, Jakub Hrůša, Tomáš Netopil, Václav Luks, Robert Jindra, and to the accompaniment of renowned orchestras, including the Prague Chamber Philharmonic, The Czech Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, Symphonic Orchestra of the Capital City of Prague (FOK), Hessischer Rundfunk Frankfurt am Main, Collegium 1704, Philharmonic Orchestra of Bohuslav Martinů, Symphonic Orchestra of Czech Radio (SOČR) and others.She performed at international festivals in the Czech Republic and abroad (the Prague Spring International Music Festival, Smetana’s Litomyšl, Dvořák’s Prague, St Wenceslas Music Festival, Festival de La Chaise-Dieu, Festival Rencontres Musicales de Vétzelay, Festival Baroque de Pontoise, Music Bridge Prague –Dresden, Uckermärkische Musikwochen, Tage Alte Musik Regensburg and others.She made recordings for Czech Radio, the MEZZO station and French Television.In 2008 she was invited to cooperate with the conductor Jiří Bělohlávek on the preparation and production of a new official version of the Czech national anthem.In 2009, she sung the soprano part in Antonín Dvořák’s Te Deum performed in the Spanish Hall of Prague Castle on the occasion of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI.