Adrianne Pieczonka

Adrianne Pieczonka, OC ( ; born March 2, 1963) is a Canadian operatic soprano singer.

Life and career Pieczonka was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, but her family moved to Burlington, Ontario, when she was 2 years old. As a child, she liked theatre and music and was encouraged to take piano lessons at an early age. After becoming frustrated with her piano studies, she began vocal lessons as a teenager. with Alvin Reimer and Martin Chambers in 1985, and studied with Mary Morrison in 1988. Upon graduating, she was awarded a Distinguished Graduate Award. in a recording of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. Freia (Das Rheingold), Elsa (Lohengrin), and Elisabeth (Tannhäuser).

In 2023, she planned to sing Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle with Gerald Finley, but cancelled as she felt that parts of the role were out of her comfort zone. She had just turned 60 and decided to retire.

Awards and honours The Spain’s critics’ association selected her as the best female opera singer of 2002-3 and the Globe and Mail named her the top-10 artists of 2006. Her next CD Adrianne Pieczonka sings Puccini won the category in the Juno Awards of 2010.

In March 2007, Pieczonka was invested as an Austrian Kammersängerin. She, along with tenor Michael Schade, are the first two Canadian singers to have had this honour. In 2008, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2012, she was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

In 2010, her Lohengrin recording conducted by Semyon Bychkov was named “Disc of the Year” and received the “Opera Award” at the BBC Music Magazine Awards.

In 2014 she received the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award from the Ontario Arts Foundation. She has received Honorary Doctorates from McMaster University, Hamilton and from her alma mater, University of Western Ontario. She received a Ruby Award from Opera Canada in 2015. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada as well as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

Personal life She resides in Toronto with her wife, mezzo-soprano Laura Tucker, their kid George (they/them), and their two cats Sadie and Buddy.

Discography

Die Zauberflöte. Georg Solti, Wiener Philharmoniker (1991, Decca) Don Giovanni. Michael Halasz, Nicholaus Esterházy Sinfonia (2001, Naxos) Falstaff. Claudio Abbado, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (2001, DGC) Adrianne Pieczonka sings Wagner & Strauss. Ulf Schirmer, Münchner Rundfunkorchester (2006, Orfeo) Beethoven: Ideals of the French Revolution. Kent Nagano, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (2008, Analekta) Lohengrin. Semyon Bychkov, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln (2009, Profil) Adrianne Pieczonka sings Puccini. Dan Ettinger, Münchner Rundfunkorchester (2009, Orfeo) Don Giovanni. Ricardo Muti, Wiener Philharmoniker (2009, Arthaus) Die Fledermaus. Friedrich Haider, Orchester der Ungarischen Staatsoper (2012, Nightingale) Adrianne Pieczonka sings Strauss, Wagner. Brian Zeger, piano (2015, Delos) Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Complete Songs (Sämtliche Lieder). Konrad Jarnot, Reinild Mees, piano (2015, Capriccio) Lyrical Voices. Alexander Shelley, Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra (2021, Analekta)

Video

Der Rosenkavalier. Semyon Bychkov, Wiener Philharmoniker (2010, Arthaus) Simon Boccanegra. James Levine, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (2011, Sony) Berlin Opera Night. Kent Nagano, Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin (2011, EuroArts) Elektra. Esa-Pekka Salonen, Orchestre de Paris (2014, Bel Air Classiques)