Monika Buczkowska-Ward is a versatile soprano known for her performances across Europe, with a repertoire that spans from baroque to contemporary works. Renowned for her strong vocal technique, engaging stage presence, and emotional depth, she has built a reputation for captivating audiences with her expressive performances and rich vocal tone.
In the 2024/25 season Monika made a highly acclaimed role debut as Händel’s Alcina, marking a significant step in her ongoing exploration of the baroque repertoire. She also made her debut as Oksana in Rimsky Korsakov’s Die Nacht vor Weihnachten, and reprised her lead role as Madeleine/Madame de Latour in Adam’s Le Postillon de Lonjumeau to great success. A member of the ensemble at Oper Frankfurt since 2020, she returns there this season as Sifare in Mitrdiate, Re di Ponto and Bellezza in Händel’s Il trionfo del tempo e il disinganno.
Monika has performed across Europe at houses including Staatsoper Hannover, Opéra national du Rhin, Polish National Opera, and Polish Royal Opera, with roles spanning Händel, Mozart, Britten, and Puccini. Notable operatic appearances include Eudoxie (La Juive), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Livia (L’italiana in Londra), Lady Durham (Martha), and Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro).
In concert, she has appeared with the hr-Sinfonieorchester, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, and Tiroler Festspiele Erl, performing works such as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Bruckner’s Te Deum, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, and Rossini’s Stabat Mater.
She was a finalist at the 10th International Stanisław Moniuszko Vocal Competition, where she received the Marta Eggerth and Jan Kiepura Prize, and has received awards from the Ada Sari Festival and the Canticum Gaudium Early Music Competition.
Monika has collaborated with conductors including Joana Mallwitz, Henrik Nánási, Juraj Valčuha, Erik Nielsen, Leo Hussain, Titus Engel, Duncan Ward, Christian Curnyn, Geoffrey Patterson, Pier Giorgio Morandi, and Sebastian Weigle. She has appeared in new works by directors including Johannes Erath, Tobias Kratzer, Brigitte Fassbender, Claus Guth, Tatjana Gürbaca and Katharina Thomas and Ted Huffman.
She studied at the I.J. Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań, graduating with distinction, and later joined the Young Artists Program at the Akademia Operowa of the Polish National Opera. Born in Poland, Monika continues to build a reputation for her expressive stage presence, strong vocal technique, and versatility across genres and styles.
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Alcina
Oper Frankfurt (June 2025)
“The fabulous Alcina by Monika Buczkowska-Ward, who possesses endless vocal folds: sometimes cooing, sometimes frenzied, sometimes lamenting.”
Bernd Künzig, SWR Kultur
“The singers were highly convincing in the production, as was the soprano Monika Buczkowska-Ward as Alcina, who conveyed the full range of emotions.”
Petra Kammann, Feuilleton Frankfurt
“Monika Buczkowska-Ward's Alcina remains a brilliant queen of the shadow throughout her musical development towards solitude. With a confidently controlled soprano, well-controlled vocal delivery, and a voice beautifully defined across all registers, she performs the title role with utmost bravura.”
Achim Dombrowski, Opera Online
“the longer the performance lasts, the more convincing the young singer becomes with her combination of dramatic intensity and vocal expression. (…) The applause with which she is celebrated at the end is well deserved.”
Michael Demel , Der Opernfreund
“Monika Buczkowska-Ward, in the title role, carries the production brilliantly with her dramatic and vocal presence. She is no diva—quite the opposite. Small gestures reveal her vulnerability early on. She plays the role with girlish charm and great naturalness. The contrast is all the greater when, upon losing her power, she dons the black dress of a baroque heroine like a suit of armor. At times, she forces her soprano voice to forte (this applies to the middle sections of the arias), but the soft tones sound beguilingly beautiful and fill the space with intense luminosity. She possesses no magical powers; her charm is authenticity. And not least because Handel composed the most beautiful arias for her, only unmusical barbarians can resist her.”
- Stefan Schmöe, Online Music Magazine
“Alcina, portrayed by Monika Buczkowska-Ward with a sure, transformative voice, sits alone in half profile on her godforsaken island. The soprano is aware of her character, her inner and outer downfall, and nevertheless endows her with dignity; she is no longer dangerous, no longer a cold-blooded and merciless beast, but instead a woman who wants to be loved for her own sake, even though she herself bears responsibility for the wreckage of her own emotions that she has also created. Buczkowska-Ward also achieves this balance and development vocally, with impressive and captivating expressiveness.”
IOCO Magazine
Le Postillon de Lonjumeau, Adolphe Adam
Oper Frankfurt (March 2025)
“She impresses right from the start with her firm voice and clear coloraturas. Whether as a landlady or a noblewoman, she knows how to captivate the audience with her graceful presence. Like her partner, she perfectly captures the French idiom while singing”
Jean-Nico Schambourg , Klassik Begeistert
“Monika Buczkowska-Ward as Madeleine sings the cleanest coloraturas, not as a chirping machine, but with a sweet vocal fullness and full physical participation”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“A cohesive vocal performance is offered by Monika Buczkowska-Ward in the female lead role of Madeleine. She, too, faces technically challenging coloratura, which she masters with aplomb, yet she blends it with the florid tone of her lyrical soprano.”
Michael Demel, OpernFreund
La Juive – Jacques Fromental Halévy
Oper Frankfurt (July 2024)
“Monika Buszkowska also has a type of voice in Eudoxia that disconcerts our listening habits... the vocal virtuosity of the role is brilliantly assured.” - Pierre-Jean Tribot, Forum Opera
Pierre-Jean Tribot, Forum Opera
Monika Buczkowska sings Eudoxie with such flawless, ticklish brilliance in the coloraturas that the audience has to give her a round of applause.”
Judith von Sternburg, Frankfurter Rundschau
Thanks to Monika Buczkowska, Eudoxie is captivatingly light-footed and confident in her coloratura, becoming a dazzling character who casts a spell over you.”
Concerti.de
“As delicate as she appears, her soprano is radiant and powerful. In the role of Eudoxie, she embodied refinement and calculation and was adept at all emotional phases, from tender sensuality to cutting sharpness.”
Christiane Franke, Magazin Klassik
“She sings her way through the coloraturas of her aria with ease and also knows how to convince with her seductive voice in the
following Bolero.”
Klassik Begeistert
“Monika Buczkowska was much more relaxed as Princess Eudoxia, Rachel's rival. Her voice sparkles with good intonation... quick trips up and down the mountains of her scale.”
Kultura Liberalna
“Monika Buczkowska shines with astonishing coloratura fluency as Eudoxie, her rival for the affections of Prince Léopold.”
Michael Demel, Der Opernfreund
Martha – Friedrich von Flotow
Oper Frankfurt (November 2023)
“…Monika Buczkowska, who makes a remarkable debut in the role of Martha…has her moments of glory: while she sings the famous song of the ‘last rose’ with great feeling, the audience is completely silent, and even the chronic coughers fall quiet.”
Michael Demel, Der Opernfreund
"In the title role, Monika Buczkowska shone with a confidently controlled soprano voice, pearly and agile in the coloraturas, and a naturally fresh performance artistry. Enveloped by a delicate vibrato, the aria of the "Letzte Rose" touched the heart”
OperAktuell
Orlando
Halle Opera House (June 2023)
“Monika Buczkowska stood in as Dorinda, singing with nicely projected crystalline tone”
Sandra Bowdler, Opera Magazine
”The arias of the Dorinda sparkle and flash with joy of singing. Monika Buczkowska makes this with amazing fluency and wonderfully natural expression, she becomes the acclaimed sympathizer of the performance. In her playing she remains skillfully awkward, but the peasant cunning expresses itself in the clever text and the irresistible, breakneck vocal acrobatics of her multifaceted soprano. Nevertheless, it all seems easy and performed with a likable wink.”
Oper Aktuell
“Monika Buczkowska, as the shepherdess Dorinda, flutes and coos with her enchanting soprano like a love-struck nightingale, and her repetitions of the notes that slowly increase in volume and tremble with longing – seek to imitate nature and at the same time surpass it.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“Dorinda (…) is sung, even lovingly chirped, by the enchanting Monika Buczkowska. Dressed in a striped shirt with a green, fluttering crinoline like in Handel's time, she acts divinely boyish and heartily funny. She is a delight and a discovery!”
Feuilleton scout
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