Professor Jadwiga Rappé

Jad­wiga Rappé, one of Poland’s most out­stand­ing singers, grad­u­ated from the Depart­ment of Slavonic Philol­ogy at War­saw Uni­ver­sity. She began to learn to sing under Zofia Brégy and then con­tin­ued her stud­ies under Jerzy Artysz. She grad­u­ated with hon­ours from the Acad­emy of Music in Wrocław in 1984. She won the first prize at the Inter­na­tional Bach Com­pe­ti­tion in Leipzig in 1980. A year later she won a gold medal at the Young Soloists Fes­ti­val in Bordeaux.

Jad­wiga Rappé is an ora­tory and can­tata singer. She sings music from sev­eral dif­fer­ent peri­ods, from baroque to con­tem­po­rary times (includ­ing the mon­u­men­tal works of Krzysztof Pen­derecki and Alfred Schnit­tke). She also has a rich song reper­tory in which she presents over a dozen styl­is­ti­cally diver­si­fied recitals. She has sung at the most famous con­cert halls in Europe and North Amer­ica and has worked with such great con­duc­tors as Richardo Chailly, Colin Davies, Charles Dutoit, Niko­laus Harnon­court, Mścisław Roztropow­icz, Seiji Ozawa, Kent Nagano, Armin Jor­dan, Lorin Maazel, Krzysztof Pen­derecki, and many oth­ers. She has sung at many inter­na­tional music fes­ti­vals includ­ing Salzburg Fest­spiele, Fes­ti­val de Paris, Orange Fes­ti­val, Bruck­n­er­fest Linz, Styr­i­arte Graz, Mag­gio Musi­cale Fiorentino, MDR Musik­som­mer, Wratislavia Can­tans and War­saw Autumn. She is often invited to sing the music of Gus­tav Mahler and has all his alto parts in her reper­tory. She is also invited to sing at first per­for­mances of con­tem­po­rary works (the last one being Krzysztof Penderecki’s Seven Gates of Jerusalem con­ducted by Lorin Maazel, Jerusalem 1997) and of works spe­cially com­posed for her orig­i­nal voice.

Jad­wiga Rappé also sings the alto parts in operas by Gluck, Hän­del, Ponchielli, Verdi and Richard Strauss. Her god­dess Erda in Wagner’s Ring was also a great suc­cess. She has sung this part at first nights at Deutsche Oper Berlin, London’s Covent Gar­den, The Royal Opera in Brus­sels, Orange Fes­ti­val, Wiener Staat­soper, Frank­furt am Main, Grand The­atre Geneva and also as a vis­it­ing per­former in other the­atres. She has recorded this part for EMI in a pro­duc­tion directed by Bernard Haitink.

Jad­wiga Rappé’s discog­ra­phy num­bers more than 35 titles. Most of her record­ings were made for BMG Music, Teldec, Erato, Denon, Orfeo, Naxos, Philips, Eterna, Decca, Pol­skie Nagra­nia, Chan­dos, Pol­ish Radio/KOS Records, CD Accord and DUX. Her record­ing of Mieczysław Karłowicz’s songs (with Ewa Pobłocka at the piano) won the award of the Pol­ish phono­graphic indus­try, Fry­deryk ’98 and the record­ing of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Seven Gates of Jerusalem (“Live from Musikverein”) with her ren­der­ing, directed by Kaz­imierz Kord, won the Fry­deryk 2001 award.

Jad­wiga Rappé is often invited to sit on the juries of national and inter­na­tional singing com­pe­ti­tions. Jad­wiga Rappé began to teach at the Fry­deryk Chopin Sec­ondary Music School in War­saw in 1996 and she has been teach­ing her own class of solo singing at the Fry­deryk Chopin Uni­ver­sity of Music in War­saw since 2000. She also teaches mas­ter classes.

e-mail: j.rappe@chopin.edu.pl