Magdalena Kozena receives Gramophone Award as Artist of the Year
Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena was named Artist of the Year at the prestigious Gramophone Awards last Friday. The Artist of the Year award is the third Gramophone Award in her collection; in 2001, she was the first Czech solo performer to be honoured for her rendition of love songs by the famous Czech composers Antonin Dvorak, Leos Janacek and Bohuslav Martinu and last year, it was her CD of French Arias that won her the Record of the Month award.
Magdalena Kozena, who was born in the Moravian capital Brno, has performed with some of the world's greatest orchestras. Other internationally acclaimed prizes and awards in her collection include two German Echos, the Japanese Record Academy Prize, and first prize at the 6th International Mozart Competition in Salzburg in 1995. Magdalena Kozena now lives in Berlin, where she is expecting a baby with Britain's foremost conductor and artistic director of the Berlin Philharmonic Sir Simon Rattle.
