Rising opera star Patricia Burda Janečková succumbs to cancer at 25
Soprano Patricia Burda Janečková was one of the bright lights of the opera world. Her young life and promising career were tragically cut short by cancer to which she succumbed at the age of 25. She died on October 1, 2023.
Born in Germany to Slovak parents, Patricia Burda Janečková grew up in Ostrava, where she studied opera at the Janáček Conservatory.
Music was her life’s passion. In 2010, at the age of just twelve, she won the Czech-Slovak television competition Talentmania. In 2014 she became the absolute winner of the Concorso Internazionale Musica Sacra world singing competition in Rome. Soon after she was awarded a scholarship to a summer singing course in Arezzo, Italy and in 2016 she received three awards at the International Antonín Dvořák Singing Competition in Karlovy Vary.
Her first public performance was at the Antonín Dvořák Theatre, where she performed for the first time with the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra. Later she appeared on stage at the Moravian-Silesian National Theatre and the Rudolfinum Concert Hall in Prague, performed with the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, and at the Janáček Music Festival. She starred in Romeo a Juliet, Flowers for Mrs. Harris and West Side Story, in which she last appeared in June of this year.
The talented young soprano released her debut album in 2011 and sung with the likes of Peter Dvorský and Adam Plachetka.
Critics predicted a dazzling career for her, but in a cruel twist of fate, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in February of 2022.
Despite putting up a valiant fight, Patricia succumbed to the aggressive tumour on October 1, 2023, with her husband, Vlastimil Burda, whom she married in July of this year, and her family by her side.
Although only 25, she left a lasting legacy through her audio and visual recordings.
