Born in New York to Polish parents, Kuźma is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Yale University. In 2022, she won the Butler International Competition and the Pasadena Vocal Competition, and last year made her recital debut at London’s Wigmore Hall. She was also a member of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Program.
”I’m very proud of my victory. My biggest success is to sing the Polish repertoire so that those who don’t know Polish music come to like it and eventually decide to perform Polish works”, Kużma told the Polish Press Agency.
Her programme in the competition finals included Hanna’s aria from Stanisław Moniuszko’s opera Halka. In her Wigmore Hall recital she sang two songs by Fryderyk Chopin.
Second prize went to American singer Michael Butler, and third prize was awarded to Canada’s Rose Naggar-Tremblay. The Competition was entered by 40 singers, who were selected from among 120 applicants.
Thomas Lausmann, Director of Music Administration at the Metropolitan Opera, was the event’s artistic director.
Its honorary patrons included acclaimed Polish singers, tenor Piotr Beczała and bass-baritine Tomasz Konieczny.
Launched in 1968 by the Kościuszko Foundation and held every three years, the Marcella Sembrich International Voice Competition is aimed at encouraging young singers to study the Polish repertoire and honour Polish soprano Marcella Sembrich.
Born in Poland in 1858, Sembrich was a highly gifted artist, who displayed equal virtuosity as violinist, pianist and singer. After vocal studies in Milan, and an operatic debut in Athens at the age of 19, she decided to pursue a singing career.
She performed in prestigious European venues, as well as at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. After retiring from the operatic stage, she founded the vocal training programmes at both the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute. She was among the first donors of the Kościuszko Foundation. She died in New York in 1935.
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