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Maria Knapik, who made her soprano debut at the age of three-and-a-half in her native Poland, made her U.S. debut on March 26, 2002, at New York's Carnegie Hall in an all-Beethoven program with the New York Grand Orchestra and a two-hundred-ten-voice chorus conducted by Vincent La Selva on the 175th anniversary-to-the-day of the composer's death. At that time she also sang the title role of Puccini's "Manon Lescaut" and of Verdi's rarely-heard "Alzira." Most recently she performed with the New York Grand Opera as Suor Angelica in Suor Angelica and Nedda in Pagliacci during the 2006 summer season.
Ms. Knapik is the eighth daughter of the celebrated Polish Knapik family, often compared to Austria's Von Trapps. From a very early age, as part of "The Eight Knapik Sisters," Ms. Knapik performed throughout Europe and the British Isles. Ms. Knapik graduated from Poland's Karol Szymanowski Academy of Vocal and Acting Arts, and went on to win a scholarship at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, England. She also studied voice in Canada at the Wilfried Laurier University and in 1996 was named winner of Montreal's National Debut Competition for Young Artists, which led to her debut on the SRC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's French Radio Network. With Ottawa's Opera Lyra, she has been featured in Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" and in Verdi's "La Traviata" and "Rigoletto." In 1998 she was named first prize-winner at the Accademia Musicale de Chigiana in Siena; her debut recital in Italy which was televised nationally. In 2000 she made her Czech debut as Musetta in Puccini's "La Bohème" and as Euridice in Glück's "Orfeo ed Euridice." In 2002, she performed the title role of a rarely-performed Stanislaw Moniuszko opera, "The Countess," broadcast nationwide in her native Poland by the Polish State Radio from Warsaw.
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