Winska, Wińska, Aga, actually Agata Wiśniewska, *13 March 1964 Warsaw, Polish singer (soprano). She was raised in a family of musicians; she studied piano and flute. In the years 1983–1988 she studied at the Vocal Department of the Academy of Music in Warsaw in the class of U. Trawińska-Moroz (diploma obtained in 1989). She made her debut, while still being a student, as the Queen of the Night in W.A. Mozart’s The Magic Flute on the stage of the Warsaw Chamber Opera. In 1988 she won the Alex De Vries Prize at the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition of Belgium in Brussels and the First Prize in Operetta at the International Vocal Competition in Gascony in 1999. She is involved in stage and screen activities in Poland (Warsaw, Krakow, Szczecin), as well as in the opera houses of other European countries (Antwerp, Brussels, Stockholm, Vienna), North America, and the Far East. In 1994, as part of the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the China International Culture Exchange Center, she performed in Beijing together with J. Carreras, Z. Mehta, and others. She often performs at festivals and records albums, including arias by W.A. Mozart (with Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by W. Michniewski, 1990), 12 of F. Chopin’s Maurkas in transcription by P. Viardot (with J. Sterczyński, 1995), an anthology of Belgian songs (with baritone P. Delcour and pianist J. Schils, 2004). Gifted with a rare type of voice, a dramatic coloratura soprano, which she excels especially in roles written by Mozart. She achieved particular success in the role of Constance in Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio; a 1990 recording of the performance at the Drottningholm Palace Theatre was released on DVD by Arthaus. Since 2000, she is living permanently in Belgium, where she gave a series of recitals with Slavic music of Romanticism in 2003 and 2004.
