About me
Joanna Ruszala is a polish soprano. Her artistic career as an opera singer resulted in winning international competitions and performing soprano roles such as Violetta, Mimi, Marguerite, Liu, Micaela, and Aida.
She made her American debut as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, at the Arbor Opera Theater in Michigan. Most recently, she appeared in Verdi’s Aida with Teatro Lirico di Europa singing the title role and Mimi in La Boheme with the same company. In addition she made her debut with the New York City Opera in the production of Telemann's Orpheus, where the New York Times named her “The Winning Soprano”. She is equally at home on the European stages of the Polish National Radio Orchestra, Silesian Philharmonic, and Varna State Opera of Bulgaria where she made her European debut singing Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto, as she is with the American venues of Tulsa Opera, and South Texas Lyric Opera where she has performed the role of Mimi in Puccini’s La Boheme.
Enjoying diversity in music, she performed numerous oratorios and masses such as Mozart’s C Major and C Minor Mass, Mendelsohn’s Elijah and Lobgesang, Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras as well as Respighi’s Il Tramonto with the world renown Silesian String Quartet. She is passionate about her native Polish music. She is specializing in the works of Chopin, Paderewski, and Szymanowski, and toured Lithuania, Ukraine, Italy and the Czech Republic in ‘good will tours’ dedicated to sharing the works of Polish Composers. Recently she is in the process of completing the project “The Polish Art Song Anthology for American Singers” with her husband, Piotr Wisniewski, Head of Music Staff, pianist, conductor, and chorus master at Lyric Opera of Kansas City.
She is the winner of the 8th International Ada Sari Competition of Vocal Art in Nowy Sacz Poland, where she won a special prize for “Outstanding Soprano”, The Duszniki Zdrój Music Competition (Poland) and Katowice Vocal Competition (Poland) where she received a special prize from the Artistic Director of the Silesian Philharmonic, the Bain’s Scholarship for Outstanding Opera Singers from Indiana University, and the Kosciuszko Foundation’s Scholarship in New York.
Apart from her career as a performer, she is an active teacher of singing leading a very successful
Bel Canto private voice studio where students have won international awards such as the District Metropolitan Opera Competition, Ezio Pinza Scholarship for American Singers, and gained admittance to top graduate schools including Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
She has worked as professor of voice for the past 9 seasons with the Opera Maya International Music Festival in Mexico, as well as audition training/stage presence class teacher at AIMS in Graz, and as voice clinician and masterclass teacher in various universities in USA and Poland.
Her musical education began in her native country of Poland where she received a Master of Music degree from Silesian University Karol Szymanowski School of Music in Katowice, where upon her graduation, she became a professor of voice and served for five years. Following her passion for performance, she continued her musical education at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where she received a Performer Diploma in Voice accompanied by a Performer’s Certificate in recognition of outstanding musical performance in Voice.
Throughout her education she mastered her vocal skills with Henryka Januszewska (Poland), Helena Lazarska (Vienna), Chrstian Elsner (Dresden), Kaludi Kaludov (Bulgaria), Katia Ricciarelli (Italy), Virginia Zeani (USA), Teresa Kubiak (USA) and Carol Vaness (USA).
