With his sensational success as ALBERICH at the Vienna State Opera 2008/09 and now also as JOCHANAAN, WOTAN/WANDERER and TELRAMUND Tomasz Konieczny has established himself at the forefront of outstanding dramatic Bass-Baritones of his generation. Besides WOTAN in the Ring, Vienna has invited him to sing MANDRYKA, JACK RANCE, AMFORTAS, SCARPIA, CARDILLAC, PIZARRO, KURWENAL. Among his future plans he has guest contracts to sing with the, Nationaltheater Warsaw, Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Bayreuther Festspiele, Teatro Real.
Tomasz Konieczny was born in 1972 in Lodz/Poland, where he first studied acting at the Film, TV and Theatre Academy. He made his debut in a film directed by Oscar prize winning director Andrzej Wajda The Ring with the Eagle, following which he worked as actor / director in many TV Film and Theatre productions in Poland. It was at that time that he began his vocal studies at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy in Warsaw, after which he went to Dresden where he joined the class of Prof. Christian Elßner at the Hochschule für Musik. In 1998 he won the 33rd Dvorak International Vocal Competition in Carlsbad. In 1997 he made his debut singing FIGARO in Le nozze di Figaro at the Poznan Opera in Poland, followed by engagements in places such as Leipzig, St. Gallen, Chemnitz and Mannheim. In 2002 he joined the ensemble of the National Theater Mannheim where he sang many roles included OREST, PIMEN, KING MARKE, AMFORTAS, WOTAN, PIZARRO, JOCHANAAN and the GRAN’ INQUISITORE in Don Carlo. In 2004 Mannheim bestowed upon him the Arnold-Petersen-Award, a special prize for outstanding young talents. 2006 – 2014 Tomasz Konieczny was a member of the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf/Duisburg where he could add to his repertoire some important leading roles like WOTAN, OSMIN, GOLAUD in Pelleas et Mélisande, KURWENAL, HOLLÄNDER, BARAK, BALSTRODE in Peter Grimes SELIM in Il Turco in Italia FALSTAFF and ESCAMILLIO.
He has been a regular guest at the Opera Festival “Budapest Wagner Days”, Where he sang under the baton of Adam Fischer AMFORTAS in 2006, WOTAN in Die Walküre in 2007 as well as in 2009, KURWENAL in 2010 and 2011, WANDERER in 2010 and 2016…
Lech Napierała is a graduate of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna in the class of Vocal Accompaniment for Song of David Lutz, for which he was awarded a diploma with distinction.
He has performed in many prestigious concert halls, such as the Viennese Musikverein, Konzerthaus, Tokio Bunka Kaikan, the National Philharmonics in Warsaw, Berlin, Sofia, Ljubljana, Bucharest, the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, the Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish Radio, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Great Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw, the National Opera in Ljubljana, and many others, touring Europe, Asia and the USA. Lech Napierała specializes in song performance, but is also an acclaimed chamber musician, playing alongside artists such as Tomasz Konieczny, Olga Pasiecznik, Monika Bohinec, Aida Garifullina, Cigdem Soyarslan, Dorottya Lang, Paul Schweinester, Krzysztof Chorzelski, Gerard Wyss, and many others.
Since October 2013, Lech Napierała teaches at the Academy of Music in Kraków, where he leads the class of chamber music and accompaniment. As of 2018, he is a guest lecturer at the Opera Academy in the Great Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw, where he teaches courses on songs for vocalists and pianists.
His musical oeuvre includes an album recorded together with Aleksandra Szczęsnowicz, with compositions for two pianos, as well as a solo album with mazurkas by Chopin, Szymanowski and Maciejewski. Both albums were recorded and released by the record label DUX. In May 2014, another album with Napierała’s work, entitled Dreamscape, was released by the British record label Signum. The album contains chamber music pieces, as well as songs by Roxanna and Andrzej Panufnik, and was recorded for the centennial of Panufnik’s birth. In December 2017, Napierała, along with Tomasz Konieczny, recorded F. Schubert’s Winter Journey, with Polish lyrics by Stanisław Barańczak. The album, issued by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, premiered in August 2018 during the Chopin and His Europe International Music Festival.
