Highlights this season include a house and debut role as the title role in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with Pacific Opera as well as a performance of Handel’s Messiah with the Arcady Singers for Brott Music Festival. Podolak recently made her debut for the festival, starring as Musetta in Puccini’s La bohème.
Last season Podolak made her house debut as Adele in Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus with Edmonton Opera and returned to Bulgaria National Opera in the roles of Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata and Norina in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. Other recent operatic engagements include the title role in Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen & Kate Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly for Canadian Opera Company, Violetta La Traviata for Staatstheater Augsburg and Southern Ontario Lyric Opera, Le Feu, La Princesse & Le Rossignol in Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortilèges for Opéra de Montréal, as well as concert performances as Papagena in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at Daegu Opera House.
Recent concert engagements include Mozart’s Requiem with the Warsaw Chamber Opera, Gabriel in Haydn's The Creation with Peterborough Symphony, Fauré's Requiem & Jenkins's The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace with Toronto Sinfonietta, Markopoulos’s Liturgy of Orpheus at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, as well as appearances with the Orchestre classique de Montreal, Orchestra Toronto and at the Big Lake Arts Festival. Podolak appears regularly at the Sing the North Festival, having previously sung Mozart's Requiem and Bach’s Magnificat. In recital, Podolak featured as part of the Women's Musical Club of Toronto's concert series, following her recital debut at Opéra National de Bordeaux in the 2024/25 season.
In November 2019, Podolak made her operatic debut at Silesian Opera House as Zuzia in the academic premiere of Stanislaw Moniuszko's Verbum Nobile, returning later that season as Adele Die Fledermaus. Podolak was a member of the opera studio at Canadian Opera Company for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons.
Elsewhere she has appeared with the Toronto Concert Orchestra, Southern Ontario Lyric Opera, Toronto Sinfonietta, Opera de San Miguel in Mexico, Meininger Staatstheater, The Symphony Orchestra of Zabrze Philharmonic and Silesian Philharmonic. She performs regularly for the Polish Consulate and Legislative Assembly of Ontario in Toronto, and has been a featured soloist in the Congregation of Polish Choirs in Warsaw. In 2024, Podolak was awarded the Bronze Cross of Merit from the President of Poland for her contributions as an artist.
Karoline Podolak graduated from Ryerson University's RTA School of Media and completed a Master’s degree in Opera Performance at the K. Szymanowski Academy of Music, Katowice. She continues her studies with Kinga Mitrowska.
2026/27 season / 499 words. Not to be altered without permission.