"His naturally powerful and light voice in the middle and upper registers allows him to easily dominate the space with a brilliant timbre."
Polish tenor Maciej Kwaśnikowski was born in Poznań and started singing at the age of 9 as a boy soprano. He began formal vocal studies with Polish countertenor Robert Nakoneczny in 2014, and in 2015 entered the Warsaw Opera Academy at the Polish National Opera, where he worked with Izabela Kłosińska, Eytan Pessen and Matthias Rexroth.
In 2017, alongside his musical training, he earned a degree in engineering physics from the Poznań University of Technology. That same year he sang the role of Florville in Rossini's Il Signor Bruschino with the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France under Enrique Mazzola, and entered the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris. He was also part of the Young Singers Project of the Salzburger Festspiele and the Académie du Festival d'Aix-en-Provence.
During his tenure at the Académie de l'Opéra de Paris he performed as Alfred in Die Fledermaus and as the Young Gentleman in Philippe Boesmans' Reigen. He was awarded the Prix Lyrique du Cercle Carpeaux (2018) and the Prix Lyrique de l'AROP (2019).
In 2019 he joined the prestigious Lindemann Program at the Metropolitan Opera. His MET debut as Young Sailor in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, alongside other engagements, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He has performed tenor solos in major oratorio works by Bach, Handel and Mozart, and notably in Schubert's Mass in E-flat Major with the Wiener Philharmoniker at the Salzburg Festival (2018) and with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in Munich (2019), both under Riccardo Muti. A frequent guest at the Salzburg Festival, he sang the Schubert Mass again in 2022 with Camerata Salzburg under Franz Welser-Möst, and performed Mozart's Coronation Mass with Mozarteum Orchestra under Roberto González-Monjas in 2023. In 2024 he added Haydn's The Creation to his repertoire at the Montpellier Opera.
Since the 2021/2022 season Maciej has appeared in numerous productions of the Paris Opera, notably as Tybalt in a new production of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette conducted by Carlo Rizzi, and as Young Sailor and Shepherd in Peter Sellars' production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, always to high critical acclaim. In 2025 he made his role and house debut at the Polish National Opera as Tamino in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte.
In the 2025/2026 season he sings Beppe in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci and the tenor solo in Mozart's Coronation Mass at the Montpellier Opera, Tybalt in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette at the Staatsoper Berlin and Teatro Real de Madrid, Narraboth in Strauss' Salome and Michel in Martinů's Julietta at the Wrocław Opera, and Alméric in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta at the Rouen Opera.
Maciej has been studying voice with Neil Shicoff since 2016.