Magdalena Kožená studied singing and piano at the Brno Conservatory and with Eva Bláhová at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. In 1995, she won the Mozart competition in Salzburg.
She has collaborated with musical directors such as Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Gustavo Dudamel, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Mariss Jansons, Sir Charles Mackerras, and Sir Roger Norrington, as well as pianists like Daniel Barenboim, Yefim Bronfman, Malcolm Martineau, András Schiff, and Mitsuko Uchida. In 2002, she performed as Zerlina (Don Giovanni) at the Salzburg Festival, returning in 2013 as Idamante (Idomeneo), a role she has also sung at the Glyndebourne Festival, Berlin, and Lucerne.
In 2003, she made her debut at The Metropolitan Opera in New York as Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), and since then, she has returned on numerous occasions, most recently as Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier) in the 2019/20 season.
She made her debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu with the Vivaldi Concert in the 2009/10 season and has returned for the concert "Love between Heaven and Hell" (2017/18), the recital "Magdalena Kožená, Sir Simon Rattle & Friends" (2021/22), and for productions of "Alcina" and "L'incoronazione di Poppea" (2022/23).