Pieczonka was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, and grew up in Burlington, Ontario. She graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1985, and from the Opera School of the University of Toronto in 1988. She made her professional stage debut with the Canadian Opera Company in 1988 singing The Female Prisoner in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtensk. She moved to Europe in 1988 and quickly won first prize at the International Vocal Competition 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands as well as First Prize at the International Singing Competition in La Plaine-sur-Mer, France, also in 1988.