Irene Pavloska was born to affluent
Jewish parents Pauline () and David Levi in
Saint-Jean, Quebec, and raised in
Montreal. She was educated at Dunham Ladies' College in nearby
Dunham, the
High School of Montreal, and at a boarding school in
Frankfurt. She later studied under
Edmond Duvernoy at the
Conservatoire de Paris. She first performed with the Montreal Opera Company under the
stage name Olga Pawloska in the 1911–12 season, and took on the name Irene Pavloska before touring as Juliska in
Sári in the 1914–15 season in
New York. Intermittently between 1915 and 1934 she was associated with the
Chicago Civic Opera Company, beginning with her debut as Musetta in
La bohème, alongside
Nellie Melba as Mimì. Her other notable roles with the Company include Suzuki in
Madama Butterfly, Olga Sukarev in
Fedora, Stephano in
Roméo et Juliette, Meg Page in
Falstaff, and Princess Clarice in the premiere of
The Love of Three Oranges. Outside of Chicago, she notably played in
The Firefly in Los Angeles (1921), and sang the title role in the Canadian debut of
Rose-Marie at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in
Toronto (1925). She died while waiting for a train at
Chicago Union Station on February 12, 1962, at the age of 72. ==Personal life==