Adam Da Ros is a Canadian stage and music director from Dawson Creek, B.C. active in opera and musical theatre. He is on academic staff at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as adjunct instructor and director of the UWM Opera Theatre program. He recently completed two seasons as Resident Artist Stage Director at Minnesota Opera, where he assisted on eight mainstage productions, including two world premieres, as well as directing members of the Resident Artist Program in promotional and outreach activities, including a concert at the National Opera Center in New York City.Adam holds a ...


A valley of the unknown, paving the way for commonalities between cultures, and creating a language for dialogue on social issues. Afarin’s Symponic Prelude “Mithra”, was performed by Toronto Symphony Orchestra as part of their 100th Celebration Anniversary and introduced many musical idioms from East to the audience. In the past few years Afarin has devoted her compositional career in producing operas: In 2018, her first opera“Forbidden” gained national and international attention by Globe and Mail and BBC world as she made a new approach to combine Eastern music with opera. Opera Canada ...


As a baritone, Alan has sung throughout North America and Europe. In the UK, he sang Marcello in Puccini’s La Bohème, Mozart’s Mass in C minor, and Bach’s St. Matthew's and St. John's Passion, Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus in London, and Papageno in The Magic Flute in Belfast. He sang Schaunard in La Boheme with Vancouver Opera and with Opera Theátre Besançon in France and returned to Besancon and Dijon, France in Peter Eötvös’ contemporary opera Le Balcon and in Rossini’s opera L’occassione fa il Ladro. Alan performed many times with the Kamloops Symphony including Mahlers’ Das Lied von der ...


Alex Chen is a collaborative pianist, baritone, and vocal coach whose curiosity brings fresh perspectives on a diverse body of musical works. In the words of his mentor John Hess, he is "an immensely musical and sensitive player" with "a deeply inquisitive mind." Alex performs regularly both as a singer and collaborative pianist in the Victoria music community, exploring genres such as art song, opera, and choral music. Moreover, as a faculty member at the Victoria Conservatory of Music he supports a wide variety of students and young professional singers from the piano. He currently studies ...


Born on the auspicious Feast Day of Bach, Handel and Purcell, it was surely fated that Alexander Cappellazzo would immerse himself in music!Starting with Strauss’ Die Fledermaus in 2017, he has since performed roles like Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Lensky (Eugene Onegin), Acis (Acis & Galatea), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Oronte (Alcina) and many more with companies across Canada including: VOICEBOX: Opera In Concert, Toronto City Opera, Opera By Request, OperOttawa, Nózki Opera, Opéra Queens, Cantabile Chorale, the Ashkenaz Festival, 23 Degree Theatre, the Halifax Summer Opera Festival and ...


2020 Dora Nominee for Outstanding Opera Direction, Amanda Smith, is enamoured by visual storytelling as a platform to explore the psychological impacts of music, colour and movement. Amanda creates stimulating productions that highlight opera’s modern-day potential with collaborations and inspiration from other contemporary art forms, such as new media art, electronic music, contemporary dance and event design.For the past ten years, Amanda’s love of the creative process has led her to exploring the use of devised and collective creation in opera, as a way to empower the performers and ...


Camille Rogers (they/them) has been praised for their “tremendous stage presence” and “real flair for comedy” (Operaramblings).Camille’s “gossamer mezzo-soprano” (Mooney on Theatre) has been described as “even-keeled and grounded even in times of intense physicality” (Schmopera).Opera roles include Suli/Suzie in Buddies in Bad Times’s world premiere of Pomegranate, Lake in FAWN's collectively improvised techno opera Belladonna, Young Girl in The Marriage of Figaro with Opera Atelier, and the title role of L’Italiana in Algeri with MYOpera.Camille has also been featured as a soloist with Pax ...


Erin Bardua is primarily a singer, voice teacher, and stage director. Like many performers, much of Ms. Bardua's most recent work has been on film and online. In 2020, her company Essential Opera produced two operatic films: Mirror, mirror, by Anna Pidgorna; and December, by Monica Pearce. In 2021, Erin created a solo programme of contemporary and original music for unaccompanied voice and voice with flute titled Afterwards-Day, which premiered at Sappyfest: Infinite Variety, a 24-hour streamed performance event. She also played the role of Helen in a hybrid live and streaming production of ...


Jaap Nico Hamburger is the current Composer in Residence with Mécénat Musica in Montréal. His compositions include commissions from Turning Point Ensemble, Ensemble Caprice, the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, and an original contribution for the project, “400 Years of Dutch Keyboard Music’”. His works have been performed and recorded with l'Orchestre Metropolitain de Montreal and Ensemble Caprice. He was recently commissioned by the Government of the Netherlands and the United Nations to compose a new concerto for harp and orchestra that was premiered by Lavinia Meijer in April 2021 on occasion ...


Soprano Jennifer Carter has been praised as “a wonderfully honest and communicative performer” (Opera Programs Berlin) and “consummate singing actor” (BarzcaBlog). In summer 2021, she completed a role study of Chrysothemis in Strauss' Elektra with Dramatic Voices Program Berlin. She opened 2020 as both Rheinmaiden and Valkyrie in the joint Toronto production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle by Opera by Request and Berlin Opera Gruppe, singing Wellgunde (Das Rheingold, Götterdämmerung) and Waltraute (Die Walküre). Additional roles have included Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), First Lady/Erste Dame & ...


Praised for his “well-projected, heroic baritone” (Opera Canada), Nikkei-Canadian baritone, Luka Kawabata, is a current member of the Yulanda M Faris Young Artists Program at Vancouver Opera. He previously appeared in last year’s digital season as Dmitri in The Music Shop and as Escamillo in Carmen: Up Close and Personal. Luka is an alumnus of Manitoba Opera's Digital Emerging Artist Program and the Banff Centre's 'Opera in the 21st Century' Program.Set to premiere Fall 2021, Luka is set to premiere two self-produced projects centred around his intersectional lived experience: “Paueru-gai” ...


Maureen focusses on celebrating Canadian classical contemporary repertoire by collaborating with established and emerging composers to commission, premie`re, and re-perform their works. Her discography includesLighthousewith Grej (ECMA Winner Classical Recording of the Year 2022);Breathing in the Shadows(JUNO nomination 2022);Aunt Helen(ECMA and Music NS nominations 2021-2);Mirror, Mirror; andLady of the Lake(ECMA and Music NS nominations 2017-8). She is the co-artistic director with Erin Bardua of Essential Opera, an opera company founded in 2010. In 2015, Maureen founded Crossing Borders, a ...


Morgan-Paige (she/they) is a Tkarón:to-based experimental interdisciplinary artist. With experiences ranging from scoring short films to solo performances, her work and story were featured in Musicworks Magazine Winter 2020-2021 Issue 138, The WholeNote Magazine, Ludwig van Toronto and Toronto Guardian. Past projects include Bin Chicken film collaboration with Toronto Dance Theatre and Alyssa Martin, The Magic Wallet short film, Mission Sankofa short film, Hillside Inside’s “The Sound of Light”, “Where Do I Go?” short film with Tapestry Opera and Rock Bottom Movement, 21C Music Festival’s ...


A multi-faceted artist, soprano Rachel Krehm is the co-founder and General Director of Opera 5. As a performer she works in opera, new music, art song, improvisation, and voice and web-series acting. Along with performing, she is a writer and producer. In 2019, Rachel performed the title role of Strauss’Ariadne auf Naxoswith Highlands Opera Studio where her performance was described as “soulful” by Opera Canada. She has performed Poulenc’sLa voix humainemultiple times, most recently with Toronto City Opera, where her performance was described as “a breathtaking virtuoso performance of ...


Hailed as “sublime, with a beautiful resonant soprano full of colour” (Opera Canada), lyric soprano Robin Hahn has accrued credits all over the world, from Amsterdam to New York to Disneyland. Previous performances include Despina in a toured production of Così fan tutte in the Netherlands; concerts across Germany singing excerpts as Violetta in La traviata and Antonia in Les contes d’Hoffmann with the Thüringer Symphoniker; and a Canadian national tour as a soloist with the Chinese Radio Broadcasting Orchestra. Her wide variety of past roles include Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni); Musetta (La ...


TenorSpencer McKnighthas been described as “one of the finest tenor voices” in Canada.His voice is described as fresh and brassy with stratospheric high notes. McKnight began singing at the age of 17. He was encouraged to pursue music by an adjudicator who heard him sing at his local music festival. His passion for music finds him frequently immersed in the music of Handel, Rossini, and Britten. Spencer’s garnered much attention both in concert and in competition over the course of the last six years, including multiple awards at a national level, and the 2018 winner of the Gordon C. Wallis ...


Stephanie Ko (she/her/hers) is a disabled arts administrator, designer, consultant and national award-winning writer based in Vancouver, BC. She is the general manager of Opera Mariposa, Canada's first fully disability-led and run opera company, and she has been involved in disability and chronic illness advocacy for fifteen years in partnership with charities, funding bodies and arts service organizations worldwide. In addition to her work with Opera Mariposa, Stephanie currently sits on Actsafe's Performing Arts Standing Committee; serves on the Community Council for the Greater Vancouver ...


Mezzo-soprano Taryn Plater is a versatile performer and creator with a strong investment in the future of opera and civic artistry. With affinities for performance and production, she is active both on and off stage. An advocate for Ukrainian opera and song, Taryn created the digital artist statementFirst Stepsthrough Against the Grain's 2021 National Opera Intensive, exploring her cultural heritage through Ukrainian art song and dance. Taryn is a mentor with Opera InReach, the Founding Aristic Director ofOpera Unbound, and a 2021-2022 Artist Fellow with the Association for Opera in Canada. ...


Njo Kong Kie (Composer / Artist Producer) A picnic and ping pong enthusiast, Kong Kie enjoys making music for dance, opera and theatre. His compositions include comic operas knotty together,La Señorita Mundo (SummerWorks); concert-theatre Picnic in the Cemetery (Ansan Street Arts Festival, Canadian Stage); song-cycleI swallowed a moon made of iron (Canadian Stage, PuSh Festival); music theatreMr. Shi and His Lover (Toronto Theatre Critics Award: Best New Musical, Tarragon Theatre, National Arts Centre, Cervantino Festival) andmusic for solo violin for the playInfinity(Volcano, Tarragon ...