Sandra Horst

Head of Opera
University of Toronto

BMus (WLU), MMus (NEC), Hons DMus (WLU), COC Ensemble Studio.

Select UofT conducting credits: L’elisir d’amore, La voix humaine, Les mamelles de Tirésias, Hansel and Gretel, L’enfant et les sortilèges, Taptoo!, HMS Pinafore, Don Pasquale, Paul Bunyan, The Tender Land. Chorus Master at COC since 1998; Guest Conductor, Edmonton Opera Orphée+; Faculty, Opera in the 21^st Century, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity; Head Coach, Brott Opera; frequent Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition judge. Former Chorus Master/Audition Consultant for Opera Theatre of St Louis, Chorus Master of Edmonton Opera and vocal coach/repetiteur at COC, Juilliard Opera Center, Chautauqua Institute and Boston Lyric Opera. Recognized by Wilfrid Laurier University as “100 Alumni of Achievement” with Honorary Doctorate in Music in 2019.

Michael Albano

Resident Stage Director Emeritus,
UofT Opera Student Composers Collective

With U of T Opera Michael Albano has directed over 40 productions and has developed a graduate course in operatic composition. Michael Albano has directed at: New York City Opera, Yale School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, COC. Selected Directorial credits include: Il barbiere di Siviglia, Le Comte Ory, Le nozze di Figaro, L’elisir d’amore, La belle Hélène, La Traviata, The Gondoliers, Die Fledermaus, La Bohème, Gianni Schicchi, Swoon, Così fan tutte, L’Enfant prodigue, Paul Bunyan.

Selected original libretti include: The Machine Stops; Footsteps in Campbell House; Rob Ford, the Opera; The Last Duel; The Very Last Green Thing; A Dickens of a Christmas; Laura’s Cow, the Legend of Laura Secord; Alice in Wonderland. Currently working on Fall River, the legend of Lizzie Borden.

Russell Braun

Resident Operatic Performance Specialist  

Russell Braun holds his BMus, Opera Dip (UofT) Selected repertoire: Chou En-lai (Nixon in China), Prince Andrei (War and Peace), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Ford (Falstaff), The Traveller (Death in Venice), Elijah, Peter Eötvös’s Senza Sangue, Carmina Burana, title role in Billy Budd, Pelléas et Mélisande, Don Giovanni, Louis Riel, Eugene Onegin, Il barbiere di Siviglia

Performed with: Metropolitan Opera, l’Opéra de Paris, State Opera in Vienna, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, LA Opera, La Scala, COC, Salzburg and Glyndebourne festivals, TSO, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, BBC Symphony, OSM

Selected discography: Das Lied von der Erde, Mozart Arie e duetti, Apollo e Daphne, Winterreise, Le Vaisseau Fantôme, Romeo et Juliette, Dido and Aeneas, Nixon in China

Rachel Andrist

Coach

Studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Ann Epperson and Warren Jones. Currently also at COC and Glenn Gould School.  Previously: Theatre Royale de la Monnaie, Salzburg Festival, Salzburg Easter Festival, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Glyndebourne Festival, De Nederlandse Opera, ENO, Scottish Opera. Conductors: Sir Simon Rattle, Antonio Pappano, Ivor Bolton, Rene Jacobs, Valery Gergiev, Philippe Jordan, Kazushi Ono.

Kate Carver

Coach

Has coached with UofT Opera since 1999. Also music staff at COC, Chautauqua Institute, Britten Pears School, Broomhill Opera in Kent, British Youth Opera, Banff Centre, University of Montreal, Toronto Summer Music Academy, Maritime Concert Opera, and Stratford Summer Music. Training included COC Ensemble Studio, National Opera Opera Studio in London, England and Guildhall School of Music. Studied Art Song with Martin Isepp and Graham Johnson. BMus, MMus (McGill).

Spencer Kryzanowski

Coach

Spencer Kryzanowski is a conductor, répétiteur, and vocal coach based in Toronto, Ontario, Currently, he is on staff in the University of Toronto Opera department, music staff at the Royal Conservatory of Music, the resident pianist for Against the Grain Theatre’s Opera Pub series in Toronto, and music staff with Pop Goes the Opera in Edmonton.

Spencer believes strongly in equity, diversity, and inclusion in the rehearsal room and on stage. For Spencer, creating safe and brave spaces where everyone’s voice and input is valued and where singers and musicians can explore the full range of their artistic practice is essential for all projects.  As a conductor and music director, Spencer recently completed work on Hank and Gremlin with Good Mess Opera. This new Adaptation of Hansel and Gretel will soon be made into a feature-length Claymation movie. Spencer will also return to the Edmonton Fringe Festival in August 2023 to conduct Puccini’s Il tabarro with Pop Goes the Opera.  Spencer’s other conducting and repetiteur credits include Disobedience (conductor, UofT, student composer collective), Arthur Benjamin’s A Tale of Two Cities (assistant conductor, UofT), Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel (répétiteur, Berlin Opera Academy), Puccini’s La bohème (assistant conductor, Mercury Opera), Copland’s The Tender Land (repetiteur, UofT), Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (repetiteur, UofT), and Puccini’s Suor Angelica (music director, Pop Goes the Opera). Spencer had the unique pleasure of workshopping Melancholia, an opera based on the Lars von Trier film, by Mikael Karlsson and Royce Vavrek in 2023 for the Royal Swedish Opera.

Hyejin Kwon

Coach

Home Town: Seoul, South Korea

Training: Interlochen Arts Academy, at Peabody Institute of Music of the Johns Hopkins University, UofT Opera, COC Ensemble Studio

Selected Engagers: Lyric Opera Baltimore, Repertory Theater of Washington, Aspen Music Festival, Canadian Opera Company

Selected Repertoire:  La Traviata, The Marriage of Figaro, Maometto Secondo, Ariodante, Götterdämmerung, Abduction from the Seraglio, Tosca

Current: launching new company with a stage director Anna Theodosakis

Jason Nedecky

Diction

Winnipeg native. BMus (U Manitoba), MMus and Opera dip (UofT). Further study: Baden bei Wien, Aldeburgh, L’Académie Musicale de Villecroze in Provence, France, Banff Centre. As a baritone, engaged by NAC Orchestra, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Toronto Chamber Choir,  Aldeburgh Connection, International Bach Festival Toronto, the Bach-Elgar Choir of Hamilton, COC, Saskatoon Opera, Opera Atelier, Aradia Ensemble. Language Coach at the Canadian Opera Company, the Luminato Festival, Radio-Canada, RCM. Teaches Lyric Diction at UofT,  French Diction and Repertoire at Glenn Gould School. Author: French Lyric Diction: A Singer’s Guide (Oxford University Press).

Wendy Nielsen

Voice Teacher

Lead vocal consultant for the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio Program, Artistic Director of St Andrews Summer Opera Workshop. Sang with Metropolitan Opera and every opera company in Canada.  Operatic roles: Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Micaela in Carmen, Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito and the title role in Tosca, Ariadne, Vanessa. Conductors: James Levine, Kurt Masur, James Conlon, Mario Bernardi, Charles Dutoit, Richard Bradshaw, Ivan Fischer. Former Chair Debut Atlantic. Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and the Order of New Brunswick. BMus (Lethbridge), MMus (UBC).

Steven Philcox

Head of Collaborative Piano
Masterclass

BMus (UBC), MMus (Manhattan School of Music), Music Academy of the West. Head of UofT Collaborative Piano Program;  co-director of Canadian Art Song Project. For twelve years répétiteur, assistant conductor and orchestral continuo player with the Canadian Opera Company. Has given masterclasses and/or been a faculty member at Opera on the Avalon, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Vancouver International Song Institute, The Banff Center, Chautauqua Summer Institute, Center for Operatic Studies in Italy, Highlands Opera Studio.

Anna Theodosakis

Acting/Movement

Anna Theodosakis is a Dora Award nominated stage director and choreographer. She has recently directed for the Canadian Opera Company, Edmonton Opera, Against the Grain Theatre, Saskatoon Opera, Brott Opera, and the Banff Centre, among many other professional companies. She has been assistant director with Opera Theatre St. Louis, the COC, and Tapestry Opera. Anna is a teaching artist with the Canadian Opera Company and on faculty as a dramatic coach for their prestigious Ensemble Studio. Anna is a passionate educator and has been a sessional lecturer for the University of British Columbia and a guest lecturer and stage director with McGill University, University of Toronto, Dalhousie University, Wilfrid Laurier University, University of Lethbridge, the Glenn Gould School, the University of Ottawa, and the University of Manitoba. Anna graduated from UBC with a Masters in Opera Performance and from UofT with a Artist Diploma in Operatic Stage Direction under the guidance of Michael Albano. Since graduating from UofT, Anna has choreographed ten plus productions for UofT Opera. annatheodosakis.com

Rachel Andrist

Coach

Studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Ann Epperson and Warren Jones. Currently also at COC and Glenn Gould School.  Previously: Theatre Royale de la Monnaie, Salzburg Festival, Salzburg Easter Festival, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Glyndebourne Festival, De Nederlandse Opera, ENO, Scottish Opera. Conductors: Sir Simon Rattle, Antonio Pappano, Ivor Bolton, Rene Jacobs, Valery Gergiev, Philippe Jordan, Kazushi Ono.

GABRIEL CROPLEY

Lighting Designer (Lysistrata, Cendrillon)

Gabriel Cropley is a Toronto based lighting designer and three-time Dora Mavor Moore award nominee.

Recent credits include Empty Space Empty Time for Ottawa Dance Directive, Magic of Assembly for Toronto Dance Theatre, Song of the Reed for Sashar Zarif Dance Theatre, Rokuro (The Wheel) for Suzanne Lisa + Takako Segawa, and A Tale of Two Cities (projection design) and Disobedience (lighting+projections) for UofT Opera.

Gabriel has had the privilege of collaborating with Nuit Blanche/City of Toronto, Ballet Creole, Victoria Mata Productions & Aluna Theatre, Coal Mine Theatre, dance: made in canada | fail au canada, Bicycle Opera, CanAsian Dance, dreamwalker dance, Sampradaya Dance Creations, Dancemakers, Humber Theatre, BoucharDanse, pounds per square inch performance, Avinoam Silverman Dance, Little Pear Garden Dance Company, Toronto Heritage Dance, Capitol Theatre Port Hope, Newton Moraes Dance Theatre, York Dance Ensemble, TOES for Dance, Danny Grossman, Sook-Yin Lee & Jennifer Goodwin, Theatre Gargantua, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, Hamilton Children’s Choir, Tracey Norman, Forcier StageWorks, JDdance, Art of Time Ensemble, the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, and more. gabrielcropley.ca

MARIA LAMONT

Director (Cendrillon)

Maria Lamont was born in Winnipeg, Canada, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Manitoba. She trained as an actor at the Vancouver Playhouse Acting School, and holds a Diploma in Opera Stage Direction from the Opera Division at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music.

Maria will be directing the world première of The Strangers by Frank Pesci for Die Oper Köln this September 2023.

Maria has directed Don Giovanni, La Bohème and Maria Stuarda for Pacific Opera Victoria, Carmen and Maria Stuarda for Edmonton Opera, Enoch Arden and the Hope Shelter for the Theatre Centre Toronto, and Giiwedin, a First Nations Opera, for Native Earth Theatre Toronto.

Maria has directed a new production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s children’s opera The Boy Who Grew Too Fast for the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, in a new Dutch translation – De jongen die te snel groiede.

Maria also directed the COVID-19 adaptation of Le Nozze di Figaro for the Dutch National Opera (production by David Bösch) and recently co-directed Operettaland with Steef de Jong for the same company.

Maria is also an experienced assistant and revival director.  She works regularly with Canadian director Robert Carsen, reviving his productions around the world, as well as other acclaimed directors such as Laurent Pelly, Pierre Audi, Olivier Py, and Dmitri Tcherniakov. She has worked for dozens of opera houses including La Scala Milan, Teatro Real Madrid, The Dutch National Opera,  La Monnaie Brussels, Teatro dell’Opera Roma, Theatre an der Wien, Teatro Reggio Torino, National Opéra du Rhin, Opera Vlaanderen, The Canadian Opera Company, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Théatre du Châtelet, The English National Opera, Janáček Festival Brno, Aalto Theatre Essen, Mai Festspiele Wiesbaden,  Opéra de Lille, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Kentucky Opera, Teatro Massimo Palermo, The Royal Danish Theater as well, The Saito Kinen Festival, and the Hyogo Festival in Japan.

JENNIFER TARVER

Director (Il cappello di paglia di Firenze)

Award winning director, creator and dramaturg, Jennifer has worked internationally in both theatre and opera for over 25 years. She recently directed Pomegranate for The Canadian Opera Company and a choreographed staging of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater for Edmonton opera. She has directed for Canadian Stage, the Stratford Festival, the Tarragon, Soulpepper and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, as well as the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, The Longwharf Theatre, and Hartford Stage in Connecticut.

Jennifer worked extensively with Queen of Puddings Music Theatre as director of many world premier opera productions, and was the Director of the Opera Studio at the Centre for Opera Studies in Sulmona, Italy from 2007-2009. She was Artistic Director of Necessary Angel Theatre from 2013-2019, and lead the Residency Program at The Theatre Centre from 2004-2012, where she mentored over 30 dance, opera and theatre companies in the creation of original work.

Jennifer has taught acting and directed productions for the Royal Conservatory of Music, the University of Toronto’s opera department, the National Theatre School of Canada, Ryerson University, George Brown College, McMaster University, Sheridan College and York University.

MICHELLE TRACEY

Set Designer (Il cappello di paglia di Firenze, Cendrillon)

Michelle Tracey is a scenographer based in Toronto, Ontario working in the fields of theatre, opera, tv, film and events in between. Michelle earned her BFA from York University, and she is a graduate of the Soulpepper Academy. Michelle is also a trained wardrobe technician and has constructed costumes for numerous professional productions. Michelle is a founding member of Triga Creative, a collective of designers exploring ecoscenography, intergenerational artistic exchange and the development of new sustainable working models. Select design credits include: The Clearing (The Shaw Festival), Every Little Nookie, Nathan the Wise (The Stratford Festival), The Tender Land, Mansfield Park, Imeneo, The Fatal Gaze, Last Days (U of T Opera), Behind the Moon, This Was The World, Much Ado About Nothing (Tarragon Theatre), Indecent (Studio 180) Garden of Vanished Pleasures, Hell’s Fury (Soundstreams), Wedding at Aulis, Sisters, Waiting for Godot (Soulpepper Theatre).  michelletraceydesign.com

JORDAN DE SOUZA

September 22, 2023 | 11:00am – 2:00pm
Riki Turofsky Master Class in Voice

Jordan recently conducted Die Zauberflöte at Bayerische Staatsoper Munich and Rigoletto for Houston Grand Opera and last season conducted Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas at the Chicago Lyric Opera, Don Giovanni at Opernhaus Zürich, Wagner Der fliegende Holländer at Nationaltheater Mannheim and La bohème at the 2022 Glyndebourne Festival. This season sees him conduct Carmen at Dutch National Opera, a new production of La Périchole at Theater an der Wien, Die Zauberflöte at Oper Köln and La bohème at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Jordan’s recent concert appearances have included Berlioz Symphonie fantastique with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, the world première of Simon Bertrand’s Weltengeist along with Shostakovich Symphony No. 9 with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and his BBC Proms debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducting George Walker Address for Orchestra, Barber Violin Concerto and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4.

In 2016 Jordan was invited to join the staff of the Komische Oper Berlin where he has conducted Don Giovanni, La traviata, Petrushka, L’enfant et les sortilèges, Eugene Onegin and Il barbiere di Siviglia.

Born in Toronto, Jordan studied conducting at McGill University, Montreal and made his conducting debut aged 20 with Bach St John Passion. On graduating, he joined the McGill faculty from 2011-2015 and went on to conduct several important choral works including Bach St Matthew Passion, Christmas Oratorio and Mass in B minor, and the Verdi, Mozart, and Fauré Requiem. During this time, he was also Conductor in Residence of Tapestry Opera in Toronto, conducting three world premières.

WILL CRUTCHFIELD

February 5 – 8, 2023
2022-23 John R. Stratton Visitor in Music

Will Crutchfield has divided his opera career between conducting, musicology, and education. As Director of Opera for the Caramoor International Music Festival from 1997 to 2017, he has conducted over 30 titles by Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Verdi with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and soloists including Lawrence Brownlee, Angela Meade, Vivica Genaux, Hao Jiang Tian, Ewa Podleś, Sumi Jo, Jennifer Larmore, Georgia Jarman, John Osborn, Michael Spyres, and Hei-Kyung Hong. He has also held posts as Music Director with the Opera de Colombia (Bogota) and Principal Guest Conductor of the Polish National Opera (Warsaw), and has made guest appearances with many theaters, including the Rossini Opera Festival (Pesaro), the Canadian Opera Company, the Washington National Opera, and the Minnesota Opera among others.

For Ricordi and the Fondazione Rossini he prepared the critical edition of Aureliano in Palmira, also conducting the production at Pesaro that won first place as “Best Rediscovered Work” in the 2015 International Opera Awards. In the same year he was named a Fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation in recognition of his operatic work, and in 2017 he was named as one of Musical America’s thirty “Movers and Shapers” for his leadership in innovative training and performance. In 2020 he was featured in The New York Times for his first-ever reconstruction of Beethoven’s sketches for the lost tenor aria from the 1805 opera Leonore. His other reconstructions include Donizetti’s unfinished Symphony in E Minor, the only known full-scale concert symphony by a major Italian composer of the 19th century. He has contributed articles on historical performance practice to the New Grove Dictionaries of Music and numerous scholarly journals, and is currently completing a book on the same subject for Oxford University

Peter Barnes

Voice Teacher

Peter Barnes is a versatile baritone with a reputation for outstanding performances in opera, oratorio, concert and musical theatre. He graduated from the University of Toronto Opera Division in 1985 and since then has appeared with opera companies and orchestras from coast to coast. His achievements include honours in the “Du Maurier Search for the Stars”, the National Bach Aria Competition, the CG Young Performers’ Competition.

Gregory Dahl

Voice Teacher

Gregory Dahl is one of Canada’s busiest baritones, in demand for both concert and operatic appearances in Canada, UK and the United States. His debut as Tomsky in The Queen of Spades for English National Opera was notable for “a splendidly oily and corrupt Count Tomsky” while the press hailed his “appealingly lyrical baritone [that] emphasized Golaud’s inner turmoil over his villainy” in Opera Theatre of St. Louis’s Pelléas et Mélisande. 

In the summer of 2019, Dahl made his debut in the title role of Der Fliegende Holländer in a new production for Opéra de Québec, destined for the Met’s New York stage in coming seasons.  A great favourite in Québec, he will be heard as Germont Pere for Opéra de Québec in the fall followed by Messiah for Orchestre classique de Montréal and the Rhode Island Philharmonic. During the 2018/19 season Greg appeared as Hermogines in the world premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s opera Hadrian with the Canadian Opera Company, joined l’Opéra de Montréal for Donner in Das Rheingold, sang Messiah with the Winnipeg Symphony, and reprised the title role in Rigoletto for Calgary Opera.

Darryl Edwards

Voice Teacher

BMus, BEd, MMus (UWO), DMA (Michigan). His students regularly appear in leading roles with major opera companies and orchestras worldwide. As a performer: MSO (Charles Dutoit), Calgary Philharmonic (Hans Graf), Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (Noel Edison),  Heidelberg Bach-Chor (Christian Kabitz), National Arts Centre Orchestra (Franz-Paul Decker). In 2016-2017: voice adjudicator for Canadian National Music Festival Finals in Edmonton; Artistic Director, Centre for Opera Studies in Italy and Centre for Opera Studies & Appreciation. Guest instructor: Charles University, Prague; University of Auckland;  Royal College of Music; Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; Central Conservatory, Beijing;  Xi’an Conservatory.

Lorna Macdonald

Voice Teacher

BME (Dalhousie), MMus (New England Cons). Leads Vocal Pedagogy in a progressive, three-level program combining music, science and teaching. OCUFA Award for “teaching excellence and outstanding contributions to university teaching”

Performances and master classes across North America, Bermuda, Taiwan, China, France, Ireland, UK, Germany, and Austria. Lorna has performed with Metropolitan Opera, Chicago, New York, Houston, Los Angeles, Washington, Fort Worth and Dallas Opera companies. Creator and librettist of The Bells of Baddeck – the Alexander Graham and Mabel Bell Story, music by Dean Burry. Other original programs include multi-media work “Lois Marshall in Russia”, and “Marrying Mozart”, adapted from the book by Stephanie Cowell.

Elizabeth McDonald

Voice Teacher

BMus (UofT), MMus (Eastman).  Further training: Banff Centre, Britten-Pears School, Orford Arts Centre, Santa Fe Opera and COC Ensemble. Roles include Elettra (Idomeneo), The Woman (Erwartung), Miss Jessel (The Turn of the Screw), Jenufa (Jenufa). Has appeared with the National Ballet Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, Kingston Symphony. Regular recitalist with Virginia Polytechnic University, Eastman School of Music, Off Centre Music Salon and the Universities of Toronto, Lethbridge, Queen’s, Carlton. Adjudicator for major voice festivals across Canada and regularly works as a vocal consultant for the Ontario Youth Choir, the Toronto Children’s Chorus and the University of Toronto’s annual Choral Symposium.

Wendy Nielsen

Voice Teacher

Lead vocal consultant for the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio Program, Artistic Director of St Andrews Summer Opera Workshop. Sang with Metropolitan Opera and every opera company in Canada. Operatic roles: Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Micaela in Carmen, Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito and the title role in Tosca, Ariadne, Vanessa. Conductors: James Levine, Kurt Masur, James Conlon, Mario Bernardi, Charles Dutoit, Richard Bradshaw, Ivan Fischer. Former Chair Debut Atlantic. Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and the Order of New Brunswick. BMus (Lethbridge), MMus (UBC).

Nathalie Paulin

Voice Teacher

Native of New Brunswick. B.Mus, M.Mus (U de Montréal), post-grad with Dalton Baldwin and Lorraine Nubar, COC Ensemble Studio. Has sung with every Canadian opera company. Conductors: Sir Roger Norrington, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andrew Parrott, Michael Christie, Robert Spano, David Agler, Bernard Labadie, Graeme Jenkins, Andrew Litton, Antony Walker, Jacques Lacombe, Yoav Talmi. Roles: Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande), Norina (Don Pasquale), Marzelline (Fidelio), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Antonia (Les contes d’Hoffmann), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Micaëla (Carmen),  title role in Rodelinda, Semele and Massenet’s Manon. International engagers: Wexford Festival, Mercury Baroque of Houston, Chicago Opera Theater, Arizona Opera, Cincinnati Opera

Daniel Taylor

Voice Teacher

Director: UofT Schola Cantorum Choir and Orchestra, Theatre of Early Music, Quebec International Festival of Sacred Music

Selected Repertoire: Rinaldo, Rodelinda, Theodora, Orfeo ed Euridice, Israel in Egypt, Carmina Burana, Christmas Oratorio, Saul, Bach St. John Passion

Selected Engagers: Metropolitan Opera, Glyndebourne, Welsh National Opera, COC, Academy of Ancient Music, Cleveland Orchestra, TSO, Philadelphia Orchestra Bachakademie Stuttgart, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, BBC Proms
Selected Discography: Bach Cantatas; Renaissance duets; Rinaldo; Theodora; Rodelinda; Cantatas “Before Bach”; Vivaldi Gloria; four recordings of Handel’s Messiah, Bach B minor Mass

Laura Tucker

Voice Teacher

BA (Seattle Pacific U), MMus (Manhattan School of Music), Juilliard Opera Center.
She has performed at New York City Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Philadelphia, COC, Wexford Festival, Huddersfield New Music Festival, Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Chicago Ravinia Festival, New York Mostly Mozart Festival, Lincoln Center.

Roles include Charlotte (Werther), Sesto (La clemenza di Tito), Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte), Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier), Erika (Vanessa), Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Helmwige (Die Walküre), Marco Polo in the North American premiere of Marco Polo by Tan Dun.

Frederique Vezina

Voice Teacher

Montreal native, alumna of COC Ensemble Studio and Festival International d’Art Lyrique d’Aix-en- Provence. Conductors: Richard Bradshaw, James Conlon, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Hans Fricke, Bernard Labadie, Jacques Lacombe, Kent Nagano, Peter Oundjian, Yoav Talmi, Bramwell Tovey. Roles: Mimi (La Bohème), Lisa (Queen of Spades), Ellen Orford (Peter Grimes), Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Miranda (The Tempest), title role (The Merry Widow, Lillian Alling),  Micaëla (Carmen), Wellgunde (Das Rheingold). Companies: Washington National Opera, COC, Festival Lanaudière, New Jersey Festival, Opera Companies of Vancouver, Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary, Victoria and Quebec.

Monica Whicher

Head of Voice Studies

Has performed with every major Canadian orchestra and opera company. Conductors include Helmuth Rilling, Peter Oundjian, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Franz-Paul Decker, Mario Bernardi, Pinchas Zukerman, Richard Bradshaw, Timothy Vernon, Yanick Nezet-Seguin, Steuart Bedford. Master classes: Victoria Conservatory; U of Alberta; U of Manitoba, Guelph Spring Festival.

Recordings: Lullabies and Carols for Christmas; Erotikos Logos, Song Cycles (Hatzis); Singing Somers Theatre, the Music of Harry Somers; Castor et Pollux with Aradia Ensemble; Persée with Opera Atelier.

Roles: Thaïs (Thaïs), Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), Pamina and Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Anna Maurant (Street Scene), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Governess (Turn of the Screw), Female Chorus (The Rape of Lucretia). BMus (UWO), Opera Diploma (UofT), COC Ensemble, Britten-Pears School of Music.

CHRISTINA BELL

Opera & Public Events Administrator

Soprano Christina Bell is frequently featured in Concert, Opera, and Oratorio across North America. Recent performances include Paquette in Candide with North York Concert Orchestra in June of 2023 as well as a recital tour across Southwestern Ontario in August of 2023.

A graduate from University of Toronto with a Diploma in Operatic Performance, Christina sang the roles of Mrs. Baggett in Footsteps in Campbell House, Lady with a Cake Box in Dominick Argentos’ Postcard from Morocco, Lady Billows in Brittens’ Albert Herring, Donatella in Encouters, as well as being a part of Last Days, a pastiche created by Tim Albery and David Fallis. Over the recent years Christina has attended the Mainstage/Ensemble Programs at Opera on the Avalon (2015, 2014), The Centre for Opera Studies in Italy (2013, 2015), Halifax Summer Opera Festival (2014), St.Andrews Summer Opera Workshop (2016). Other recent operatic performances include Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito, Liliana in Miracle Flight 571 with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Portia in Le marchand de Venise, Cousin Hebe from Gilbert & Sullivans’ HMS Pinafore, Mrs.Grose in The Turn of the Screw, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Helena in Brittens’ A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In 2015 Christina had the privilege of representing Canada with the Toronto Korean-Canadian Choir as a soloist for Vivaldis’ Gloria and sang Arirang as the soprano soloist during the performance of the Korean Folk Songs with Symphonia Toronto.

Christina has been a member of the Canadian Opera Company Chorus since 2015 and when she is not on a stage, she can be found exploring her passion for arts administration and management. She is the current Opera & Public Events Administrator at the University of Toronto and the Company Manager for the Opera in the 21st Century program at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.