Opera Through the Ages

Joel is known for pushing the boundaries of opera, and has been called “Canadian opera’s enfant not-so-terrible.” In 2010, he founded Against the Grain Theatre in Toronto and served as its Artistic Director until 2023. Joel has adapted and translated over ten operas presented in unexpected venues, and was named an Arts Hero by The Globe and Mail in 2020 for his work directing the critically-acclaimed digital Messiah/Complex. He has also directed over 50 productions for opera companies across North America and Europe including The Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver Opera, and Minnesota Opera.  He is currently Artistic Director for Edmonton Opera.

Andrew Adridge is a Toronto-born, Guyanese Canadian multidisciplinary artist, performer, and arts administrator. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto holding both a Bachelor of Music Performance in Voice and a Master of Music in Opera. He has been featured as an ensemble soloist both at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto and the Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C. Young artist program credits include The Chautauqua Institution Voice Program, and the Banff Opera program. Most recent singing credits include Schaunard in Puccini/Ivany's La Boheme with Against the Grain Theatre's Canada-wide touring production, and a return to the baritone role in Soundstreams' Electric Messiah. Assistant Directing/Directing credits include Mozart's Requiem, Against the Grain Theatre/Canadian Opera Company; and Edmonton Opera's Valentine's Day Gala. Andrew's recognizable commitment to EDIJA advancement in the arts sector has made him sought after as a panelist, consultant, and outlet contributor. He is the Co-Founder of the national arts collective Opera InReach.

Lesley has been an opera stage manager for over 25 years, working often with the Canadian Opera Company, the Glenn Gould School, and Against the Grain Theatre. She has also enjoyed stage managing for the Canadian Children's Opera Company, Tapestry Opera, the University of Toronto Opera School, Opera Columbus, and at the Banff Centre. 

This year, she is excited to expand her portfolio and turn her skills towards a new position, as Company Manager for the Opera in the 21st Century program. What could be more fun than organizing, scheduling, and spending time in such a beautiful environment!

Mabel Wonnacott is a Toronto based performer, emerging director and arts administrator. She is the Creative Director for Can of Soup Collective, an indie opera company focused on making opera accessible and creating opportunities for young and emerging artists. Mabel was the assistant stage manager for Opera at Western's 2019-2020 season and has worked as an assistant director under Michael Cavanagh, Allison Grant and Anna Theodosakis. She holds an Honours bachelor's degree in vocal performance from the University of Ottawa as well as a Master's degree in performance and literature, and an artist's diploma from the University of Western Ontario. She will be continuing her studies at the University of Toronto where she will complete a diploma in Operatic stage directing.

Spencer Kryzanowski is a collaborative pianist, répétiteur, and teacher based in Toronto, where he is pursuing an Artistic Diploma (Operatic Répétiteur) at the University of Toronto. Originally from Edmonton, Spencer has collaborated with numerous choral groups in Alberta, including Edmonton’s Accord Ensemble and the University of Alberta Concert Choir. As a répétiteur and music director, Spencer has recently worked on productions of Copland’s The Tender Land (UofT Opera, 2022), Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (UofT Opera, 2021), Puccini’s La bohème (Mercury Opera, 2019 & 2020), and Puccini’s Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi (Pop Goes the Opera, 2019). Spencer is also a mentor with Opera InReach, an opera outreach collective dedicated to inspiring the next generation to see themselves in opera. Next in Spencer’s calendar, he will join tenor Daevyd Pepper for a visual, queer retelling of Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben, assist as a coach/pianist at St. Andrews Opera Workshop in New Brunswick, and assist as répétiteur for Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel with Berlin Opera Academy.

Spencer Kryzanowski is generously supported by the David Spencer Emerging Vocalists Endowment Fund.

Originally from Calgary, soprano, Brittany Rae, is currently based in Montréal. Brittany was recently named the First Prize Winner of the 43rd Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition which features Canadian and contemporary music. As a part of the prize, she embarked on a cross-Canada winner's tour with pianist, Jesse Plessis in fall 2020. Recent season highlights include, the premiere of L’épaisseur du silence (Jesse Plessis) with Code d’accès, the premiere of Malachi (Omer Barash) with the McGill Contemporary Ensemble, Pierrot Lunaire (Schönberg) with Ensemble Lagom, ‘Concert in the 21st Century’ Residency at the Banff Centre, and the SoundSCAPE Festival Vocal Institute with soprano, Tony Arnold. Brittany is a member of the 2021-22 Association for Opera in Canada RBC Artist Fellowship and Mentorship Program. Other performances include, Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) with Toronto City Opera, Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor) with Opera McGill, Songbook IX with Tapestry Opera, Oper’Actuel 2019 with Chants Libres, and exhibitions by Jasmina Cibic and Lee Mingwei at Fondation Phi pour l’art contemporain in Montréal. Brittany holds a Graduate Artist Diploma (McGill University), Master of Arts in Performance (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance (University of Toronto).

Brittany Rae is generously supported by the Ruby Mercer Opera Award.

Mezzo-soprano Chelsea Pringle-Duchemin is honoured to be attending the Opera in the 21st Century residency this season at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Past operatic highlights have included Eustazia in Rinaldo (2022), Zora in Ana Sokolovics’ Svadba (2021), Lucretia in The Rape of Lucretia (2021), and Anna I in Die Sieben Todsünden (2020) with the Glenn Gould School Opera Program; Le nozze di Figaro (2019), Orphée aux enfers (2016), and Paul Bunyan (2016) with the University of Toronto Opera Division; and Apollo in Apollo & Hyacinthus (2019) with COSI Connection.

In addition to opera, Chelsea is a passionate concert and new music singer. This season, she sang the world premiere of Paul Frehners’ Sometimes the Devil Plays Fate for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble with the Glenn Gould School New Music Ensemble. Chelsea is particularly interested in art song, and the ways in which feminist musicology can intersect with the performance of both standard repertoire and new music.

Chelsea is a recent graduate of the Glenn Gould Schools’ Artist Diploma program, where she studied with soprano Stephanie Bogle, and holds a Bachelors of Music from the University of Toronto. She is originally from Montreal, Quebec.

Chelsea Pringle-Duchemin is generously supported by the Ruby Mercer Opera Award.

Taiwanese-American mezzo-soprano, has performed nationally and abroad in both operatic and chamber literature. Praised for her warmth and vulnerability on stage, recent operatic performances include Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice (USC) as well as Ottone in Handel’s Agrippina (CU Boulder), Hansel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel (CU Boulder), and Beatrice in Berlioz’s Beatrice et Benedict (CU Boulder). Other roles include Gertrude in Hansel and Gretel, Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus. Previous seasons have seen her as the soloist for Mozart's Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, and chorus for Britten’s War Requiem under the baton of James Conlon at the Segerstrom Center and Walt Disney Concert Hall. In the summer of 2019, Ms. Li workshopped the role of Alice Hobson in Tom Cipullo’s Hobson’s Choice as part of the CU New Opera Workshop (CU NOW), and in the summer of 2021, she also workshopped the role of Elizabeth Van Lew in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s new opera, Intelligence (CU NOW). In the spring of 2022, Ms. Li will be performing the role of Allura in the Finnish and American premieres of All the truths we cannot see - a Chernobyl story by Uljas Pulkkis, a collaboration between USC and the Sibelius Academy.

Christine Li is generously supported by the Marshall M. Williams Endowment.

Jaclyn Grossman is defining what it means to be a portfolio artist. Hailed for her “unique voice type” (Opera Canada) and “command over a powerful range of expressive emotion” (The Whole Note), this year she joined the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Rebanks Family Fellowship and international Residency Program. A proud co-founder of Likht Ensemble, Jaclyn is passionate about sharing music by Jewish composers from the Holocaust. This season, Likht Ensemble looks forward to performances with Pacific Opera Victoria, the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company, and the Sewanee Summer Music Festival.

Jaclyn is the Programs Associate with the Association for Opera in Canada and the Founder of the Phoenix Leadership Project. She is the 2020 winner of the Ben Steinberg Musical Legacy Award with TempleSinai, and a graduate of McGill University’s Opera and Voice program. Upcoming engagements include residencies with the Britten PearsInstitute, the Banff Opera in the 21st Century Program, and the SewaneeSummer Music Festival.

Jaclyn graciously acknowledges her privilege to work and reside on the traditional territories of the Wendat, Haudenosaunee, and Anishinaabe Peoples, and the Treaty lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit.

Jaclyn Grossman is generously supported by the David Spencer Emerging Vocalists Endowment Fund.

A native of New Orleans, LA, soprano, Kourtney Holmes is an emerging artist of opera, concert, and recital repertoire. Recently performed roles include Gasparina (La Canterina) and Annie (Royal Flush) at UNLV Opera. Kourtney has also performed roles at the Turner-Fischer Center for Opera at Louisiana State University which included, Madame Larina (Eugene Onegin), Edka (Two Remain), Rosette (Manon), and Zita (Gianni Schicchi). She regularly performs at regional opera houses and for community outreach events and has garnered international experience where she sang Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), and Flora (La Traviata). Kourtney holds a Bachelor of Music Education from Mississippi State University, a Masters of Music from Louisiana State University and is currently a Doctoral candidate at The University of Nevada, Las Vegas where she studies with Dr. Alfonse Anderson. She is also a passionate, licensed music educator who works as a certified EMT in her spare time.

Kourtney Holmes is generously supported by the David Spencer Emerging Vocalists Endowment Fund.

Madison Craig is a soprano and creative, forging their own path in the world of classical music. They are grateful to make their home on Treaty 7 lands - the traditional and ancestral territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, and the Métis Nation (Region 3). This season has been one of homecoming. Moving back to their Southern Alberta roots provided the opportunity to join Calgary Opera’s chorus in their production of La Traviata (Verdi) and perform as the Soprano Soloist in Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra’s Messiah (Handel). They are incredibly excited to be participating in the Banff Centre’s Opera in the 21st Century Program this summer.

Madison’s artistic practice is rooted in a deep love of art song which began in earnest when she attended the Vancouver International Song Institute and has carried forward into her work today. Throughout the pandemic, she worked with Vancouver Opera, Opera Opulenza, and City Opera Vancouver to present free, public space pop-up recitals. During this time she also created innovative digital works like PRIDE, an IGTV recital by and for LGBTQ+ artists based on the colours of Gilbert Baker’s 1978 flag; Entre Nous, a filmed recital utilizing horror tropes, film noir, and French mélodie; and Benediction, an artist statement on lesbian identity. 

Madison holds a Master of Music in Opera from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Lethbridge. She also has been the recipient of multiple awards, including third place at the Federation of Canadian Music Festival's National Music Festival and an Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Madison Craig is generously supported by the Sheila K. Piercey Opera Endowment.

Polish-Canadian baritone Marcel Sokalski is a graduate of the Masters and Professional Studies Certificate program at Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Joan Patenaude-Yarnell. Marcel has discovered the thrill of being onstage in operas with the strength of the orchestra behind him. He has performed in I due Figaro (Plagio), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Demetrius), Albert Herring (Sid), the title role of Gianni Schicchi, La Cenerentola (Dandini), The Snow Maiden (Mizgir), and Cendrillon (Alidor), the title role of Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte (Papageno), and Così fan tutte (Don Alfonso), scene work from Ariadne auf Naxos (Harlekin) and Le Nozze di Figaro (Count Almaviva). He has also had soloist appearances with the National Arts Centre Young Artist Program in Ottawa, Chautauqua Institute, American Opera Project, and Manhattan School of Music. Additionally, Marcel has been featured on the record album of Cendrillon as Alidor with Albany Records. This summer Marcel will be joining Opera Maine’s Studio Artist Program where he will sing the role of William in The Fall Of The House Of Usher by Philip Glass.

Marcel Sokalski is generously supported by the Marshall M. Williams Endowment.

Canadian baritone Noah Grove is delighted at the opportunity to join the Opera in the 21st Century Program this summer in Banff so close to his childhood home.  Praised for his "well trained, rich baritone" (Opera Canada), Noah is a recent graduate of the Glenn Gould School's Undergraduate and Artist Diploma programs under the tutelage of Monica Whicher. His operatic highlights include Schaunard in La Bohème (Against the Grain Theatre, 2019), Junius in The Rape of Lucretia (2021), Papageno in Die Zauberflöte (2019), and Johnathan in Johnathan Dove's Siren Song (2019) with the Glenn Gould School, as well as El Dancairo in Carmen (Opera York, 2017).  Noah’s experience outside of opera includes concert performances with Opera Canada, Atelier Lyrique, Huronia Symphony Orchestra, and recitals with The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto and the Glenn Gould School.  An actor with experience in film and theatre, he looks forward to discovering where these art forms can intersect with contemporary opera.

Sawyer Craig is a colorful, versatile artist hailing from Edmonton, Alberta.

Equally comfortable on the stage and at the director’s table, Sawyer has been praised as a “standout” performer (Edmonton Journal), “particularly radiant in coloratura passages” (Opera Canada). She is committed to telling stories in vibrant, collaborative, and inclusive ways.

Sawyer did her undergraduate studies at UBC in opera performance. The years she spent in Vancouver taught her a love of stagecraft and a deep appreciation for the many-faceted, collaborative nature of the operatic arts. She followed this with a Masters degree in Voice Performance at the University of Manitoba. Under the tutelage of Monica Huisman, she developed a wide repertoire of art song and a fascination with the medium of the recital. She is currently based in Montréal, studying stage direction at McGill’s Schulich School of Music.

Recent highlights include performing Szymanowski’s Songs of a Fairy Tale Princess with the U of M Symphony Orchestra as a winner of the Concerto Competition, and helming a new production of Poulenc’s Le Mamelles de Tirésias with Opera McGill. In 2021 she, along with long time best friend Gwendolyn Yearwood, co-founded Good Mess Opera Theatre, an indie company dedicated to empowering and creating opportunities for young artists.

When she is not making loud noises with her face, or coordinating other people making the aforementioned loud noises, Sawyer enjoys running half marathons, black coffee, and relaxing at home with her cats, Toby Flenderson and Stevie Nicks.

Sawyer Craig is generously supported by the David Spencer Emerging Vocalists Endowment Fund.

Sean Haid, countertenor, is based in Montréal, Québec. A recent graduate of McGill University with a BMus in Voice Performance and minor in Early Music, Sean has spent the last several months transitioning from tenor to countertenor repertoire. During this time he has performed with Tapestry Opera, Early Music Voices, Rosa Barocca Orchestra, Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance and worked in production with Musique 3 Femmes, Opera McGill, Good Mess Opera Theatre, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Recent opera performances include The Turn of the Screw, Cinderella, L’amant anonyme, Much Ado! (Opera McGill), The Fairy Queen, Kiss Me Kate (Opera NUOVA). Sean’s work extends beyond singing and also includes theatre, stage management, video musical direction, and educational outreach. Selected acting credits include Hedda Gabler, Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Sean works as an arts educator across Canada with recent workshops presented with Theatre Alberta and Trickster Theatre Society.

Sean Haid is generously supported by the David Spencer Emerging Vocalists Endowment Fund.

Simran Claire is a Punjabi-Canadian mezzo-soprano from Vancouver, BC. She is currently a member of the McPhee Artist Development Program at Calgary Opera, performing on the mainstage as Olga in The Merry Widow and Flora in La traviata, as well as in the Young Artist productions of The Enchanted Child and The Brothers Grimm. Alongside performance, Simran is keenly interested in creating original work. In 2020, as a member of Pacific Opera Victoria’s inaugural Civic Engagement Quartet, she created Dadima, a short film exploring her identity, heritage and lineage using the framework of Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben. Her creative debut was praised as “utterly moving, disorientating in a beautiful way, like uncovering a cultural bias you didn’t know you had,” (Opera Canada). From there, she co-created Entre nous, a narrative horror short featuring French mélodie for Good Mess Opera Theatre, and associate directed Against the Grain Theatre’s Sāvitri.

As a performer, Simran was a Young Artist at The Glimmerglass Festival in 2019, and has sung with companies including Pacific Opera Victoria, Vancouver Opera and Opéra Royal de Versailles. She is a graduate of the University of British Columbia (BMus, MMus). Simran is the recipient of the Joe Boxer Award (Vancouver Opera), and the UBC Medal in Music, the faculty’s highest graduating award. She has been in productions featured on arte.tv and medici.tv, and profiled by CBC Music, Global TV and Opera Canada. Simran is also a trained bhangra and bollywood dancer, a mentor with the Marigold Music Program, and a self-taught quilter.

Simran Claire is generously supported by the David Spencer Emerging Vocalists Endowment Fund.

“A Show-Stopping Tenor" Zachary Rioux is entering his fourth year as a Resident Artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts in the 2022/23 season. His operatic experience includes productions such as Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin as Lensky and Puccini’s La Bohème as Rodolfo with the AVA, Dvořák’s Rusalka as Prince with LAH-SOW, and Mozart's Die Zauberflöte as Tamino with BrottOpera, Toronto City Opera, and the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music. This summer he will be in Banff for “Opera in the 21st Century” at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and traveling through Germany for the competition “Neue Stimmen” in Gütersloh, and the intensive “Internationale Meistersinger Akademie” in Neumarkt. Mr. Rioux has also received prizes from the Mario Lanza Competition, the Berlin International Music Competition, and the Vienna International Music Competition since 2019. Originally from Grand Falls, New Brunswick, Zachary holds a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the Glenn Gould School.

Zachary Rioux is generously supported by the Ruby Mercer Opera Award.

Sought after as pianist and vocal coach, CASEY ROBARDS has presented recitals throughout the United States, Europe, Central and South America and Asia, playing art song, string, brass, wind and chamber music. Robards’ growing career as a conductor includes Die Zauberflöte, La Traviata, La Boheme (Bay View Music Festival) and Three Decembers (South Bend Lyric Opera). Other recent productions include BOUNCE: The Basketball Opera (Associate music director, Univ. of Kentucky ) and a workshop premiere of This Little Light of Mine (Pianist, Santa Fe/Kentucky Opera). Currently, Clinical Asst. Prof. in Vocal Accompanying and Coaching at the University of Illinois, Dr. Robards has been on the faculty of Indiana University, Oberlin Conservatory, and Central Michigan University. Casey has special interest in Black American art song and spirituals, giving concerts with sopranos Angelique Clay, Ollie Watts Davis, LaToya Lain, Karen Slack and tenors, Henry Pleas and John Wesley Wright as well as the American Spiritual Ensemble. She was asst. conductor/principal musician with the University of Illinois Black Chorus between 1998-2008. Robards is Chair of the Sacred in Opera Initiative for the National Opera Association. Casey is a Korean adoptee and an advocate for social justice.

Casey Robards is generously supported by the Marshall M. Williams Endowment.

Amanda Testini (she/her) is a performer, choreographer and director based on the unceded and ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. She has worked at the Arts Club, Bard on the Beach, the Cultch, Theatre Replacement, the Firehall, the Belfry, Opera Kelowna, the Gateway, Savage Society, Theatre Under the Stars, VACT, Carousel Theatre, shameless hussy productions, Neworld Theatre, Speakeasy Theatre, the Electric Company, Vancouver Opera,  and Axis Theatre. Some of her career highlights include assistant choreographing Onegin (Arts Club/Belfry), touring Canda playing lead character ‘Justine Chambers’ in Love Bomb (Shameless Hussy Productions), choreographing 4 East Van Pantos with Theatre Replacement, playing ‘Lydia Wickham’ in Miss Benett: Christmas at Pemberly, and assistant directing La Cenerentola (Vancouver Opera). Most recently, she was the 21/22 Yulanda M Faris Young Artist Stage Director at Vancouver Opera where she directed Cavalleria Rusticana: in Concert, Blond Eckbert, and choreographed and assistant directed HMS Pinafore.  Currently, she is part of developing a contemporary dance show to Laura Reznek’s new record, Agrimony, led by Sophie Dow. Amanda is so grateful to be here at the Banff Centre to continue to develop her craft and dive into the rich world of opera. She also acknowledges the support of the Arts Club Theatre Company’s Bill Millerd Artist Fund. Amanda is a Jessie Award Nominee and a graduate of Studio 58.

Perri Lo is a pianist and vocal coach, working in opera, chamber music, and dance.  She is passionate about intertwining these art forms, coming from a formal opera repetiteur training and working with professional dance companies and schools since 2010.  Perri is currently a staff pianist at Ballet BC and Arts Umbrella Dance Company.  Most recently, she produced her first dance and art song collaboration, Quartet, featuring baritone Luka Kawabata and dancers of Ballet BC, in support of Banff Centre’s Opera in the 21^st Century Program.

Since her role as apprentice coach with the Vancouver Opera’s Yulanda M. Faris Young Artist Program (‘18-19), Perri has music directed productions with Indie Opera West companies such as ReNaissance Opera, of both traditional and contemporary repertoire.  One of her most valuable experiences was touring across B.C. with  Vancouver Opera and Pacific Opera Victoria’s co-production of Flight of the Hummingbird (2020), a new children’s opera about climate change.

When she is not performing with singers and instrumentalists, Perri serves as B.C.’s Provincial Coordinator for Opera InReach, an artists’ collective providing accessible, innovative, and diverse opera education and mentorship for youths across Canada.

She is grateful to be creating and working on the unceded and ancestral homelands of xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Sandra Horst is a conductor and educator based in Toronto. In addition to making her conducting debut with the Canadian Opera Company in Il viaggio a Reims, she is also the Price Family Chorus Master, with repertoire spanning more than 70 operas.

As Director of Musical Studies for Opera at the University of Toronto she has conducted repertoire on the main stage ranging from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, to Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing. Last fall, with the first live audience in three years, she conducted a triple bill of Hin und Zurück (Hindemith), Monsieur Choufleuri (Offenbach) and Gallantry (Moore) and in spring, Arthur Benjamin’s A Tale of Two Cities. 

Sandra was a guest faculty member of Open Space: Opera in the 21st Century at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity and she is also a frequent Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition judge. Ms Horst served as Chorus Master and audition consultant for Opera Theatre of St Louis, Chorus Master for Edmonton Opera, and has been on the music staff of the Canadian Opera Company, Juilliard Opera Centre, Chautauqua Institute School of Singing, Boston Lyric Opera and Opera Ontario. She currently serves as an industry mentor for Tapestry Opera’s Women in Musical Leadership program. 
Recognized as one of the 100 Alumni of Achievement, in 2019 she received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Wilfrid Laurier University and holds a Masters degree in Accompaniment from New England Conservatory, Boston. An active collaborator, she has been heard in recital with Brandon Cedel, Michael Schade and Marie Berard, Erin Wall, Myles Mykkanen and Elena Tsaligova. Recent conducting performances include Orphée+ with Edmonton Opera and Florence, the Lady with the Lamp with Voicebox: Opera in Concert. 

Holly is an operatic vocal coach, collaborative pianist and répétiteur based in Montreal, QC. A graduate of Opera de Montreal’s Atelier Lyrique Young Artist Training Program (2018-2021), she currently works as Artistic and Administrative associate for the program. Most recently, Holly worked as principal repetiteur on Don Giovanni (NAC, Ottawa/Banff Arts Centre), Cosi Fan Tutte (Opéra Kelowna) and Le Nozze di Figaro (Opéra de Montréal).

This year, Holly was also seen on projects such as Bluebeard’s Castle (Against the Grain Theatre), Madama Butterfly (Opera de Montreal), as well as a new music workshops of Cusson/Vavrek’s Indians on Vacation, as well Ricketts/Vavrek’s Cremation of Sam McGee. 

Other production credits include Riders to the Sea/Le Flambeau de la nuit by Vaughn Williams/Tanguay-Labrosse (Opera de Montreal), Bizet’s Les pecheurs de perles (Jeunesse Musicales du Canada) , Cosi Fan Tutte (Edmonton Opera) and Die Zauberflote (Opera de Montreal), and Prestini/Vavrek’s Silent Light (Banff Centre). 

Through Verismo Communications, Beth Stewart amplifies the authentic voices of women, queer folks, and people of colour in classical music. Beth draws on her breadth of experience in the industry as publicist, producer, and performer, which has fueled her deep empathy for those working onstage and behind the scenes. Her creativity and candor have shaped Verismo as a classical music PR firm that creates space and opportunity in clients' lives and operates with unswerving integrity.

Beth's work has propelled clients to features in top international outlets including The New York Times, Washington Post, BBC World News, CBC News, The Times, The Guardian, Good Morning America, Billboard, Opera News, Gramophone, and CNN. She has played an integral role in major promotional and award campaigns, with clients such as mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, conductors Eun Sun Kim and Lidiya Yankovskaya, and Against the Grain Records earning recognition from the Grammy Awards, Juno Awards, International Opera Awards, Latin Grammy Awards, and BBC Music Magazine Awards.

Beth's trademark drive and infectious energy have been instrumental in the launch of Turn The Spotlight, a mentorship program created to identify, nurture, and empower leaders - and in turn, to illuminate the path to a more equitable future in the arts.

Cecilia Livingston is composer-in-residence at Glyndebourne. She specializes in music for voice that is driven by melody, mixing styles from minimalism to jazz to create work that is lyrical and dramatic. Winner of the Prix 3 Femmes for female opera creators, her music has been heard at Nuit Blanche, Bang on a Can’s Summer Festival, and with Soundstreams, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Current projects include the percussion opera ‘Terror & Erebus’, a song cycle with Orange Prize winning poet Anne Michaels, and ‘Capture’—a large-scale choral work about The Unicorn Tapestries. She has just completed a two-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship in Music at King's College London, and has published on contemporary opera in ‘The Opera Quarterly’ (Oxford), ‘Cambridge Opera Journal,’ and ‘Tempo’ (Cambridge), with invited chapters forthcoming in ‘Opera in Flux’ (U. Michigan Press) and ‘The Cambridge Companion to Composition.’ Cecilia is Vice-President of the Canadian League of Composers and a member of the Ontario Regional Council of the Canadian Music Centre. She holds a doctorate in composition from the University of Toronto. She is represented by Stratagem Artist Management in New York.

If you’re from the North, Leela Gilday’s music is home. If you’ve never been, it will take you there. Born and raised in the Northwest Territories, she writes about the people and the land that created her. The power in her voice conveys the depth of her feelings of love and life in a rugged environment and vibrant culture, as if it comes straight from that earth. Leela’s family is from Délįne on the shore of Great Bear Lake and her rich vocals dance across the rhythmic beats of traditional Dene drumming as smoothly as a bass line onstage the largest venues in the country. And she has played them all. 

Leela has toured festivals and concert halls with her four-piece band through every province and territory in Canada. She has played in the United States, Greenland, Denmark, and New Zealand, and recently embarked on an ambitious European tour. Her live shows are where she connects with fans who have followed her on a 20-year career and where new fans are born. She reaches into their hearts and feels the energy of every person in front of her as she guides them on a journey through song and experience. She believes music has an inexplicable effect on people. It is a place where she can share light and dark and the most vulnerable moments, with a clarity and genuine purpose that reassures her listeners through every word. She is a storyteller, and through this, reflects the world onto itself. 

Leela’s fifth album “North Star Calling” won the 2021 Juno Award for Indigenous Artist/Group of the Year, a Canadian Folk Music Award for Indigenous Songwriter of the Year, and Roots Album of the Year at the Summer Solstice Indigenous Music Awards. It is more raw, more intimate and more Leela than anything you’ve heard from her before. 

Royce Vavrek (Librettist) is a librettist and lyricist whose opera Angel’s Bone with composer Du Yun was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music. He is known for his diverse collaborations with composers including David T. Little (Dog Days, Am I Born, JFK), Missy Mazzoli (Song from the Uproar, Breaking the Waves, Proving Up), Ricky Ian Gordon (27, The House Without a Christmas Tree), Joshua Schmidt (Midwestern Gothic), Paola Prestini (Yoani, The Hubble Cantata) and Gregory Spears (O Columbia). Recent projects include Film Stills, a series of operatic monologues for mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti, directed by R.B. Schlather and composed by Du Yun, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly and Paola Prestini; Jacqueline with composer Luna Pearl Woolf; Song of America: Beyond Liberty created for Thomas Hampson with director Francesca Zambello; and a new opera with David T. Little through the Met/LCT commissioning program. Royce is co-Artistic Director of The Coterie, an opera-theater.

Taylor Long is a Toronto-based director of photography (DOP), photographer, and editor. Originally from Halifax, NS, Taylor studied opera and performed frequently on the east coast before discovering a passion for film production and photography. Recent highlights include working with Academy-award nominated director Atom Egoyan on the COC's digital production of Bluebeard's Castle (as DOP) and working as DOP on the COC/Against the Grain Theatre co-production of Mozart's Requiem. Taylor also filmed and edited Tapestry Opera's award-winning short film, Where Do I Go?, and was DOP for their digital productions of Ana Sokolovic's Love Songs and Our Song D'Hiver with soprano Mireille Asselin. Taylor currently works for the Canadian Opera Company (COC) managing their video production and freelances with various performing arts organizations across the country.

Stephen Bell is an award winning Toronto-based director of photography and editor with a focus on detail and visual story telling. He is the founder of Coffeeshop Creative, a six-member team focused on original, multi-platform video, narrative productions, as well as web design.

Recent highlights include session directing for the CBC 2022 Governor General's Performing Arts Awards, lead editing and directing of photography (DOP) on the critically acclaimed Against the Grain Theatre film, "Messiah/Complex" as well as directing "400 Days Later" which received 15 official film festival submissions including the Burbank International Film Festival, and the Montreal Independent Short Film Festival.

Stephen has created featured promotional videography and cinematography across a number of sectors including the arts, film, and television. Stephen will be the director of photography (DOP) on the upcoming short film, "Fool's Game" as well as the features, "The Emotional Terrorist" and "Rosedale Avenue."

Patrick is an award-winning performance designer, curator, and educator. His design credits include The Wedding Party Giant (Ghost River); The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst (ATP/Ghost River); The Hollow (Vertigo); #UncleJohn (Banff Centre/Against The Grain Theatre/Canadian Opera Company); Figaros Wedding (AtG); God of Carnage (Theatre Calgary); Falsettos (Acting Up Stage Co); Dead Man's Cell Phone (Persephone); True West, My Fair Lady, Little Shop of Horrors, Fire, A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman & As You Like It (Blue Bridge Rep); Metamorphoses (Globe Theatre, Regina); The Last Five Years (The Grand, London); Hush (Tarragon); Bird Brain (YPT, Toronto); Chasing the Moment (Arcola Theatre, London UK); Turn of the Screw & A Number (Belfry).

Patrick designed and curated the Canadian national exhibition at the 2015 Prague Quadrennial and curated the international student and emerging artist program, PQ Studio, for PQ2019 and again for PQ2023.

Patrick is a member of the faculty at the University of Victoria, and a member of the Associated Designers of Canada. 

Canadian conductor, Rosemary Thomson is in her 15th season as Music Director of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra and started her tenure as Artistic Director of Opera Kelowna in 2020. Previous positions include Conductor with Continuum New Music Ensemble, Resident Conductor and Chorus Master with the Calgary Philharmonic, and Assistant Conductor with the Winnipeg Symphony and the Canadian Opera Company. Equally at home conducting opera, symphony, choral, and contemporary music, Maestro Thomson has enjoyed a robust guest conducting career on podiums across the country, including the Hamilton, Kingston, Niagara, Regina, Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria Symphonies, Calgary, Vancouver, Highlands and UBC Opera and Opera Garden in Scotland. She received a Dora nomination as Music Director of the World Premiere of Shanawdithit for Tapestry Opera in 2019 and will make her Canadian Opera Company debut in 2023. A passionate teacher, Rosemary has been on faculty for Opera Nuova for 15 seasons and is looking forward to joining the faculty this summer at The Banff Centre for the Arts Opera in the 21st Century program. She plays a prominent mentorship role in Tapestry Opera's national Women in Musical Leadership program. She was recently awarded the provincial Community Building Award from the BC Spirit Foundation. Ms. Thomson was diagnosed with ADHD in 2020 and in 2021 was the subject of an award-winning documentary "Shiny Objects - The Conductor with ADHD" which has screened internationally.

Dorian Cox is a cultural leader and arts presenter based in Toronto with a focus on relationship building, civic engagement, and equity-seeking practices. He was recently named as Director of the Ensemble Studio at the Canadian Opera Company after serving as manager for the Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, where he programmed and presented 275 performances (including 17 world premieres) and produced 22 digital performances. Dorian has previously held positions at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Royal Conservatory of Music, Interlochen Centre for the Arts, Boston Conservatory (MMus), and University of Toronto (BMus Hon).

As a musician, he has performed in nearly every major concert hall in Canada, as well as across the United States and in Europe. Dorian has been awarded grants and scholarships from the Williamson Foundation for Music, Avedis Zildjian Company, Boston Conservatory, and University of Toronto. He was invited to serve as a preliminary juror for the 20th edition of the Concours musical international de Montreal and as guest faculty for Opera in the 21st Century at the Banff Centre.

Jonathan Brandani is an Italian born conductor appreciated for his "fine regard for the score's details...his clear, purposeful indications" and "his enthusiasm" (Seen and Heard International).

Recent engagements include L'elisir d'amore at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, La Boheme at Calgary Opera (Canada), L'elisir d'amore and Don Pasquale at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Dusseldorf, Germany), Il mondo della luna at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia (Valencia, Spain).

In 2018 he made his debut at the Wexford Festival Opera (Ireland) conducting Mercadante's Il Bravo (whose score he had previously restored and co-edited). His interpretation of this hidden Bel Canto gem was awarded as Best Opera Production by the Irish Times; the production is now available on demand on ARTE.

Between 2015 and 2019 Jonathan was Associate Conductor of Minnesota Opera, where he conducted Tosca, La Boheme, Don Pasquale and Il Cappello di paglia di Firenze.

His performances of Aida at the 15th Daegu International Opera Festival in 2017 (South Korea) were hailed with such enthusiasm that they earned him the Grand Prix. Since then, he is a regular guest conductor of Daegu Opera House where he has conducted Il Trittico, Madama Butterfly, L'Elisir d'amore, La Traviata and Rigoletto.