Adoration: Opera in the 21st Century

Mary Kouyoumdjian (Composer) is a composer with projects ranging from concert works to multimedia collaborations and film scores. As a first generation Armenian-American and having come from a family directly affected by the Lebanese Civil War and Armenian Genocide, she uses a sonic palette that draws on her heritage, interest in music as documentary, and background in experimental composition to progressively blend the old with the new. Kouyoumdjian has received commissions for such organizations as the New York Philharmonic, Kronos Quartet, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alarm Will Sound, International Contemporary Ensemble [ICE], Brooklyn Youth Chorus, the American Composers Forum/JFund, Roomful of Teeth, WQXR, REDSHIFT, Experiments in Opera, the Nouveau Classical Project, Music of Remembrance, Friction Quartet, Ensemble Oktoplus, and the Los Angeles New Music Ensemble. Her music has been described as “eloquently scripted" and "emotionally wracking” by The New York Times and as "the most harrowing moments on stage at any New York performance" by New York Music Daily. Kouyoumdjian has taught at the New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composers program, Juilliard's Music Advancement Program, Columbia University, and is currently on faculty at The New School's Mannes Prep program. Kouyoumdjian is proud to be published by Schott's PSNY.

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.

Alan Pierson has been praised as "a dynamic conductor and musical visionary" by the New York Times, "a young conductor of monstrous skill" by Newsday, "gifted and electrifying" by the Boston Globe, and "one of the most exciting figures in new music today" by Fanfare. He is the Artistic Director and conductor of the acclaimed ensemble Alarm Will Sound, which has been called "the future of classical music" by the New York Times and "a sensational force" with "powerful ideas about how to renovate the concert experience" by the New Yorker.  Mr. Pierson served as the Artistic Director and conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonic. The New York Times called Pierson’s leadership at the Philharmonic "truly inspiring," and The New Yorker's Alex Ross described it as “remarkably innovative, perhaps even revolutionary.” 

As a guest conductor, Pierson has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, L.A. Opera, Nationaltheater Mannheim, the London Sinfonietta, the Steve Reich Ensemble, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the New World Symphony, and the Silk Road Project, among other ensembles. He is co-director of the Northwestern University Contemporary Music Ensemble, and has been a visiting faculty conductor at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, the Eastman School of Music, and at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity. 

Pierson regularly collaborates with major composers and performers, including Yo Yo Ma, Steve Reich, Dawn Upshaw, Osvaldo Golijov, John Adams, David T. Little, Augusta Read Thomas, David Lang, Donnacha Dennehy, La Monte Young, Tyshawn Sorey, and choreographers John Heginbotham, Christopher Wheeldon, Akram Khan and Elliot Feld. He has spearheaded critically acclaimed cross-genre collaborations with artists like Yasiin Bey, Erykah Badu, and Medeski Martin and Wood. He also develops unique concert and online experiences that fuse music, theater, and multimedia to tell stories that connect listeners more deeply to great music.

Mr. Pierson received bachelor degrees in physics and music from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in conducting from the Eastman School of Music. He has recorded for Nonesuch Records, Cantaloupe Music, Sony Classical, and Sweetspot DVD.  
 

Anna is thrilled to be working on this project. She lives in amiskwacîwâskahikan, known as Edmonton, AB. Her recent Edmonton Opera credits include: Stage Manager for Stabat Mater, Tosca and Cosi Fan Tutte. Her recent ASM credits include: Orphée+, La Boheme, Candide (cancelled), Rigoletto, The Misadventures of Count Ory, Hansel & Gretel, Electra, La Cenerentola, and Turandot at Edmonton Opera and The Fiancée at the Citadel Theatre.  She has worked as a stage manager and ASM in Edmonton since graduating from the Theatre Production Program at MacEwan in 2007. Anna also works as an IATSE Local 210 theatre technician

Brooklyn-based composer, pianist, and conductor Daniel Schlosberg’s music has been performed by the Dover Quartet, Minnesota Orchestra, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Nashville and Albany Symphonies, at Carnegie Hall, (le) poisson rouge, Royal Albert Hall, Beijing Modern Music Festival, and David Lynch’s Festival of Disruption, and has also been featured in the New York Times and WNYC’s Soundcheck. Daniel has received the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards. He has composed for and music directed at the Soho Repertory Theater, Public Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Baryshnikov Arts Center, and Playwrights Horizons. Current projects include composition and music direction for Jeremy O. Harris’s A Boy’s Company Presents (premiering Summer ‘23), music direction for Anthony Roth Costanzo and Justin Vivian Bond’s Only an Octave Apart at Wilton’s Music Hall in London (October ‘22) and at the Spoleto Festival (June ‘23), and The Extinctionist, a new opera for Heartbeat Opera (premiering Spring ‘24). Daniel is the Music Director of Heartbeat Opera, for which his radical re-orchestrations of classic operas have been praised by the Wall Street Journal as “ingenious.” In addition to collaborations with Angel Blue, Ariana DeBose, Ben Stiller, Tony Kushner, Anthony McGill, and the Imani Winds, Schlosberg was a pianist on the Grammy-winning soundtrack of Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, and a featured soloist in Only an Octave Apart with the New York Philharmonic.

Frances Thielmann, of Vancouver, British Columbia, completed her master’s degree in collaborative piano in 2019 at the University of Toronto where she studied with esteemed pianist, Steven Philcox. She also holds a bachelor’s degree with distinction in piano performance from the University of Victoria, where she was the recipient of multiple scholarships for her high level of performance both on stage and academically.

Throughout her university years, Frances studied a broad range of repertoire from art song to opera at summer intensive programs such as the Franz Schubert Institute, Opera NUOVA, and Toronto Summer Music. Her professional opera experience includes one year as an apprentice coach with the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, and two years with the Canadian Opera Company’s ensemble studio from 2020-2022. One significant highlight from her time at the COC ensemble studio was music directing and playing orchestral piano for the premiere of Ian Cusson’s opera, Fantasma in March 2022. After graduating from the COC ensemble studio in May 2022, Frances was one of five pianists selected internationally to participate in the prestigious Music Academy of the West summer festival in Santa Barbara, California.

In August 2022, Frances moved to Edmonton, Alberta, where she is the head coach and repetiteur for all productions at Edmonton Opera. She is thrilled to be joining the faculty at the Banff Centre for the Arts’ Opera in the 21st century program, where she will be lead pianist on the workshop of Mary Kouyoumdijan and Royce Vavrek’s opera Adoration.

Two time Juno nominated artist, Miriam Khalil has established herself as one of Canada’s most versatile and expressive performers. She has become increasingly known for her non traditional performances of opera, art song and concert repertoire. 

She has appeared on numerous opera stages across North America and Europe, including a stint at the renowned Glyndebourne Festival Opera (GFO) in the United Kingdom. An alumna of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, she won first place in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (Great Lakes Region) and subsequently appeared in the 2007 documentary The Audition. Her performance credits include Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver Opera, Minnesota Opera, Opera Tampa, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Opera Hamilton, Against the Grain Theatre (AtG), Edmonton Opera,, Calgary Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria, Opera Lyra Ottawa, and prominent orchestras across Canada and the US, in roles such as Mimì (La bohème), Léila (Les Pêcheurs de Perles), Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande), Governess (The Turn of the Screw), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare), Almirena (Rinaldo), and the title role in Alcina. 

She is a proud founding member and Artistic Advisor of the Dora Mavor Moore Award-winning chamber opera company Against the Grain Theatre (AtG). With vision and dedication, AtG explores different and innovative ways of presenting opera to new and familiar audiences. Miriam is delighted to help shape “one of the most important opera companies in Canada” (Calgary Herald). She also recently joined the Voice Faculty at the University  of Alberta and is very excited to be working with the next generation of singing artists and creators.

Jamal Al Titi is a Belarusian-born baritone whose passion for music expands from early works to opera. He now makes his home in Canada, and he is a recent bachelor’s voice performance graduate from the University of Toronto, having studied with Wendy Nielsen. During his final year as an undergraduate, Jamal won the Jim and Charlotte Norcop Prize in Song, the Faculty of Music’s most prestigious vocal prize, and was honoured to receive the 2023 faculty’s top honour award. 

Additionally, Jamal achieved to be a winner of the Toronto Mozart Vocal Competition in 2023 and among the 2022 National Audition finalist of L’Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal. Passionate about opera, Jamal has been featured numerous times with Brott Opera Festival. His roles have included Masetto in Don Giovanni, Schaunard in La Bohème, and Casacada in The Merry Widow. 

Jamal began his studies at the Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts with Roland Fix. Jamal plans to continue performing as much as possible and wishes to sing to his heart’s content to captivate his audience while appreciating the magic of the music.
 

This artist is generously supported by The Eileen Higgin Calgary Theatre Singers Endowment and The Harold Douglas Brown Endowment.

Mishael Eusebio is a dynamic performer whose creativity brings unique interpretations into every project. His recent portrayal of Young Harvey in the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis’s world premiere of Harvey Milk Reimagined was recently featured in the summer 2022 edition of Opera America Magazine. No stranger to contemporary opera, he workshopped the role of Navigator (A Space of Sky) for Houston Grand Opera, and created the role of George (The Silver Bullet) which debuted at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust. Other credits in contemporary opera include his debut at l’Opéra de Montréal as Passager (Le Flambeau de la nuit), the cover for Alexandre Rosenberg (La beauté du monde), and Rose’s Fiancé (Awakenings). Semi-finalist in the 2021 Concours OSM, finalist at the 2023 Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques and the 2020 American National Opera Association Competition, winner of the 2019 John C. Erskine Prize, and the Encouragement Award at the 2020 Metropolitan Opera District Auditions, Mishael is a graduate of the Juilliard School and the College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati.

This artist is generously supported by The Harold Crabtree Foundation Endowment. 

From northeastern Ontario's Lake Temiskaming area, Yanik Gosselin has lived in Kjipuktuk (Halifax) since 2020. He received his BMus from the University of Ottawa and his MMus from McGill University.

In 2022, Yanik participated in Manitoba Opera's Digital Emerging Artist Program. During that program, he created a short musical film, CYCLES, available on YouTube. That same year, he debuted as Ernesto in Don Pasquale at the Under the Spire Music Festival (Kensington, PEI),partook in Scotia Festival of Music's young artist program, and participated in Tapestry Opera's New Opera 101 workshop and performed in Songbook XI. Yanik was the tenor soloist in Mozart's Requiem with the Dalhousie Collegium Cantorum this past March. Yanik is particularly interested in the art song repertoire (particularly Schubert and Britten) and 1970s glam and progressive rock. He is passionate about storytelling in all its forms. As a performer and creator, Yanik thrives in collaborative spaces and seeks innovative ways to tell new stories through music while engaging with audiences. He recently received a professional development grant from Arts Nova Scotia to study the interpretation and performance of 17th and 18th-century German repertoire with Dr. Michael Donovan, focusing on innovation and social engagement.

This artist is generously supported by The Annie Romanchuk Endowment and The Jeanne and Peter Lougheed Endowment. 

Quebec mezzo-soprano Justine Ledoux is known for the sincerity of her singing, her velvety tone and her extraordinary charisma on stage. She obtained her master’s degree from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal and has joined Calgary Opera’s 2022-2024 McPhee Artist Development Program as a young artist.

Operatic roles have included Mercédès in Carmen (G. Bizet); Béatrice and Ursule in Béatrice et Bénédict (H. Berlioz); Cendrillon in Cendrillon (J. Massenet), The Stepmother in The Juniper Tree (P. Glass); Dorabella in Così fan tutte (W.A. Mozart). She was recently a laureate for the Prix d’Europe 2023 Competition, taking home the prizes for Best Vocal and Artistic Techniques as well as Best Interpretation of a Work by Canadian Composer André Mathieu. During her 2023-2024 season with Calgary Opera, she will perform, on mainstage, Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro (W.A Mozart), as well as Wellgunde in Das Rheingold (R. Wagner). 

This artist is generously supported by the Joyce and David Keith Scholarship for the Arts. 
 

 Canadian Bass-Baritone Luke Noftall is a recent graduate of the University of Toronto with a Master’s of Music in Opera Performance, as well as a Bachelor of Voice Performance with Honors from the same institution. He currently studies with Wendy Nielsen.

While at the University of Toronto’s Opera school, Luke has been seen as: Mr. Choufleuri in Monsieur Choufleuri, Dr. Bartolo in Il barbiere di Sviliglia , Top in Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land, Jacques I in A Tale of Two Cities, and the Chorus of Antiquity in a Canadian premiered student composition of Disobedience. Additional credits include Lancelot in Camelot (Red Panda Productions), and Papageno in Die Zauberflöte (Halifax Summer Opera Festival). As Papageno, Luke was described as a “Star of the Festival. Playful and mercurial, his warm baritone and dynamic interpretation complimented and contrasted effortlessly with his more earnest Tamino” (Opera Canada).

A long admirer of the Banff Centres many exciting works, Luke is extremely excited to be joining The Banff Opera in the 21st Century Program this summer, where he will be playing Masetto in Don Giovanni, as well as Morris in Adoration. Luke is honored to be able to work alongside some of the finest artists and mentors in the Canadian opera.

This artist is generously supported by the Ruby Mercer Endowment. 
 

Founded by like-minded musicians with a passion for the future of chamber music, Silvana was born with the natural ease of a flower blooming in Harlem. The instant chamber music chemistry was undeniable and the telepathic communication required by string quartet playing came effortlessly. The passionate energy of Silvana is palpable to the audience and draws each person in, connecting both performers and listeners in a unique experience.

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