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2010-2011 Participatants
Each season, Calgary Opera’s Emerging Artist Development Program provides up to eight young singers with the opportunity to study and perform under a highly prestigious professional staff of teachers and performers. The program is intended to benefit Canadian singers who have completed pre-professional training at an opera program. It will serve as a bridge between academic programs and the professional world of opera, offering the experience and practical skills necessary to succeed as a self-employed professional in a highly competitive international environment.
Calgary Opera is excited to welcome Allison Arends, Erin Armstrong, Jennifer Sproule, Cassandra Warner, Martin Sadd and Adam Fisher to the Emerging Artist Program, and welcomes back 2009-2010 emerging artist Brent Calis for a second intensive and exciting year.
In early May, the Emerging Artists will be performing Cosi fan tutte, a new production that will be performed in the intimate setting of the Arrata Opera Centre. This romantic opera brings the best of Mozart to the stage with some of the most memorable and melodic music in the repertoire.
Allison Cecilia Arends, Soprano |
Lyric Coloratura Soprano, Allison Cecilia Arends, is noted as having a voice that is “stunningly beautiful, [which] she uses… with intelligence and great sensitivity.” Awards include being named a Laureate of the Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques, third place in the Spazio Musica International Competition, the Hnatyshyn Foundation Governor General’s Award for Classical Voice, a Senior Award through the B.C. Arts Council, and an Encouragement Award through the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Allison completed a Masters Degree at the University of Toronto Opera School and continues private study with Mary Morrison. Future performances include five recitals in Toronto, Hamilton, and Regina; Cleopatra with the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy; Musetta with the Highlands Opera Studio;Beethoven’s 9th with the Toronto Philharmonia; Handel’s Messiah with the Regina Symphony Orchestra; Musetta with the Colours of Music Festival; and a recital with the Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg.
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Erin Armstrong, Soprano |
A southern Ontario native Erin Armstrong has been studying voice for nearly a decade. Erin has received her Honours Bachelors Degree from the University of Windsor and her Masters Degree from the University of British Columbia. She recently was honoured to sing for the Olympic Torch Celebration in her hometown, Leamington, ON, and has been heard singing Canada’s National Anthem for such events as the Detroit Marathon, Detroit, MI, The Tour di Via Italia Bike Race, Windsor, ON and for the Buffalo Bills in Buffalo, NY. Erin has been a frequent performer with the Windsor Symphony’s Outreach Concerts and the Vancouver Symphony’s Christmas Concerts. Erin’s most recent role was as Beth in Mark Adamo’s Little Women with Banff’s Opera as Theater Program. Other roles include: Juliet in Romeo et Juliet (Opera Nuova); Angelica in Suor Angelica (UBC Opera); Fiordiligi in Cosi Fan Tutte (Opera NUOVA); Alice Ford in Falstaff (UBC Opera); Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (European Music Academy) and Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus (UBC Opera).
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Jennifer Sproule, Mezzo-Soprano |
Mezzo-Soprano Jennifer Sproule studied voice through the Royal Conservatory of Music and completed a Post Baccalaureate Opera Apprenticeship at the University of Manitoba. Recent operatic roles include Woodsman’s wife, Bootlegger’s wife and Owl in The Cunning Little Vixen at the Banff Arts Centre; Dorabella in excerpts from Cosi Fan Tutte (Banff), and Kate in Madama Butterfly with Manitoba Opera. On the concert stage, as guest artist with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, and Fleming's The Confession Stone at Westminster United Church. Other notable Winnipeg appearances include Mahler’s Kinder-Totenlieder, Mrs. Nolan in The Medium, and a tour production of Hansel und Gretel.
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Cassandra Warner, Mezzo-Soprano |
Hailed by critics as “an enchanting Cherubino”-Globe and Mail, a “powerful mezzo” and “sensory epiphany”-Opera Canada, Mezzo-Soprano Cassandra Warner made her principal stage debut with Opera Atelier as First Priestess, Iphigenie en Tauride. Other roles include Cendrillon in Cendrillon, Prince Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel. Ms. Warner toured China, performed on CBC television & radio, Toronto’s Classical 96.3FM, Chinese television and radio. Ms. Warner attended Vancouver Opera’s Young Artist Coaching Intensive Program, the Glenn Gould School and International Vocal Arts Institute. She also won the Lily Kertes Rolin International Prize in Vocal Studies.
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Adam Fisher, Tenor
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Tenor Adam Fisher is from Vancouver and graduated with a Bachelor's of Music in Opera Performance from UBC. Adam previous roles include Don Ramiroin Opera NUOVA's Cenerentola, Alfredwith Opera NUOVAandEisensteinwithUBC Opera ensemblein Die Fledermaus. Adam spent the last two years touring with Vancouver Opera's school production team as Al in Barber of Barkerville and as Jacksonin Jack Pine.
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Martin Sadd, Tenor
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Martin Sadd is a 25 year old tenor from Victoria, British Columbia. He holds bachelors of music in performance from the University of Victoria and will have finished his masters of music in opera from the University of British Columbia. In 2006 Martin participated in Pacific Opera Victoria’s Young Artist Programme and in 2007/2008 he performed in Vancouver Opera in School’s production, The Barber of Barkerville. Martin has performed such roles as Ferrando in Cosi Fan Tutte and Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi.
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Brent Calis, Baritone
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A Calgary native, Brent Calis studied opera at the University of British Columbia where he received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Opera under the tutelage of Peter Barcza. While attending UBC he performed such roles as Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and both Schaunard and Marcello in Puccini’s La Bohème. Mr. Calis has also performed in summer programs across Canada including The Toronto Summer Music Academy and Festival and The Banff Summer Arts Festival. Mr. Calis returned to Banff this past summer to perform The Forester in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen and Jonathan in Siren Song by Jonathon Dove. |
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The Emerging Artist Development Program is sponsored by
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