Johannes Debus has been Music Director of the Canadian Opera Company (COC) since 2009. Highlights of his ten years with the COC include Wagner’s Tristan and the Ring, Verdi’s Aida, Falstaff and Otello, Mozart’s Abduction, Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin, Ariodante by Handel and the world premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian. In the 2019-20 season he conducted Rusalka and a brand new production of Hansel and Gretel directed by Joel Ivany. 

He worked with orchestras such as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, and appeared at festivals such as Scotiafest Halifax and the Banff Centre Summer Festival.

The founding of the COC Orchestra Academy, North-America’s only opera orchestra training program for young musicians, as well as his regular concerts with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra in Toronto underline his interest in training and educating the next generations. 

Johannes Debus is a multiple Dora Mavor Moore Award recipient.