Ian Cusson is a composer of art song, opera and orchestral work. Of Métis (Georgian Bay Métis Community) and French Canadian descent, his work explores Canadian Indigenous experience including the history of the Métis people, the hybridity of mixed-racial identity, and the intersection of Western and Indigenous cultures.

He studied composition with Jake Heggie (San Francisco) and Samuel Dolin, and piano with James Anagnoson at the Glenn Gould School. He is the recipient of the Chalmers Professional Development Grant, and grants through the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council.

Ian was an inaugural Carrefour Composer-in-Residence with the National Arts Centre Orchestra for 2017-2019 and was Composer-in-Residence for the Canadian Opera Company for 2019-2021. He is a Co-artistic Director of Opera in the 21st Century at the Banff Centre and the recipient of the 2021 Jan V. Matejcek Classical Music Award from SOCAN and the 2021 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize. Ian is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers.
He lives in Oakville with his wife and four children.

Playwright, director, dramaturg, actor, and educator, Yvette Nolan has contributed substantively to the creation and performance of First Nations Theatre in Canada. She was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan to an Algonquin mother and an Irish immigrant father in 1961. Raised in Winnipeg, she graduated from the University of Manitoba with a B.A. in 1997. She has worked with Agassiz Theatre, Popular Theatre Alliance of Manitoba, Theatre Projects Manitoba, Manitoba Association of Playwrights, the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Nakai Theatre in Whitehorse, and the Society of Yukon Artists of Native Ancestry.

At Eastern Front Theatre she acted in Mary-Colin Chisholm's Strange Humours.

She has directed plays by Miche Genest, Drew Hayden Taylor, Philip Adams, George Ryga (The Ecstasy of Rita Joe at Western Canada Theatre Company April 2009, in a co-production with the National Arts Centre), and by Marie Clements. In 2023, she directed Women of the Fur Trade by Frances Koncan for the Stratford Festival at the Studio Theatre.

She was President of PUC (now Playwrights Guild of Canada) from 1998 to 2001. From 2003 to 2010, she was Managing Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto.

She is editor of the second edition of plays by First Nations playwrights and Writers of Colour, Beyond the Pale II; and of Refractions: Solo with Donna-Michelle St. Bernard. In her critical text, Medicine Shows: Indigenous Performance Culture (Playwrights Canada P, 2015), she envisions the indigenous theatre worker as "a conduit between the past and the future" (3) who creates "ceremony" to stimulate memory and unite communities. She believes that “Theatre is all about relationships, and how we move from conflict to conciliation, so of course it is the perfect place to explore the relationships between Indigenous people and Canadians” (http://artsandscience.usask.ca.

Yvette Nolan was the first writer-in-residence at Brandon University in 1996. In 2007-08 she was the National Arts Centre's playwright-in-residence. In September 2011, she began a nine-month term as writer-in-residence at the Saskatoon Library and was playwright-in-residence at the University of Regina.

She has written more than a dozen works for the theatre: Blade (1990) shows how a young white university student murdered by a serial killer is reconfigured as a prostitute by the media. In A Marginal Man, a man who decides to protest violence against women becomes a target of violence himself. Child shows how two women, one Indigenous and one white, are affected by incest.

In Job's Wife the protagonist, Grace, a middle class Catholic white woman pregnant with the child of a Native man, prays to God, who materializes as "Josh," a large Indigenous man, dressed in rags. Job's Wife was first produced by Theatre Projects Manitoba and directed by the playwright. It has been published in the anthology, Staging Coyote's Dream (2003), edited by Monique Mojica and Ric Knowles.

In Video, a young wife relives her wedding by watching the video recording. Faithless is a one-act comedy of manners about temptation and adversity.

Annie Mae's Movement (produced by Native Earth Performing Arts in 2001) tells the story of the murder in the United States of Annie Mae Pictou Aquash, a Mi'qmak woman from Nova Scotia, involved in AIM (also the subject of a radio and stage play by Sharon Pollock, entitled The Making of Warriors). Annie Mae's Movement has also been produced by Hardly Act Theatre in the Yukon, in Halifax at Eastern Front Theatre's "On the Waterfront Festival", and by Red Roots Theatre in Winnipeg.

Other plays include Ham and the Ram, a recasting of the Abraham/Issac story in which the ram questions, but then accepts a sacrificial substitution; and Two Old Women, a post-apocalypse tale which draws on Athabaskan legend to show the importance of traditional knowledge.

The Unplugging premiered in 2012 at the Arts Club Theatre, directed by Lois Anderson. It was subsequently performed at Factory Theatre in a Native Earth Performing Arts Production in March 2015 (dir. Nina Lee Aquino). In a remote community west of Winnipeg, older women are cast out of their community because they are deemed useless. But two very different women have enough survival skills in an environment off the internet: Bern knows about an abandoned cabin from her early party days; Elena has learned to live off the land from her grandmother. When a young man intrudes, they must decide whether to trust him. The Unplugging won the 2013 Jessie Award for outstanding new script.

During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Nolan wrote a fifteen-minute monologue entitled Katharsis for Prairie Theatre Exchange. The performance in the empty theatre by Tracey Nepinak was filmed and streamed on-line. It considers the social and personal importance of theatre at a traumatic time when people are scared and unsure, and suffering from an acute sense of isolation: "We come together in these places to work things out."

With Vern Thiessen she adapted Margaret Laurence's The Diviners for the stage, which premiered at the Patterson Theatre, Stratford Festival in August 2024. Her earlier play,The Art of War (Persephone Theatre 2023), a portrait of a young painter commissioned to record Canadian battles in WWI, was mounted in the Studio Theatre at the Stratford Festival in August 2025.

In 2007 Nolan received the Maggie Bassett Award for service to the theatre community; in 2008 she was awarded the City of Toronto's Aboriginal Affairs Award; and in 2011, she received the George Luscombe Award for mentorship in professional theatre. In 2021, she was awarded a Gina Wilkinson Prize for artists who place community and new creation models at the heart of their artistic leadership.

She is currently based in Saskatoon, where she teaches playwriting to undergraduates at the University of Saskatchewan. In 2024, she completed her thesis for a Masters of Public Policy degree. She believe that "theatre is one of the few places where we create empathy"

Born and raised in Iloilo City, Philippines, baritone Danlie Rae Acebuque came to Canada in 2011 with his family in pursuit of a better life and opportunities.

Described for possessing “a warm lower resonance, brilliant top end and for being a gifted comedic actor” (Opera Canada), and for his “fresh, suave baritone” (Opera Canada), Filipino-Canadian baritone Danlie Rae Acebuque holds a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance and Master’s of Music in Opera Performance in the studio of the Canadian soprano, Frédérique Vézina at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music.

A recipient of several awards, dedicated, and passionate artist, Danlie Rae was the first recipient of the prestigious Ivan Alexandor Chorney Opera Scholarship at the University of Toronto in 2021 and in March of 2022, Danlie Rae became the recipient of the Stuart Hamilton Memorial Award with Voicebox Opera in Concert. In 2023, Danlie Rae was one of the Encouragement Award Recipients at The Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition - Oregon District and one of Audience Choice at the MET’s Laffont Competition - Western Canada District.

An energetic, charismatic, versatile and moving performer, Danlie Rae performed the roles of Figaro (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Gianni Schicchi (Gianni Schicchi), Gugliemo (Cosi fan tutte), Billy (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny), Escamillo (La Tragedie de Carmen), Top (The Tender Land), Reverend John Smithurst (Florence: The Lady with The Nightlamp) and Papageno (Die Zauberflöte).

In concert settings, Danlie Rae performed as a soloist in premiering both standard and new composed works such as Handel’s Messiah, To a clump of Moss by Matthew Luong at the UofT Composer Series, Mozart’s Requiem, world premiere of Alpha and Omega for mezzo-soprano and baritone by Kai Leung, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Brahm’s Ein Deutschess Requiem where live audiences praised his performances as heart grabbing, sensitive, and expressive. Danlie Rae helped premiered a Filipino art song cycle entitled Liham, a song cycle for mezzo-soprano/baritone and piano (music by Juro Kim Feliz; words by Riley Palanca) which was released in June 2025 with mezzo-soprano & producer, Renee Fajardo.

Danlie Rae was a Sidgwick Scholar with Orpheus Choir of Toronto and Pax Christi Chorale’s Bass section lead where he performed both as a soloist and ensemble member. Danlie Rae was also an Art of Song Fellow with Toronto Summer Music in 2021 and had participated in the first annual Canadian Opera Company Summer Intensive Program in 2022. In 2022, Danlie Rae appeared as the baritone soloist with Hart House Chorus for their Handel’s Messiah conducted by Daniel Norman, and with Chorus Niagara for their Christmas Concert titled Welcome Christmas where he performed Vaughan William’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols and Finzi’s In Terra Pax under the baton of Robert Cooper. In 2023, Danlie Rae returned on the main-stage with Voicebox: Opera in Concert as King Créon for their production of Cherubini’s Medée, and debuted his role as Dr. Falke for Strauss’s Die Fledermaus with the Toronto City Opera under the baton of Jennifer Tung. He had also participated in premiering a new opera work by Rebecca Gray titled The Bus at the Canadian Music Centre and with New Music Concerts. Danlie Rae was a mentor with Marigold Music Program where he helps inspire young high school students through music and personal goals.

This past season, Danlie Rae was a graduate of the Yulanda M. Faris Young Artist Program with Vancouver Opera and currently an Emerging Artist with Edmonton Opera and Opera On The Avalon.

Outside of music, Danlie Rae enjoys baking, cooking and enjoying different kinds of street and comfort foods from different cultural background.

Photo by Curtis Perry

Royce Vavrek is a Canada-born, Brooklyn-based librettist and lyricist who has been called “the indie Hofmannsthal” (The New Yorker) a “Metastasio of the downtown opera scene” (The Washington Post), “an exemplary creator of operatic prose” (The New York Times), and “one of the most celebrated and sought after librettists in the world” (CBC Radio). His opera “Angel’s Bone” with composer Du Yun was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

With composer Missy Mazzoli he wrote “Song from the Uproar,” premiered by Beth Morrison Projects in 2012, and subsequently seen in multiple presentations around the country. Their second opera, an adaptation of Lars von Trier’s “Breaking the Waves,” premiered at Opera Philadelphia, co-commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects, and directed by James Darrah to critical acclaim in September of 2016. The work won the 2017 Music Critics Association of North America award for Best New Opera and was nominated for Best World Premiere at the 2017 International Opera Awards. A new production premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in the summer of 2019, produced by Scottish Opera and Opera Ventures, helmed by Tony Award-winning director Tom Morris and earned star Sydney Mancasola a coveted Herald Angel Award for her performance. Their next opera, an adaptation of Karen Russell’s short story “Proving Up,” was commissioned and presented by Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha and The Miller Theatre in 2018, was a finalist for the MCANA Best New Opera Award of that year. They are currently developing a grand opera for Opera Philadelphia and the Norwegian National Opera based on an original story by two-time Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Jordan Tannahill, as well as an adaptation of George Saunders’ Booker Prize-winning novel “Lincoln in the Bardo” for The Metropolitan Opera.

Teaming up with Swedish composer Mikael Karlsson, Royce wrote the story and text for two dance projects, “Crypto,” choreographed by Guillaume Côté for Côté Dance and “Evidence of It All,” choreographed by Drew Jacoby for SFDanceworks, featuring narration by the Academy Award-nominated actress Rosamund Pike. They are currently developing two grand operas: an adaptation of Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia” to premiere at the Royal Swedish Opera in 2023, and “Fanny and Alexander,” working alongside creative partner Ingmar Bergman, Jr. to musicalize his late father’s classic film for La Monnaie de Munt in 2024, in a production to be directed by Ivo van Hove. Both operas are to feature renowned mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, for whom Mikael and Royce wrote the song cycle “So We Will Vanish,” premiered by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in 2021 to critical acclaim.

His collaboration with composer David T. Little led Heidi Waleson of the Wall Street Journal to proclaim them “one of the most exciting composer-librettist teams working in opera today.” In April of 2016 they premiered their first grand opera, “JFK,” at Fort Worth Opera, a co-commission with American Lyric Theater and Opéra de Montréal that was called “ravishing” (Opera News), earning a ten-star review in Opera Now Magazine. This followed the success of their first opera, “Dog Days,” which received its world premiere in September of 2012 at Peak Performances @ Montclair, in a production co-produced by Beth Morrison Projects and directed by American maverick Robert Woodruff. The work was celebrated as the Classical Music Event of the year by Time Out New York and a standout opera of recent decades by The New York Times. They are currently developing an original work for the Metropolitan Opera through the Met/LCT commissioning program.

Royce has also worked extensively with composer Paola Prestini, first on the song cycle "Yoani," inspired by the blog posts of Yoani Sanchez, and then on "The Hubble Cantata," a virtual reality oratorio produced by VisionIntoArt/National Sawdust in association with Beth Morrison Projects. They recently presented the workshop premiere of “Silent Light,” an opera based on the Cannes Jury Prize-winning film by Carlos Reygadas at the Banff Centre for Creativity, a collaboration with the director Thaddeus Strassberger, and are currently working on a new opera inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.” They are also developing "Film Stills," a project for mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti that dramatizes four of Cindy Sherman's iconic photographs through musical monologues composed by Paola, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly and Ellen Reid, and directed by R.B. Schlather. Royce and Paola's collaboration can be further heard on the AIDS Quilt Songbook: Sing for Hope recording, where their song "Union," as sung by Isabel Leonard, is featured.

In 2014 Royce premiered “27,” his first collaboration with composer Ricky Ian Gordon, at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Created for renowned mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, the work brought to life Gertrude Stein’s famous salon at 27 rue de Fleurus in Paris. Mark Ray Rinaldi of the Denver Post wrote that the opera “tells a great American story, about Gertrude Stein, as well as opera in the 21st century.” The opera was subsequently presented by Pittsburgh Opera, MasterVoices at New York City Center, Michigan Opera Theater, Opéra de Montréal and Opera Las Vegas. In 2017 their adaptation of Gail Rock’s Christmas classic “The House Without a Christmas Tree” for Houston Grand Opera was premiered to critical acclaim.

Other recent and upcoming projects include “Strip Mall” with Matt Marks for the Los Angeles Philharmonic; “Epistle Mass” with Julian Wachner for Trinity Wall Street, “Midwestern Gothic” with Josh Schmidt for Signature Theatre, Virginia; “Naamah’s Ark” with Marisa Michelson for MasterVoices; “O Columbia” with Gregory Spears for HGOco; “Knoxville: Summer of 2015” with Ellen Reid for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and National Sawdust; “The Wild Beast of the Bungalow” with Rachel Peters for Oberlin Conservatory; “Jacqueline” with Luna Pearl Woolf for Tapestry New Opera; “Adoration” (based on the film by Atom Egoyan) with Mary Kouyoumdjian for Beth Morrison Projects; “The Cremation of Sam McGee” with Matthew Ricketts, supported by a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts; and “Agnes” with Daníel Bjarnason for the Icelandic Opera.

Royce is co-Artistic Director of The Coterie, an opera-theater company founded with Tony-nominee Lauren Worsham. He holds a BFA in Filmmaking and Creative Writing from Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal and an MFA from the Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at New York University. He is an alum of American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program.

Based in Toronto, Sandra Horst is the Canadian Opera Company’s Price Family Chorus Master, where her repertoire spans more than seventy operas, including her COC conducting debut in Il viaggio a Reims. As Director of Musical Studies for Opera at the University of Toronto she has conducted repertoire ranging from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, to Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing and most recently Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park. She is a guest faculty member of Open Space: Opera in the 21st Century at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity and co-founder of the National Opera Intensive summer program with UofT Opera and Toronto’s Against the Grain Theatre. A frequent Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions judge, Ms Horst served as audition consultant and chorus master for Opera Theatre of St Louis and Edmonton Opera, and has been on the music staff of the COC, Juilliard Opera Centre, Chautauqua Institute School of Singing, Boston Lyric Opera and Opera Ontario. In addition to being 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 recital collaborator, she has been heard recently in recital with Brandon Cedel, Michael Schade and Marie Berard, Erin Wall, Myles Mykkanen and Elena Tsaligova, as well as in performance on WGBH radio in New England and CBC Radio.

Keely McPeek (she/her) is a member of the Anisininew (Oji-Cree) Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation in Northwestern Ontario, with Irish and German settler roots. A lover of storytelling regardless of genre, Keely loves to perform theatre, musical theatre, and opera. She holds a Bachelor of Music and a Post-Baccalaureate in Vocal Performance from the University of Manitoba. Winning the Rainbow Stage Trophy at the Winnipeg Music Festival encouraged Keely's stage performance career. She recently attended the Banff Centre's Interplay Program where she portrayed Didi in the workshop of Ian Cusson and Royce Vavrek's Indians on Vacation. You may have seen Keely in Manitoba Opera’s Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North as Marie Serpente, Vancouver Opera/Pacific Opera Victoria’s tour of Flight of the Hummingbird as Bunny, Manitoba Theatre for Young People’s seven-month tour of Frozen River, Dry Cold’s A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, or the Winnipeg Fringe Festival.

A critically acclaimed mezzo­soprano of Kwagiulth and Stó:lō First Nations with English, Irish and Scottish heritage, Marion Newman was born in Bella Coola and grew up in Sooke, BC. She is one of Canada’s most accomplished singers in repertoire from Vivaldi to Vivier. As Carmen, the Irish Examiner noted “she sparked an electricity which totally engrossed the audience with her superbly sinuous sexuality... Prudes may raise their eyebrows at the sensuality of this Carmen; theatregoers will clamour for more.”. Nominated for a Dora Award for her leading role in the world premiere of Shanawdithit (Nolan/Burry) with Toronto’s Tapestry Opera, Ian Ritchie wrote “she invests her character with towering dignity and courage”. Marion portrayed Dr. Wilson in the premiere of Missing (Clements/Current) with Vancouver City Opera/Pacific Opera Victoria, which gives voice, in English and Gitxsan, to the story of Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women. In 2023, Marion debuts with Anchorage Opera in their production of Missing. Highlights for the 2022/23 season include Cantaloube’s Chants d’Auvergne with Vancouver Island Symphony, Messiah with Vancouver Bach Choir, Bruckner’s Te Deum and the world premiere of Stephanie Martin’s Water, with Grand Philharmonic Choir and Kitchener­Waterloo Symphony. Recent guest appearances include Mozart’s Requiem, a digital co­production with Canadian Opera Company and Against the Grain Theatre, The Echoes Project with Gryphon Trio, and Five Songs on Poems of Marilyn Dumont (Cusson) with the New Orford String Quartet, for Cecilia Concerts in Halifax. Marion has sung many works that speak to her First Nations identity, including a Canada­wide tour of Ancestral Voices (Tovey) with the Vancouver Symphony and Nuyamł­ił Kulhulmx ­ Singing the Earth (Höstman/Robinson) with the Victoria and Vancouver Symphonies and Continuum Concerts in Toronto. Marion created the role of Dawn with Welsh National Opera in the July 2022 world premiere of Migrations, with stories by five writers based on their personal experiences of migrations and working with refugees. Also with Welsh National Opera, Marion stars in the premiere of The Shoemaker, a fusion of Latin American, Persian and Western classical musical influences, and performs in Migrations UK tour. In addition to her extensive performing career, Marion is a Co­Founder of Amplified Opera and the host of CBC’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera.

Canadian/British Bass-Baritone Giles Tomkins is widely praised for his vocal virtuosity and lyricism in an impressive range of repertoire. His rich resonant voice brings "authority and power" to the concert and operatic stage.

Noted for his convincing portrayal of the philosopher Colline in La Bohème, Giles sang this favourite role in Against the Grain Theatre’s acclaimed 2019 “dive bar” touring production from the Yukon to Toronto. Giles has performed the role with Saskatoon Opera, Manitoba Opera and Pacific Opera Victoria.

This season, Giles adds Hamilton Philharmonic to his many Messiah performances, most recently with Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra. His concert appearances include Elijah with Vancouver Bach Choir, Mozart's Requiem with Regina Symphony Orchestra, and Dvorak’s Stabat Mater with Vancouver Symphony. Giles looks forward to singing Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis in 2023 with Chorus Niagara.

Acclaimed operatic roles for Giles include Timur (Turandot), Raimondo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Pistola (Falstaff), Superintendent Budd (Albert Herring), Leporello/Commendatore (Don Giovanni), and Sergeant of Police (Pirates of Penzance). His comedic talents as Don Basilio in Barber of Seville have been the highlight of productions throughout Canada. In 2022/23, Giles sings Sciarrone with Edmonton Opera’s Tosca and Fifth Jew in Salome with Canadian Opera Company.

Contemporary works include Gandalf in The Hobbit (Burry) with Canadian Children’s Opera Company, and Khodozat in The Overcoat (Rolfe/Panych), a coproduction of Canadian Stage/Tapestry Opera/Vancouver Opera.

Giles is featured in several OperaBreaks videos directed by François Racine and produced by Domoney Artists during the pandemic.

Photo by Gene Wu

Bryce Morin (Enoch Cree Nation) from Treaty 6, Alberta is an actor, vocalist, cultural educator, powwow dancer, traditional drummer/singer, and storyteller. Some of Bryce Morin's theatrical achievements consist of CIVIL BLOOD: A Treaty Story (Thou Art Here Theatre) and IN-COR-RI-GO-BLE: The Legend of Thundervoice (Blythe Festival, University of Alberta). Recently Bryce has taken the theatre world by storm for his lead role performance as “Danny” in the all-star, Indigenous hit –musical, BEAR GREASE!