A Little Too Cozy

Midori Marsh

Soprano Midori Marsh was recently named by the CBC as one of Canada’s hot classical musicians under 30. Past engagements include Sarah Thorpe in No One’s Safe and Johan’s Mother in Silent Light (Banff Centre); Frasquita in Carmen (Waterloo Symphony); Arminda in La finta iardiniera, Rose Maurrant in Street Scene, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, and Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park (UofT Opera); Annina in La Traviata (Cambridge Symphony Orchestra); Zerlina in Don Giovanni (Portland Summer Opera Workshop); Laurie Moss in The Tender Land and Antonia in The Tales of Hof mann (Opera Laurier). In October 2019 she took home both the first prize and the audience choice award at the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio Competition, and is currently a member of the COC’s young artist ensemble for the 2020-2021 season.

Rihab Chaieb

Tunisian-Canadian Rihab Chaieb was a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Program, where she appeared in productions of L’italiana in Algeri, Luisa Miller, Cavalleria Rusticana and Hänsel und Gretel among others, earning praise for dramatic charm, vocal clarity and sensuous tone. Since embarking on her freelance career, Chaieb has made a number of important debuts, positioning herself as a name of note in the lyric mezzo-soprano repertoire. Demonstrating repertoire versatility these last seasons, Rihab Chaieb debuted at Dutch National Opera as Lola in Robert Carsen’s new staging of Cavalleria rusticana under Lorenzo Viotti, sang Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro at Cincinnati Opera, was Offenbach’s Fantasio at Opéra et Orchestre National de Montpellier, returned to The Met as Zerlina in Don Giovanni under Cornelius Meister, and received unanimous acclaim for her role debut as Carmen in Lydia Steier’s intensive new production for Oper Köln. The 20/21 season includes her first Charlotte in Massenet’s Wertherin concert performances at Opera Vlaanderen under Giedrė Šlekytė, and further ahead she returns to The Met as Nefertiti in Philip Glass’ Akhnaten.

Jonelle Sills

Jonelle Sills, named as one of CBC Music’s Classical “30 under 30” performers for 2020, was recently heard with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Barber’s Knoxville 1915 and looks forward in the new year to joining the Vancouver Opera’s Yulanda M. Faris Young Artists Program. In the fall of 2019, Ms. Sills made her role debut as Mimì in Puccini’s La Bohème on tour with Against the Grain Theatre, touring through dive bars from Banff, Alberta to Toronto, Ontario. Directly following, Jonelle sang PriaSoprano in Young People’s Theatre’s A Million Billion Pieces by Brock & William directed by Philip Akin. Ms Sills is a 2019 Dora award winner for “Outstanding Performance of an Ensemble” in Vivier’s Kopernikus, also with Against the Grain Theatre. She holds an Artist Diploma from the Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music from York University and has participated in the Banff Centre’s “Opera in the 21st Century” program.

Elliot Madore

Hailed by the New York Times for his “robust singing” and Opera News for his “exquisite vocal beauty,” Grammy Award winning Canadian baritone Elliot Madore has established himself as an international artist in demand at the leading opera houses and orchestras of the world. The 2020–2021 season sees Mr. Madore’s return to the Metropolitan Opera to sing Mercutio in the Bartlet Sher production of Roméo et Julliette. Mr. Madore also sings in the role of Franz Wolff-Metternich in the world premiere of La beauté de monde at Opéra de Montreal, and returns to both Opernhaus Zürich and Manitoba Opera to sing Anthony Hope in Sweeney Todd. Orchestral engagements include his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra singing Carmina Burana, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, Ramón in Girls of the Golden West with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Vaughn Williams’ Sea Symphony with the ORF Radio Symphonie Orchester Wien. Mr. Madore also appears in recital at Koerner Hall at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

Asitha Tennekoon

Sri Lankan tenor Asitha Tennekoon is a recent Graduate of both Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University and Toronto’s Glenn Gould School of Music, and has quickly established himself as one of Canada’s most impressive, versatile singing artists. He drew critical acclaim as Paul in Scottish Opera/Tapestry Opera’s Rocking Horse Winner, receiving the 2016 Dora Award for Best Male Performance. For his performance in the 2019 world premiere of Shanawdithit (Nolan/Burry) with Tapestry Opera, Ian Ritchie of Opera to Go wrote: “Tennekoon’s savage depiction of vicious racist magistrate and merchant John Peyton is nothing less than harrowing.”

Recent highlights for Mr. Tennekoon’s concert performances include tenor soloist in the world premiere of Stephanie Martin’s “The Sun, the Wind, and the Man in the Cloak” with Pax Christi Chorale, performances of Messiah with Regina Symphony Orchestra and Grand Philharmonic Choir, and Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion with The Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul, Montreal.

Asitha recently added to his repertoire of new works, starring in Soundstreams acclaimed double-bill of Two Odysseys: Pimooteewin/Gállábártnit, sung and narrated in Indigenous languages Cree and Sami, rooted in traditional legends from Canada and Nordic countries. Asitha debuts as Jack the Knave of Hearts with Pacific Opera Victoria’s digital presentation of Elizabeth Raum’s The Garden of Alice in January 2021.

Brett Polegato

Canadian baritone Brett Polegato appears regularly on the world's most distinguished stages, including those of Lincoln Center, La Scala, the Concertgebouw, the Opéra National de Paris, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, the Teatro Real, Florence’s Maggio Musicale, Roy Thomson Hall, and Carnegie Hall, and can be heard as soloist in the Grammy Awards’ Best Classical Recording of 2003 - Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony (Telarc) with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Robert Spano.

One of today’s most sought-after lyric baritones, Brett has made a name for himself in a number of dramatic roles, most notably the title roles in Eugene Onegin and Don Giovanni, and Il Conte Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, which marked his New York City Opera debut in 2004. He has appeared frequently in the title role of Pelléas et Mélisande, including new productions at the Strasbourg’s Opéra National du Rhin, at the Leipzig Opera conducted by Marc Minkowski, in Munich with Marcello Viotti and his Paris Opera debut in 2004. He has performed more than 50 roles including Oreste (Iphigénie en Tauride), Zurga (Les Pêcheurs de Perles), Yeletsky (Pique Dame), Valentin (Faust), Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Dandini (La Cenerentola), and Wiedhopf in Braunfel’s Die Vögel.

Future engagements include the title role of Wozzeck for Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, Handel’s Messiah with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, a recital with Toronto’s Aldeburgh Connection, Dandini in La cenerentola for the Canadian Opera Company, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte for Cincinnati Opera and Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder with the Montreal Symphony.

Gregory Finney

Joel Ivany

Joel Ivany is the Founder and Artistic Director of AtG, and is the artistic director of Opera at Banff Centre. His directing credits include productions of Verdi’s Macbeth (Minnesota Opera), Carmen (Vancouver Opera), Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Edmonton Opera), Gavin Bryars’ Marilyn Forever (Adelaide Festival) and Le nozze di Figaro (revival at Norwegian National Opera). He is the author of seven (and counting) original librettos for companies such as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Canadian Opera Company. He was a multiple Dora Mavor Moore Award nominee for Outstanding Direction and has also been nominated for multiple Dora Awards for Outstanding New Opera/Musical, winning one for Figaro’s Wedding. Recent mainstage directing credits include Dead Man Walking at Minnesota Opera and the multiple award-winning production of Gluck’s Orphée⁺ with Opera Columbus, AtG and Banff Centre. He has directed productions for the Canadian Opera Company (Carmen), Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Mozart’s Requiem, Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins), the Canadian Children’s Opera Company (Brundibár), Vancouver Opera (Carmen, Dead Man Walking), and Claude Vivier’s Kopernikus (AtG and Banff Centre). Upcoming directing credits include new productions of Figaro’s Wedding (AtG), Hänsel und Gretel (Canadian Opera Company) and Candide (Edmonton Opera). He is a proud graduate of the Opera School at U of T and is a member of the Alumni Wall of Fame at his alma mater, Western University.

Kevin Lau

Described as a “self-assured voice” (Barczablog) with a “masterful control over his idiom” (Classical Music Sentinel), Kevin Lau’s music has been performed across North America and Europe by groups including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (where he served as Affiliate Composer till 2015), National Arts Centre Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Against the Grain Theatre, and many more. He is the composer of two ballets: Le Petit Prince (National Ballet of Canada) and Dark Angels (National Arts Centre). In 2021 he will serve as Composer in Residence for two orchestras: the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and the Houston-based River Oaks Chamber Orchestra. Kevin’s discography includes the JUNO award winning “Detach” (Redshift Records) and the JUNO-nominated “Spin Cycle” (Centrediscs). He has composed the music to several award-winning films, including Charles Officer’s documentary Invisible Essence: The Little Prince. Kevin received his doctorate in composition (2012) from the University of Toronto under the supervision of Christos Hatzis.

Margarita Brodie

Margarita Brodie is an interdisciplinary artist from Unionville, Ontario. In May of 2020, she graduated from the Set and Costume Design Program at the National Theatre School of Canada. Upon graduation, she received the Ada Slaight Award for leadership and empathy in both French and English. Her work spans across a variety of mediums from theatre, to film, to animation and beyond. In all cases, she relishes creating things that have soul and stir wonder in the audiences who behold them, and she loves making these things with other people. She currently divides her time between Toronto and Montreal.

Stephen Bell (Coffeeshop Creative)

Based in Toronto, Stephen Bell is videographer and web designer with a focus on detail and visual story telling. He is the founder of Coffeeshop Creative, a six member team focusing on web design and videography. Stephen has created featured promotional videography and web presentations from construction and finance to opera, film and the arts. His first short film as director of photography (DOP), Klaun, received five official selections, and won honourable mention in the 2019 One- Reeler Film Festival in Los Angeles. In 2020, he looks forward to filming two upcoming shorts, and various commercial features.