Board of Directors Archive - L’Association pour l’opéra au Canada

Bruce Munro Wright

Bruce Munro Wright is active in the Canadian arts and not-for-profit sector as trustee, speaker, panelist, jurist, fundraiser and philanthropist. He is a past Chair of Vancouver Opera and its foundation. In 2017 he received the National Opera Directors Emeritus Award from Opera.ca. Bruce is a past Chair of Vancouver Art Gallery and now chairs its Foundation. As a current trustee of Vancouver’s Arts Umbrella, the arts training enterprise serving more than 20,000 students annually, he has Co-Chaired Splash, the annual Art Auction and Gala, four times. Bruce is President of Health Arts Society (Concerts in Care) in BC, which, together with its sister societies, have provided almost 20,000 concerts nationally by paid performers to people in care. Bruce is…

Michael Hidetoshi Mori Chair

Michael Hidetoshi Mori is a «shot of adrenaline to opera». Michael is a leading international voice in socially and artistically progressive opera and music theatre. An award-winning Canadian/American stage director, and the General Director of Tapestry Opera in Toronto, he is frequently sought as a director, dramaturge, producer and speaker. Bringing new works from concept to full realization is his specialty, having commissioned and developed more than ten new operas over the past five years. Michael is the Chair of Opera.ca, Canada’s association of professional opera companies, and was recently one of two delegates invited to represent Canada at the 2018 World Opera Forum in Madrid, where he presented on diversity in opera. Michael’s leadership at Tapestry Opera has led…

Ian Rye Vice Chair

With Pacific Opera, Ian has stewarded the creation of over 50 original opera productions, new opera commissions, cultivated an enhancement of artistic scope, and orchestrated a co-production model that has positioned Victoria-made productions on opera stages across Canada and the U.S. He has stewarded youth and education programs, community collaborations, and was key to the creation of the Baumann Centre as a community hub for increased participation in opera. Previously, Ian was the Director of Production and Artistic Administration for Pacific Opera Victoria, the Director of Production at the Belfry Theatre and an Instructor of Lighting Design at the University of Victoria. His scenic and lighting designs for dance, opera and theatre have played at notable stages across Canada. His…

Cheryl Hickman Past - Chair

Cheryl Hickman is the General and Artistic Director of Opera on the Avalon (Newfoundland), a company she founded in 2009. She has been the Artistic Director since its inception and took on the role of General Director in 2014. She established OOTA’s Creation Investment Fund, which resulted in Atlantic Canada’s first grand opera commission, that helped OOTA to win numerous awards, including BMO/ Arts NL Artist of the year in 2017. Her tenure at OOTA has seen critical acclaim for her bold and challenging programming, particularly in terms of her approach to turning history into art as part of a dialogue about the relevance of opera in today’s society. OOTA’s commissions such as John Estacio and Robert Chafe’s Ours, Kathleen…

Dean Burry

Toronto-based Composer and Educator Dean Burry joins the Canadian Children’s Opera Company as Artistic Director following two decades of dedication to children’s opera in Canada. He has been a key player in the Education and Outreach Department of the Canadian Opera Company since designing the celebrated After-School Opera Program in 1997. Working as Program Leader, Music and Stage Director he has created over fifty operas with young people in various Toronto communities. He has developed and/or implemented many highly successful outreach programs for such organizations as the Canadian Children’s Opera Company, Canadian Opera Company, Soundstreams, Ontario Arts Council, Live Bait Theatre, The Royal Conservatory of Music, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and the Toronto District School Board. He is…

Chantal Lambert

Montreal born soprano Chantal Lambert is a graduate with great distinction of the Québec Conservatory of Music in Montreal, having been unanimously awarded the first prize for interpretation, mentored by tenor André Turp and vocal coach Janine Lachance. She then benefited from a three-year apprenticeship with the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, where she studied with great teachers and artists and made her professional debut as Métella in La Vie parisienne (company Les Nouvelles Variétés Lyriques). In 2016, she celebrated 25 years at the helm of this Opéra de Montréal Young Artist Program, which was once her own Alma Mater and was inducted in the Panthéon canadien de l’Art lyrique (Canadian Opera Hall of Fame). During is tribute, the…

Amy Mushinski

Amy Mushinski, Associate Director, Public Affairs, The Canadian Opera Company, joined the Canadian Opera Company as Public Affairs Manager in August 2006, and in 2017 assumed her current role of Associate Director, Public Affairs. She was previously with the Dominion Institute (Historica Canada), a small not-for-profit organization based in Toronto, dedicated to creating active and informed citizens through greater knowledge and appreciation of the Canadian story. Her responsibilities with the COC include advocacy, grant writing, community and sector relations, and liaising with the three levels of government that support the company. Miss Mushinski is an active board member of the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) and Chair of TAPA’s advocacy committee, leading municipal advocacy efforts in support of…

Christina Loewen Executive Director

Christina Loewen has led The Association for Opera in Canada as Executive Director since 2009 with a vision focussed on helping the sector build resilience and navigate high levels of change and uncertainty. Recognized for her innovative thinking, collaborative leadership and cross-sectoral approach, she has launched new initiatives and programming for the opera sector in such areas as innovation, resilience and systems thinking, capitalization, entrepreneurship and lean start up principles, and evaluating impact. Her 20 years experience in the performing arts sector includes domestic and international touring with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, serving as Director of Marketing for Opera Ontario, and eliminating the accumulated deficit and building working capital at Danny Grossman Dance. She has an Honours Bachelor of Dramatic…

Patrick Hansen

Patrick Hansen continues his unique career throughout North America as an operatic conductor, vocal coach, and stage director. For his conducting of Bartok’s operatic masterpiece Bluebeard’s Castle, New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini praised his “lithe pacing and vivid colors” while Pulitzer prize-winning Financial Times critic Martin Bernheimer wrote “Hansen respected the delicate balance between passion and introspection. He made much of Bartok’s epic essay in psycho-sexual angst.” David Patrick Stearns in the Philadelphia Inquirer noted “Hansen revealed another side of the score: stroke after stroke of musical characterization that’s often obscured by dazzling orchestral color, skillfully drawing the ear into the two characters’ hearts of darkness.” His stagings have garnered praise in both Canada and the United States. Wayne…

Marc A. Scorca

Marc A. Scorca joined OPERA America in 1990 as president and CEO. Since that time, the OPERA America membership has grown from 120 opera companies to nearly 2,500 organizations and individuals. Under Scorca’s leadership, OPERA America has administered two landmark funding initiatives in support of the development of North American operas and opera audiences and launched a $20 million endowment effort in 2000 to create a permanent fund dedicated to supporting new works and audience development activities. OPERA America’s relocation from Washington, D.C. to New York City in December 2005 has increased communication and collaboration with and among members both locally and nationally. OPERA America supported the establishment of affiliated Opera.ca (Toronto) and Opera Europa (Brussels) and works closely with…

Marion Newman

Kwagiulth and Stó:lō First Nations, English, Irish and Scottish mezzo-soprano Marion Newman “sings with rich, opulent tone, and her delivery pulses with the multiple meanings of her duplicitous existence.» (Opera News) and she has been noted as «a show stealer» (BBC Music Magazine). In her Irish debut with Cork’s Opera-2005 in the title role of Carmen, she was widely praised for her “superbly sinuous sexuality” and “as a very exciting new talent” by the Irish Examiner. She returned to Cork to appear as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Ms. Newman has appeared as Tisbé in Cenerentola, Margret in Wozzeck and Juno in The Tempest with Pacific Opera Victoria, Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte with Vancouver Opera, Cherubino, Cinderella, Flora…

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