Association for Opera in Canada held our AGM yesterday, Tuesday February 20, 2024.
We are delighted to welcome three new board members, and two new co-chairs!
Joining the Board:
MARIE-ANNICK BÉLIVEAU
A leading lyrical performer, Marie-Annick Béliveau has developed a unique, decompartmentalized and interdisciplinary practice over the course of 25 years. She has created over thirty vocal works by Canadian and European composers. Since June 2022, she is the artistic director of Chants Libres, lyric creation company, founded by soprano Pauline Vaillancourt 34 years ago, while leading an international career as an operatic performer dedicated to new music.
An artist rooted in her community, she teaches classical singing at UQAM and has been singing for more than 12 years for the Société pour les Arts en Milieux de Santé. Her passion for lyrical exploration also resonates in the academic world: a doctoral student in the Arts Studies and Practices program at UQAM, Marie-Annick Béliveau is carrying out a research-creation project in which she questions the modes of design and production of lyrical art and the posture of the performer-creator-mediator.
SANDRA HORST
Sandra Horst is a conductor and educator based in Toronto. In addition to making her conducting debut with the Canadian Opera Company in Il viaggio a Reims, she is also the Price Family Chorus Master, with repertoire spanning more than 70 operas.
As Head of Opera at the University of Toronto she has conducted main stage productions ranging from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, to Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing, Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park and most recently, Massenet’s Cendrillon.
She is a guest faculty member of Open Space: Opera in the 21st Century at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity and is a frequent Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition judge. Ms Horst served as Chorus Master and audition consultant for Opera Theatre of St Louis, Chorus Master for Edmonton Opera, and has been on the music staff of the Canadian Opera Company, Juilliard Opera Centre, Chautauqua Institute School of Singing, Boston Lyric Opera and Opera Ontario. She also currently serves as an industry mentor for Tapestry Opera’s Women in Musical Leadership program.
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, holds a Masters degree in Accompaniment from New England Conservatory, Boston and pursued Professional Studies at The Juilliard School in New York. An active collaborator, she has been heard 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. Recent conducting performances include Orphée+ with Edmonton Opera and Florence, the Lady with the Lamp with Voicebox: Opera in Concert.
DANIEL TURP
Daniel studied musicology and graduated from the Faculté de musique de Montréal with a certificate in music, art and society. He is currently engaged in graduate studies, which he intends to complete with a master’s thesis entitled “Une étude pour une politique de la musique pour le Québec”.
Daniel is President of the Réunion des opéras du Québec and of the Observatoire québécois d’art lyrique. He is the founder of L’Opéra- Revue québécoise d’art lyrique, of which he was director from 2014 to 2023. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Opéra de Montréal. He was General Director of Théâtre Lyrichorégra 20 (L20) and its Jeunes ambassadeurs et ambassadrices lyriques program. From 2020 to 2023, he was Chairman of the Board of the Opéra de Québec, the Festival d’opéra de Québec and the Fondation de l’Opéra de Québec. He is founder and president emeritus of the Société pour les arts en milieux de santé (www.samsante.org). This organization’s mission is to organize concerts in health and social service establishments in Montreal, Quebec City and other regions of Quebec. He was a member of the Collectif pour la musique au Québec (www.musi.quebec). MUSI.QC is an initiative of musician-educators and academics to promote and encourage continuous musical education and practice for all. He also founded the Mouvement Radio-Québec, whose goal is to give the Quebec government a public radio station with a cultural and musical vocation. He chaired the Fondation de la Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur, whose mission is to financially support the Maison de la musique de la Ville de Montréal.
From 2010 to 2020, Daniel published Le blogue lyrique de Daniel Turp, which became Le blogue lyrique québécois d’art lyrique par Daniel Turp (www.danielturp.quebec/bloguelyrique) , every Saturday. Over 425 issues were published. He presented information on productions and concerts, as well as on the conductors, performers, directors and composers working on opera stages in Quebec and around the world. In L’Opéra- Revue québécoise d’art lyrique (www.revuelopera.quebec), he has published a large number of interviews, features, portraits, profiles, reviews and columns in the 34 issues of the magazine published to date. He has also published articles on opera and conducted interviews with opera artists in the magazine La Scena musicale, the newspaper Le Devoir and the Cahiers de la Société québécoise de recherche en musique.
In the coming years, he plans to publish an essay on L’univers wagnérien de François Girard. Daniel Turp is currently writing a libretto for an opera dedicated to the life of Louis-Joseph Papineau, inspired by the Lettres à Julie rassembled in a collection whose text, edited by Georges Aubin and Renée Blanchet, was published by Éditions Septentrion. From 2009 to 2015, Daniel Turp hosted three classical music programs on Radio Ville-Marie: Le mélomane, L’opéra… le dimanche aussi! and L’Opéra- Tribune québécoise d’art lyrique.
Taking up the position of Co-Chair
Robin Whiffen, General Director, Against the Grain Theatre (entering her second year on the Board)
Bruce Munro Wright, Member-at-Large (entering his fifth year on the Board)
The membership thanked past chair Michael Hidetoshi Mori, General Director, Tapestry Opera, for his four years of service as Board Chair. Michael remains on the Board, entering his 10th year.
Rotating off the Board
Chantal Lambert, former director of the Atelier Lyrique of Opéra de Montréal. Chantal was thanked for her five years of service as a Director.