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After a slowdown in operatic creation in the 20th century, contemporary opera is now booming. This revival raises questions about the nature of opera (1), interdisciplinary creation (2) and the future of the genre in relation to new technologies (3). The Canada Research Chair in Opera Creation (CRCOC) addresses these issues through a research-creation approach, with the aim of helping to redefine opera in and for the 21st century.
The CRCOC proposes to reexamine the elements considered essential to the very nature of opera, be they musical (instrumentation, vocal technique employed, etc.), dramaturgical (narrative framework, themes addressed, etc.) or scenic (performance space, physical presence, etc.), from a creative standpoint. In order to redefine opera for the 21st century, it is also necessary to confront the misogyny and colonialism historically inherent in the genre and to propose alternative solutions.
Bringing together music, theatre, visual arts, dance and technological innovation, opera creation has always been a privileged laboratory for interdisciplinary collaboration. The CRCOC approaches the question of the co-creation process from a new angle, combining theoretical reflection on the challenges of interdisciplinary co-creation with a practical exploration of different collaborative modalities and methodologies.
The many possibilities opened up by digital technologies for the creation, production, dissemination and reception of the performing arts are blurring the boundaries between genres, raising questions about the identity of opera and inviting the exploration of new forms that can democratize opera and reach a wider audience. The CRCOC explores these possibilities on both practical (through the creation of operas for augmented and virtual reality, for example) and theoretical levels (through the analysis of hybrid operas, for example, and their reception).
The CRCOC, which represents the first step in the development of a Center for Innovation and Research-Creation in Opera and Contemporary Music, brings together researchers, students and performing arts professionals in partnership with artistic, technological and cultural institutions around its titular composer Ana Sokolović. Their respective contributions, at the crossroads of research and creation, theory and practice, feed the content of this platform in rhythm with the projects, activities and other creations dedicated to it.
Ana Sokolović is a composer, professor of composition at the Université de Montréal and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Opera Creation. Her music is distinguished by its rhythmic Balkan folk universe, colored by playful images and inspired by different artistic disciplines. Her vast repertoire is regularly performed by prestigious Canadian and international orchestras, ensembles and soloists. She is particularly renowned for her operatic works, as evidenced by her fourth-place ranking among the world's most performed opera composers (source Operabase). This success is reflected in her opera Svadba, which "seems to invent a universal phonetic of the human heart" (Le Monde).
Dance artist Sarah Bild has been pursuing her career in Montreal for over 30 years. Her solos and group pieces have been performed across Canada. She combines minimalism, exploded gestures, abstraction and extreme slowness to create worlds rich in dreamlike images, always raising questions about our existence and the precariousness of human presence on this planet.
In 2015, her Projet 50+ plunged her into research into the representation of the aging female body on stage. After years of directing others, Sarah turned to her own body to find new contexts of expression and give voice to this multiple, complex and temporal body. In 2017-18, Wall Series brought her to perform along an exterior wall in Montreal's Mile-End. With She Wanted in 2019, a performance for only two spectators at a time, Sarah pushes her intimate relationship with time and improvisation. The piece has since been presented almost 90 times.
In 2020, Sarah travelled to Germany to research Le Poids du lieu, an exploration she has since pursued in collaboration with artists Sylvie Tourangeau, Tedi Tafel and Caroline Hayeur. The resulting photographic and video footage of this research is at the heart of three new choreographic films. Sarah Bild is the only improviser certified to teach the Action Theater technique in Quebec. She teaches regularly at the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal and the Université de Montréal, and is a choreographer and guest teacher at several dance schools across Canada. For the Canada Research Chair in Opera Creation, Sarah Bild acts as artistic coach and choreographer on the teaching team.
Jean-Michaël Lavoie has been pursuing an international career as a conductor since the age of 28. Following his studies at McGill University's Schulich School of Music, he was appointed assistant conductor of the Ensemble intercontemporain in Paris (2008-2010) and one of the conductors-in-residence of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (2010). He continued his musical training in Europe and the United States with Pierre Boulez (Lucerne Festival Academy), Susanna Mälkki (Ensemble intercontemporain, LA PHIL) and Esa-Pekka Salonen (Orchestre de Paris).
For over ten years, Jean-Michaël Lavoie has been a guest with Europe's leading orchestras, including the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre national de Bordeaux Aquitaine, Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, NFM Filharmonia Wroclawska.
He made his operatic debut at Teatro alla Scala, Milan (2011), co-directing the premiere of Luca Francesconi's Quartett, at Opéra de Lyon (2013) and Opéra national de Bordeaux (2014).
He is a regular guest with contemporary music ensembles, such as Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Musikfabrik, Ensemble Resonanz and the Ensemble de la Société de musique contemporaine du Québec.
Winner of the Prix Opus 2010 Découverte de l'année, he has recorded two piano recitals for the Radio-Canada program Les Jeunes Artistes.
Diane Pavlović has been at the heart of the theatrical milieu for thirty years, dividing her time between writing, teaching and offering dramaturgical support to various companies and artists, both here and abroad. She has contributed to several Quebec, American and European publications devoted to theater and literature.
A member of the editorial board of Cahiers de théâtre JEU from 1983 to 1990, she began working at the Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD) in the late 1980s, becoming dramaturgy assistant in 1990, then dramaturgy manager from 1994 to 2001.
She has taught language workshops and theater history courses at the École nationale de théâtre du Canada (ÉNT) since 1991. In 2001, she took the helm of its Playwriting program. Since September 2010, she has also been Director of Theatre at Leméac éditeur.
For the Canada Research Chair in Opera Creation, Diana Pavlovic acts as artistic coach and librettist for French-language works.
Andrea Romaldi is a dramaturg, teacher, and artistic leader who, during her fifteen-year career in theatre, has also worked as an independent producer and director. Prior to becoming Director of the Playwriting Program (English Section) at the National Theatre School of Canada, she spent ten seasons as Literary Manager at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre, directing the theatre’s extensive roster of play development programs, and assisting in the development of over eighty new plays, with almost thirty produced. They include Governor General nominated plays by Sean Dixon, Brendan Gall, Jonathan Garfinkel, Michael Healey, Joan MacLeod, and Hannah Moscovitch, and Governor General Award-winners Erin Shields and David Yee; eleven Dora Award Outstanding New Play nominees and three winners; and a Trillium Book Award winner. She has mentored both graduate students and professional theatre makers through university training programs, internships, and play development programs at a variety of theatres, and was a regular panellist for the Directors Lab North. Previously, she was the Artistic Director of Hudson Village Theatre, and has worked with Brian Quirt at Nightswimming and with Maureen Labonte and Neil Munro at the Shaw Festival. Andrea also participated in workshops at the National Theatre Society (Dublin) while she pursued her MPhil in film and theatre at Trinity College, Dublin.
Zoey Cochran is a doctoral candidate in musicology at McGill University, a lecturer at the Université de Montréal and Italian lyric diction coach at the Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal. She is also Associate Research Director of the Canada Research Chair in Opera Creation. Supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) at both master's and doctoral levels, she studies the political role of Italian Baroque opera, focusing on the repercussions of foreign domination (first Spanish, then Austrian) on the history of opera. She has presented her work on opera in Naples and Venice at numerous international conferences, including the AMS annual conference.
Marie-Josèphe Vallée is an associate professor at the Université de Montréal's School of Design. She teaches in the Bachelor of Interior Design program. Her training in art, architecture and design has led to a career in all three disciplines.
Her research interests focus on urban and built spaces as captured by the body and the physical experience of place. Grounded in bodily experience, architecture and spatial design call upon a wide range of sensory dimensions, which Marie-Josèphe Vallée integrates into her teaching as well as her creative and research work. In developing her professional artistic practice, her research and her production of works deal with the built environment and its evocative potential through an approach that is at once sensitive, perceptive and multisensory.
She has enjoyed numerous invitations for exhibition on the international scene, such as the Florence Biennale, the Beijing Senate, art centers and museums in Holland, Spain, Belgium, France, Romania, Uruguay and, more locally, the CCA in Montreal. Her work has been presented in national and international museums and cultural centers. These events, often archived and preserved in catalogs and various publications, are also a platform for disseminating her research and contributing to the outreach of the Université de Montréal.
Caroline Vu-Nguyen (nom de plume: Caroline Vu) was born in Dalat at the height of the Vietnam War. She left her native country at the age of 11 for the United States, before moving to Canada. She studied psychology and medicine in Montreal. After extended stays in Latin America and Europe, Caroline returned to Montreal. She currently works as a family physician in a Montreal medical clinic.
Caroline has freelanced for The Medical Post, Doctors' Review and The Tico Times. Her debut novel Palawan Story won the Canadian Author Association's Fred Kerner Award in 2016. Palawan Story was also a finalist for the Concordia University First Book Prize. Palawan, the French version of Palawan Story was named a finalist for the Prix de la diversité at the Métropolis Bleu literary festival in Montreal in 2018.
Caroline Vu works as librettist for the Canada Research Chair in Opera Creation.
Olivier Asselin is a professor in the Department of Art History and Film Studies at the Université de Montréal, where he teaches extended cinema and media arts. His research interests include the reconfiguration of cinema and audiovisual narrative by digital technologies and mobile platforms.
He has co-edited several books, including Espaces de savoir (Université Laval), Menlo Park (Université Laval), The Electric Age (University of Ottawa), Precarious Visualities (McGill-Queen's), and contributed to various collections and catalogs, such as Expanding Spatial Narratives (Mousse), Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), Architectures de mémoire (Labex Arts-H2H and Presses du Réel), The Oxford Handbook to Canadian Cinema (Oxford), Installations (Musée National des Beaux-arts de Québec), Cartographies of Place (Mc Gill-Queen's), 3D Cinema and Beyond (Intellect), Le réel à l'épreuve des technologies (Université de Rennes), and Extended Cinema (Campanotto).
On the research-creation front, he has scripted and directed several feature-length fiction films that revisit the history of science and technology, such as La Liberté d'une statue (World Film Festival, Ouimet-Molson Prize), La Fin de la voix (Gémeaux nomination), Le Siège de l'âme (Festival des Films du Monde), The Last Days of Paris (Festival du Nouveau Cinéma), Un Capitalisme sentimental (opening film at Festival du Nouveau Cinéma) and Le Cyclotron (Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Shanghai International Film Festival, Whistler International Film Festival, Borsos Awards for Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Iris and Canadian Screen Award nominations), as well as immersive works such as Necropolis, a life-size video game in augmented reality (Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Gamescom, AWE, South-by-South-West) and MuseumAR, an interactive scene in augmented reality around a work from the collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. He is involved in several research projects, including Géocinéma, on the localization of memory through augmented reality, and Raconter-Cartographier, on transmedia script-writing in cinema, TV series and video games.
Olivier Asselin participates in the activities of the Canada Research Chair in Opera Creation as an artistic coach.
Marie-Hélène Benoit-Otis has been Professor of Musicology at the Université de Montréal's Faculty of Music since January 2013. Since October 2019, she has held the Canada Research Chair in Music and Politics, affiliated with the Faculty of Music (OICRM) and the Faculty of Arts and Science (Canadian Centre for German and European Studies). Her work is regularly supported by the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture (FRQ-SC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Recent publications include the monograph Mozart 1941: La Semaine Mozart du Reich allemand et ses invités français (co-written with Cécile Quesney, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2019), which won the Prix Opus du Conseil québécois de la musique in the "Book of the Year" category in 2020, and the special issue "Musique et oppression: contextes européens. Autour de Mozart en Autriche annexée" in the Cahiers de la Société québécoise de recherche en musique (vol. 21, no. 1, 2020 - published in March 2022). She has a keen interest in the operatic genre, as evidenced in particular by her research on Mozart's operas and on French Wagnerism (see, for example, Ernest Chausson, Le Roi Arthus et l'opéra wagnérien en France, Peter Lang, 2012 - Prix Opus 2014 in the "Book of the Year" category).
Since graduating from the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal (EDCM) in 2015, Stefania Skoryna has been performing for Mélanie Demers, the PÉTRUS/Jérémie Niel company, Parts +Labour_Danse and Martin Messier, among others. She soon moved on to choreography and creation for events at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Chalet du Mont-Royal, the exhibition Papillons en liberté at the Botanical Garden (AsTheyStrikeCollective), and Zoofest.
Her fascination with the sound-movement relationship has led to collaborations with various composers (Olivier Alary, Salomé Perli, Y. Berthiaume, Romain Camiolo, Maxime Daigneault, Amichai Ben Shalev, Snezana Nesic) and musical projects (Paramirabo, Volte & Bionicharp.ist). Her performances are broadcast by Tangente, Dance Matters (TO), Codes D'Accès and MUTEK, among others. Her interest in the sound-movement relationship also leads her to opera productions, where she discovers the vast possibilities of total art and the pleasure of transporting audiences into fictional worlds. According to Stefania Skoryna, these worlds bring us back to ourselves to open us up to others, put us in action or even soothe us.
Her involvement in the performing arts plays a key role in her practice. She's been teaching dance since 2010, introducing mentoring for first-year students at EDCM, and is co-founder and general coordinator of the NPO Nous Sommes L'Été. Stefania also acts as an artistic mentor, guiding artists in their career development. She is also one of the coordinators of the Écotone platform for fundamental research in the performing arts, created by Baobab | Création multidisciplinaire.
As part of the activities of the Canada Research Chair in Opera Creation, Stefania Skoryna participates as a choreographer in more than one creation team.
Tara Karmous is a research professional working with Laboratoire CinéMédias, assistant to holder of the Canada Research Chair in Film and Media Studies, and coordination agent for the Canada Research Chair in Opera Creation. Following a degree in film studies at Université de Paris, she continued her studies at Université de Montréal opting for a master's in research creation in Film, which she completed in winter 2023; Tara’s masters focused on the use of augmented reality and geolocation in activist transmedia narratives. She pursued her artistic thought process by developing La Fin des Paillassons, a funded augmented reality project reviewing the patriarchal discourse in art history.
Her work at the Canada Research Chair in Opera Creation focuses mainly on coordinating the Pocket Opera project (OpéRA de poche) which ties in with her research and creative interests through reflections on audience and artist presence, spatialization and the relationship between body and voice, image and sound. Tara is also involved in developing the Chair's outreach activities.
From Montréal Symphonique’s monumental stage recalling Montreal’s skyline to celebrate the city's 375th anniversary, to the box of panoramic screens surrounding the National Arts Centre Orchestra immersing spectators in the visuals of Réflexions sur la vie, Philippe applies ingenious methods and boundless curiosity to his stage concepts. His creative obsession? Breaking out of the traditional 16:9 framework to propose extraordinary set designs to evoke awe and wonder in the audience. Driven by the success of his clients, Philippe brings a solutions-oriented attitude and his strong collaborative spirit to lead large-scale projects. He exploits all that multimedia tools can offer to develop them specifically for each project.
Before founding Normal in 2009 with Mathieu-St-Arnaud, Philippe was video director at Solotech for over 5 years, working on arena tours for André Rieu, Alicia Keys and Akon, as well as the Vancouver Winter Olympics. This is where he developed his mastery of large-scale video systems and his pronounced taste for originality. Philippe holds a college diploma in arts and technology from the Cégep de Jonquière.
Joël Lehmann holds the position of Laboratory Manager - Digital Technologies in the Department of Art History and Film Studies at the Université de Montréal. He is also responsible for professional training in image editing. His passion for the art of storytelling is reaffirmed daily through his scriptwriting, directing, editing and research projects. He loves teamwork and deep immersion in projects that offer new technological challenges, to help exploit their full creative potential. Curious and eager to learn more, he is keen to expand his knowledge of technological innovation, film production and media education.
His interest and reflections on new forms of expression through innovative technologies have also led him to work as assistant director on Gregory Wallet's documentary Trumbull Land (2018) which presents the work of innovative filmmaker and visual effects designer Douglas Trumbull.
From 2015 to 2021, Joël was part of the Laboratoire CinéMédias team as technical director, audiovisual production manager, project development officer and also assistant director for the Observatoire du cinéma au Québec. In this capacity, he produced 12 episodes of the Savoir média program Connaissance du cinéma.
As part of the Canada Research Chair in Opera Creation, Joël is the technical director responsible for volumetric capture, as well as the director of a documentary on the process of creating operas in augmented reality.
Cole Hayley is a writer, actor, and creator from Elliston, Newfoundland and Labrador. He is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, and a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland, where he received a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma in Performance and Media. His written work often explores the uncomfortable negative space of day-to-day living, with a strong emphasis on the humour we all use to help get by. He has been long listed for NLCU Fresh Fish Award for a collection of poetry, and was also a recipient of the 2022 Arts & Letters Award for Senior Dramatic Script. He currently lives between Montreal and St. John’s.
Cole’s plays include: There’s nothing you can do (New Word’s Festival 2022, directed by AK Fournier), Hope (Geordie Festival 2022, directed by Dean Fleming), The Thin Place (winner of the 2022 Arts & Letters Award for Senior Dramatic Script, short-listed for the Wildfire Prize, dramaturgy by Andrea Romaldi), Wall of Death (dramaturgy by Erin Shields), The Deer-Vehicle Collision Survivor Support Group (dramaturgy by Nick Carpenter,) and Push Through (Dramaturgy by Robert Chafe.)
Kit Soden, Ph.D., is a composer and researcher based in Montreal, QC, Canada. His doctorate in composition at McGill University is sponsored by the Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Fellowship of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Kit has worked as a research assistant on the Analysis, Creation and Teaching of Orchestration (ACTOR) project, in collaboration with McGill University's Music Perception and Cognition Lab and the Swiss National Science Foundation-funded e-orchestration project at the Haute école de musique de Genève/Neuchâtel. Through his research, he has collaborated in the development of new orchestration taxonomies through the examination of orchestration treatises, systematic score analysis and perception-based research, in order to develop new pedagogical methods and materials. Kit is currently an FRQSC postdoctoral fellow at the Université de Montréal, studying the role of orchestration in opera.
Patrick is a quebecois musician and composer based in Montreal. He mostly writes music for acoustic instruments, from solo to the orchestra, but is increasingly interested in improvised musical practices and makes more and more space for collaboration in his creative process. His music is simultaneously personal but designed to be shared, meditative but alive and intense, complex but direct, an object of contemplation but politically engaged. It is performed in the Americas and in Europe.
Highlights of his career include his collaborative work émettre un son, vérifier sa propre existence which was featured in the Picanto Festival of the Canadian Music Center in 2022. In 2021, Paramirabo, Vincent Ranallo and Jean-François Daigneault premiered his ambitious vocal work Lui. His piece Revealing was recorded in by François-Xavier Roth and the London Symphony Orchestra in 2020 and premiered by Susanna Mälkki in 2018 at the Barbican. He took part in the Generation 2018 Canadian Tour with ECM+ . His piece Le sel de la terre was broadcasted on BBC Radio 3 in 2017, recorded by Thin Edge New Music Collective and awarded the 3rd Serge-Garant Prize from the Fondation Socan in 2015.
Cate Elliott worked up the ranks of animation production in Montreal before moving to the UK where she oversaw the production of the first animated series of Mr Bean (Cartoon Network) and the BAFTA award-winning Charlie and Lola (BBC, DISNEY). Cate also collaborated on the development of Watership Down (BBC, NETFLIX) as well as Moominvalley a series of short animation films based on the Moomin books by Tove Janssen (SKY UK) as well as the production of a Dreamworks feature animation half-hour special How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming. As Producer at Jellyfish Pictures she was recipient of JellyAward for best Team for a steady happy stress-free production.
After 20 years in the UK, Cate returned to Canada to produce at Mercury Filmworks and at Digital Dimension Entertainment Group. In October 2023, she joined Université de Montréal as a Senior Research Coordinator for the Canadian Research Chair in Opera Creation, for the Laboratoire Cinémédias and for the Vice-Rectorate of Research, supporting the efforts of promoting Research-Creation at the university.
Cate holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications (UQAM) and a Master of Arts in Women’s Studies from the University of York (UK).
A director who has been working in Quebec and internationally for some twenty years, Martin Genest stands out for his singular vision of the use of stage space and the relationship with the spectator. In theater, he has made a name for himself with sensitive, innovative adaptations and stagings, notably of Festen, Fête de famille (adapted from the film by Thomas Vinterberg); Jacques et son maître, by Milan Kundera; Octobre 70 (adapted from the film by Pierre Falardeau) and L'Opéra de Quat'sous, by Bertolt Brecht. Co-Artistic Director of Pupulus Mordicus, a puppet theater company, he has conceived and directed several playful, spellbinding creations, including his most recent, Cabaret Gainsbourg. Over the years, his theatrical work has won several awards for Best Production and Best Direction from the Académie québécoise du théâtre, the Association québécoise des critiques de théâtre and the Prix d'Excellence de Québec juries.
In opera, he collaborated with director Robert Lepage as puppet choreographer for Igor Stravinsky's opera The Nightingale, presented across Europe. In terms of major events, he notably conceived and directed the program of celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the Grand Théâtre de Québec, bringing together dance, performance, muralism and music in events presented in various urban public spaces. He works closely with Cirque du Soleil, for whom he has developed several concepts. Following the acclaimed creation of Hangar des oubliés, seen by over 150,000 spectators at l'Agora de Québec, JOYÀ is his second Cirque du Soleil show.
Robin Wheeler has been directing the Opera Workshop at the Université de Montréal since 1999, in addition to teaching the English lyric diction course and directing the Opera Workshop Choir there.
Quebec soprano Monique Pagé has been active on the Canadian and international opera scene for over twenty-five years. Following her debut in La Traviata at the Opéra de Québec in 1993, Madame Pagé has sung some twenty leading roles (La Bohème, Carmen, Faust, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, La Traviata, The Magic Flute, Alcina, Il segreto di Susanna, Nelligan, among others) with the major Canadian opera companies, as well as in France and the Middle East.
Monique Pagé performs regularly in recital in Canada and France. She has performed with renowned ensembles as the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal, OSM, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, I Musici, Appassionata, McGill Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre du Centre National des Arts, Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières, Chants Libres, Orchestre de la Francophonie, Sinfonia de Lanaudière, Orchestre Symphonique de Sherbrooke, OSL, Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec, as well as on Radio-Canada, CBC and Radio-France.
A sought-after teacher, Monique Pagé is an associate professor in the Faculty of Music at the Université de Montréal. Always active on the opera scene, she recently co-wrote the libretto for Albertine en cinq temps - l'opéra, a new opera inspired by Michel Tremblay's play of the same name, with the Lune rouge collective, and created the role of Albertine on stage at the age of 60. Critically acclaimed, the work was recorded on the ATMA label in 2022 and presented on tour across Quebec in 2023. Albertine en cinq temps - l'opéra will cross the Atlantic for performances in Paris in September 2024.
Born in Quebec City and a graduate of the city's Conservatoire de Musique et d'Art Dramatique, in Jacqueline Martel-Cistellini's class, Monique Pagé is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Prix Raoul-Jobin, the Prix John-Newmark, the Prix Diana-Soviero, the Prix Joseph-Rouleau (Prix des Jeunesses Musicales du Canada) and twice the Prix de scène from the Gala d'Excellence des Arts et de la Culture de Québec. Monique Pagé has also been a grant recipient from the Conseil des Arts et Lettres du Québec.
Kevisha Williams, a soprano hailing from Montreal, has over a decade of choral expertise. As an alumna of Vanier College, she holds a music diploma in classical voice and was honored with the Noël Spinelli voice entrance scholarship. Currently, Kevisha has completed a bachelor's degree in classical voice performance at the University of Montreal. She was welcomed with an entrance scholarship and is under the tutelage of esteemed instructors Monique Pagé and Ariane Girard. She is now diligently pursuing her Masgter’s degree.
Throughout her academic journey, Kevisha has actively engaged in various musical endeavors, gracing concert galas and contributing her talent to the opera scene, notably performing as a chorister in Die Fledermaus. Her dedication to excellence has been recognized through the awarding of the esteemed George Cedric Ferguson bursary, earned through an audition process.
Kevisha's passion for the stage continues to flourish as she takes on the role of Papagena in the upcoming production of The Magic Flute in February of 2024.
Originally from the Ilnu community of Mashteuiatsh, Soleil Launière lives and works in Tiöhtià:ke - Mooniyang (Montreal). A transdisciplinary artist combining song, movement, theater, installation and performance art, she sporadically uses experimental multimedia to make spiritual in-betweens felt.
Since 2008, Soleil has created several performances for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artistic gatherings and events, both inside and outside traditional dissemination networks, and across continents.
Umanishish, her first major production, premiered at Usine C in 2019. That same year, she appeared in Là où le sang se mêle on the stages of the National Arts Centre and Le Diamant. The following year, she co-directed Courir l'Amérique at Théâtre Quat'Sous and produced Sheuetamu at M.A.I in Montreal. In 2021, she created Meshtitau at the Festival Trans-Amérique. Akuteu, her first theatrical text and most recent creation, was brought to the stage in 2022 at Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui.
Since 2020, she has been Associate Artist and Professor at the National Theatre School of Canada and Director of Production AUEN, the company she founded. She is currently artistic consultant to Mirari and Robert Lepage for the Oaxaca World Expo 2025. A new mother, she has released her first music album, Taueu, as well as having her text Akuteu published by Remue-ménage.
Soleil Launière is inspired by her own experiences, myths and animal spirits. She creates passages between the visible and invisible worlds, as well as between diverse realities such as her two-spiritedness and her dual culture of Ilnu and Quebec. Sensitive and powerful, her presence, voice and works leave no one indifferent.
Stéphane Nepton is Innu from the Mashteuiatsh community, originally from Sept-Îles where he spent his childhood. After completing his art studies at CEGEP, he moved to the old capital of Quebec City, where he began to discover the 3D world as part of his training at Cyclone, one of the first schools in 3D digital creation. Self-taught by nature, Stéphane has developed rare expertise in the field of special effects for video games. He has been working on various international projects for over 25 years, among renowned studios such as Ubisoft in Montreal and France, LucasArts/Lucasfilm (Star Wars) in Singapore, Yager Studio in Germany, to name but a few.
He has worked in his own special effects studio in Montreal, collaborating mainly with studios in the international independent industry. He has collaborated on various types of games, including some in virtual reality, for companies based in Spain, Poland, the United States and Canada. He also taught special effects at Inter DEC in Montreal. He also works as a filmmaker; he produced his first film, L'Innu du futur, which won awards at several international short-film festivals. Stéphane is greatly stimulated by innovation and by passing on his knowledge to young Aboriginals. He experiments with cutting-edge techniques and technologies such as AI-assisted art and augmented reality to bring them into GSF's workshops.
Jack Belhumeur is from Edmonton, a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta. He began filmmaking in 2007 learning 16mm and 8mm film. He later created 2 short digital films and 2 documentaries with Wapikoni mobile indigenous film studio and now mentors others in their own creative endeavors. Jack is collector of vintage cameras and film projectors and is passionate about the evolution of filmmaking technology.
Soprano Marion Germain is a native of Quebec City. After finishing high school, she obtained her Diploma of College Studies in music – profile Musical Theatre at Cégep de Sainte-Foy in Quebec City. During her two years in this program, she took part in the chorus of André Messager's operetta Véronique, and won the role of Fleur de Lys in Luc Plamondon's musical Notre-Dame de Paris. The soprano also played the lead role of Satine in the musical Moulin Rouge! presented at the Maison Jaune in Quebec City. What's more, during the summer of 2015, she was recruited to play the role of Hélène in Nathalie Magnan's youth opera Arthur presented as part of the Festival d'Opéra de Québec. In August 2015, she was asked by Cégep de Sainte-Foy to be part of Charles Lecocq's operetta La fille de Madame Angot, in which she played the lead role of Mademoiselle Lange.
Marion completed her Bachelor in music - Performance – Classical singing at Université de Montréal in winter 2022 with Monique Pagé and Richard Margison. Marion has also been taking classes for the past four years with renowned soprano Lyne Fortin. At UdeM she was able to participate in the Opera Workshop as a chorister from fall 2019 to winter 2020. In fall 2021, Marion participated in the Atelier d'opéra as a soloist in the Gala Une soirée à l'opéra presented at Salle Claude-Champagne, Université de Montréal. She was awarded the George Cédric-Ferguson scholarship in the fall of 2021 after auditioning for the UdeM Opera Workshop. Marion is the recipient of several prizes totaling $1,000 as part of the Concours d'Art Lyrique de la Relève Musicale (CALRM). In winter 2022, the soprano won the lead role in the opera Quiet Night Thoughts (Amichai Ben Shalev), part of the Opéra de poche project under the direction of Jean-Michaël Lavoie and Ana Sokolovic. The soprano will also perform the roles of Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto and Mimi in Puccini's La bohème this summer in Sicily as part of the Mediterranean Opera Studio and Festival.
Born in 2001 and a musician since childhood, Maëlig Querré took violin lessons at the music school in Eysines (France). A taste for singing led her to join the Jeune Académie Vocale d'Aquitaine in 2014 with choral conductor Marie Chavanel. She took part in major works such as Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust, the Te Deum at the Berlioz Festival in Côte St André, Fauré's Requiem, Pablo Casals' El Pessebre, Mahler's 3rd Symphony, Handel's Messiah and Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle.
In 2018 she made her first operatic appearance as a soloist in the role of Yniold in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande conducted by Marc Minkowski, at the Opéra de Bordeaux and in Japan the same year in Kanazawa and Tokyo.
In 2019, she joins the lyric singing class at the Bordeaux Conservatoire, studying with Sharon Coste-Poras.
In 2020, she reprises her previous role, in a production virtually identical to the first, in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, and takes part in the recording of an album by Alpha Classics, conducted by Pierre Dumoussaud.
In 2021, after studying with Annick Massis, she enters the Université de Montréal's opera class with Rosemarie Landry and Catherine Sévigny.
The 2023 university production featured her as Prince Orlofsky in J. Strauss's Die Fledermaus. She continues her university career in her 2nd year of Master's studies with Catherine Sévigny and Nathalie Paulin.
Théo Raffin is a young French multidisciplinary artist born in Lagny-sur-Marne on January 12, 2000. In 2014, he was accepted to Marciac's Collège Aretha Franklin for its jazz workshop. That same year, he began studying clarinet at Tarbes University, as well as singing and piano. A few years later, in 2018, he joined the University of Bordeaux to continue his studies in classical singing and bass clarinet, and also began a course in the musique actuelle jazz and chanson française license, which he completed in 2021. Having chosen to focus exclusively on singing, Théo won a scholarship to move to the University of Montreal in 2021 for a year, to study classical singing as well as vocal technique and other courses under the guidance of Richard Margison, Rosemarie Landry, Robin Wheeler and Francis Perron. Théo decided to stay on and began a Master's degree in classical vocal performance, while remaining very active in the opera world, with solo roles and collaborations with big names in the industry. That same year, he was awarded the Anne-Marie Trahan Excellence Scholarship. Today, Théo is completing his Master's degree at the Université de Montréal, and his Master's degree in music education with the Université de Tours.
Geoffrey Schellenberg, a Canadian-American baritone, has garnered acclaim for his "clarion tone" according to Ludwig van Toronto, and his "impressive vocal colour" as noted by Opera Canada. He has recently been prominently featured in numerous North American opera productions, collaborating with esteemed companies such as Opéra de Montréal, Vancouver Opera, Portland Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria, and Calgary Opera. His standout performances include roles such as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni, Giorgio Germont in La traviata, and Papageno in Die Zauberflöte.
Geoffrey is set to grace several upcoming Canadian productions, assuming roles like Morales and Dancaïre in Carmen with Orchestre Philharmonique et Chœur des Mélomanes, Marquis d’Obigny in La traviata with Opéra de Montréal, and Escamillo in another rendition of Carmen with Orchestre de Trois-Rivières.
His soloist engagements span a diverse range of orchestras and ensembles, including recent performances of Des Knaben Wunderhorn with both l’Orchestre de l’Agora in Montréal, Québec, and the Mississippi Valley Orchestra in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Notable appearances include collaborations with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, where he portrayed the roles of Captain in a concert performance of Candide and Danilo in selections from The Merry Widow. Additionally, he has showcased his vocal prowess in various oratorio concerts, participating in performances such as A Sea Symphony and Faure’s Requiem with the Vancouver Bach Choir, Duruflé’s Requiem with the Saint Philips Choir, and Handel’s Messiah with the Prince George Symphony Orchestra.
Geoffrey's journey in the realm of opera has been enriched by several artist residencies, including stints at l’Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, the Portland Opera Resident Artist Program, the Calgary Opera Emerging Artist Development Program, and the Brott Opera Emerging Artist Program. He has also honed his craft through esteemed training fellowships at institutions like Highlands Opera Studio and Music Academy of the West. Throughout his career, he has been the recipient of numerous accolades in vocal competitions, including the Stingray Rising Stars Award at the Concours Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, District and Audience Choice Winner at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Platinum Prize at the Vancouver International Music Competition, and Third Prize at the Canadian Opera Company Centre Stage Competition.
French lyric coloratura soprano Maud Lewden is a graduate from the Conservatoire de Bordeaux (2019), holds a master’s degree in vocal performance (2021) and is currently completing her last year of a doctorate in vocal performance from the University of Montréal. She is the recipient of several awards from international music competitions: Cap Ferret Music Open (2022), World Classical Music Awards (2022), Societatea Romana International Mozart Competition (2021), Léopold Bellan International Music Competition (2021), Abbé Charles-Émile Gadbois scholarship (2021), Georges-Cédric Ferguson scholarship (2020, 2022, 2023) and Louise Roy Excellence Funds scholarship (2023).
Since 2021, she has performed internationally in roles such as Ilia in Idomeneo (Canada), Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro (England), and Nella in Gianni Schicchi (Canada). In 2023, she performed Adele in Die Fledermaus in Canada, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte in 2024.
Léa Jourdain is originally from La Rochelle (France), where she began her musical training at the conservatory in piano and choral singing. She decided to continue her studies at the regional conservatory of Bordeaux in the classes of Sharon Coste (singing) and Eduardo Lopes (choir direction). In 2020, she participated in a series of shows for young audiences, Les Cocottes Perchées, with Éclats, a Bordeaux-based contemporary music company.
Passionate about teaching, she has been involved in socio-educational projects such as La Légende du Roi Dragon and DEMOS (Device for Musical and Socially-Oriented Educational Outreach) with the Bordeaux National Opera. Since September 2021, she has been studying at the music faculty of the University of Montreal, where she obtained a master's degree in classical singing interpretation. During this training, she participated in the production of Strauss' Die Fledermaus, portraying the role of Ida, and Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, portraying the role of Papagena.
She has participated in masterclasses with opera artists such as David Bizić, Christian Immler, Yves Coudray, or Valérie Philippin (focused on contemporary vocal techniques). In July 2022, she attended the summer academy of the Canadian Vocal Arts Institute, during which she had the opportunity to work with Tracy Dahl, Benjamin Butterfield, and Joan Dornemann. She has also had the opportunity to work with conductors such as Marc Minkowski, Salvatore Caputo, or Nicole Corti.
In June 2022, she was awarded the Famille Ratycz Myre Scholarship from the Opéra Bouffe du Québec. She also participated in the production of Offenbach's La Périchole by the same company, portraying the roles of Guadalena and Frasquinella in November 2023.
Very interested in contemporary music and creation, she has had the chance to exchange and work with composers such as Daniel D'Adamo, François Rossé, or Frédéric Chiasson. She created "Silence", a cine-concert by Romain Camiolo, in June 2023, and participated in the fall of the same year in a virtual reality opera project by the University of Montreal and the Montreal Opera, featuring a piece by composer Jesse Plessis. She will also premiere works by Romain Camiolo and Alithéa Ripoll in spring 2024.
Artistic Director of Ulster Touring Opera, Dafydd Hall Williams trained at the Oxford School of Drama before attaining a BA and MA at Aberystwyth University. Prior to founding Belfast based cross-border company Ulster Touring Opera, Dafydd worked with opera companies across the UK and Ireland such as Wexford Festival Opera, Welsh National Opera, English Touring Opera, Northern Ireland Opera, Buxton Festival and Mid-Wales Opera. Dafydd is the project leader on the Augmented Reality Opera project, which explores the potential for volumetric capture to bring opera to life in new and unique ways. Dafydd has been a visiting director with the Vocal Studies Department at Guildhall School of Drama since 2015.
Eadsé, meaning "My good friend" in Huron-Wendat, is a Wendat singer-songwriter based in Montreal. Eadsé explores the sounds of a soulful pop. Heir to the legacy of her ancestors, it is her grandfather, from the wolf clan and the raven family, who guides her towards music. Since then, she has been creating, with strength and tenderness, musical works that are both touching and powerful.
Antoine Lussier has been passionate about music and recording from an early age. A guitarist and composer, he has toured internationally for several years with his band Ion Dissonance, as well as with pop, rock, hip-hop, classical, blues and gypsy groups. Thanks to his significant contributions to the international scene with Ion Dissonance, Antoine has been sponsored by numerous award-winning companies such as Ibanez, Mesa Boogie, Peavey, Vader and Dickies Clothing.
Currently a sound engineer and producer, he excels at both producing and teaching. He passionately explores acousmatic composition and works in various sectors of music to image, including sound design for short films and music and sound creation for video games.
With a bachelor's degree in digital music from the Université de Montréal, Antoine is pursuing graduate studies in research-creation at the same institution. His dedication to research is reflected in his desire to deepen his knowledge of an essential tool in his career: the recording studio.