On Tuesday night, the Canadian Opera Company for the third year held a public concert for the final round of its Ensemble Studio voice competition — which, perversely, doesn’t grant any spots in the Ensemble Studio.
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Rather than place singers in its young artists’ programme, the Canadian Opera Company’s competition acts like hundreds of other such events around the world, awarding cash prizes to the winners.
The public event has grown in stature every year. Yesterday’s concert was held in R. Fraser Elliott Hall with the COC Orchestra and music director Johannes Debus. The press release said there were 800 people in the nearly 2,000-seat venue.
Two of the three laureates, chosen from nine finalists, are from Ontario. The jury was made up of senior Canadian Opera Company artistic staff as well as Ensemble Studio alumna Wendy Nielsen.
The big winner was Quebec soprano Karine Boucher, who received e the $5,000 first prize award as well as a $1,500 audience choice award.
Tenor Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure from Kitchener-Waterloo won the second prize of $3,000, and bass-baritone Iain MacNeil from Brockville, who is currently working on an opera diploma at University of Toronto, was awarded the third prize of $1,500.
Rufus Wainwright, a favourite of Company general director Alexander Neef, was invited to host, as well as sing three songs during the evening.
The press release stated that 155 singers had applied to the competition.
As for admission into next year’s Ensemble Studio, the release stated, “the finalists are also hoping to secure a highly coveted position.” It’s too bad such a grandly orchestrated competition can only offer hope.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
