Ben Heppner News

Some of Canada's most impressive young voices will take over the mainstage of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on May 25, 2018 for An Evening with the Ensemble Studio. That night, artists of the Canadian Opera Company's prestigious training program for young opera professionals will join together for a one-night-only performance, featuring scenes from Mozart's satirical look at love and fidelity, Cosi fan tutte, and a full concert staging of Purcell's supernatural epic, Dido and Aeneas.

Producers Darlene Kaplan, Laura Janik Cronin and Scott Newsome, in association with Alec Seymour, present the Off-Broadway premiere of The Stone Witch, a play by Shem Bitterman (A Death in Colombia, Influence).  Performances begin Monday, March 12, 2018 for an open-ended engagement atThe Westside Theatre - Upstairs (407 West 43rd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues).  Opening Night is Sunday evening, March 25, 2018 at 6:30PM.

Soprano Heidi Melton is the 2009 George London-Kirsten Flagstad Award winner who in February sings the role of Sieglinde in the New York Philharmonic's concert performance of Act I of Wagner's Die Walküre led by Jaap van Zweden, and tenor Kyle van Schoonhoven is the winner of the Nicolai Gedda Memorial Award at the 2017 George London competition as well as a 2017 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions winner. These two young rising stars join pianist Craig Rutenberg to perform a joint recital, the final event of the George London Foundation's 2017-18 season, on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at 4:00 pm, at the Morgan Library and Museum's Gilder Lehrman Hall.

The Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, Canada's premier training program for young opera professionals, welcomes four new artists for the 2018/2019 season: bass-baritone Joel Allison, mezzo-soprano Simona Genga, and sopranos Lauren Margison and Anna-Sophie Neher. The four singers join the Ensemble Studio in August 2018 and become part of a program that, since its inception in 1980, has launched the careers of over 230 Canadian singers, opera coaches, mainstage directors and conductors.

Producers Darlene Kaplan, Laura Janik Cronin and Scott J. Newsome, have announced, today, the cast and creative team for the Off-Broadway premiere of The Stone Witch, a play by Shem Bitterman (A Death in Colombia, Influence). Performances begin Monday, March 12, 2018 for an open-ended engagement at The Westside Theatre - Upstairs (407 West 43rd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues). Opening Night is set for Sunday evening, March 25, 2018 at 6:30PM.

The Canadian Opera Company's 2018/2019 season presents the world premiere of Hadrian, a new opera from composer Rufus Wainwright and librettist Daniel MacIvor, which features the highly anticipated COC debuts of international opera stars Thomas Hampson and Karita Mattila.

Fresh from a rapturously received account of Berlioz's La damnation de Faust with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Charles Dutoit, Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Susan Graham reprises her 'vivacious and creamy-voiced' (New York Times) star turn as the wealthy widow Hanna Glawari in Susan Stroman's production of Leh r's The Merry Widow at the Metropolitan Opera this winter (Dec 14-Jan 11).

This December, opera's youngest fans can experience a production created just for them with the Canadian Opera Company's new, family-friendly presentation of The Magic Victrola.

Fresh from a rapturously received account of Berlioz's La damnation de Faust with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Charles Dutoit, Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Susan Graham reprises her 'vivacious and creamy-voiced' (New York Times) star turn as the wealthy widow Hanna Glawari in Susan Stroman's production of Leh r's The Merry Widow at the Metropolitan Opera this winter (Dec 14-Jan 11).

This December, opera's youngest fans can experience a production created just for them with the Canadian Opera Company's new, family-friendly presentation of The Magic Victrola.

The 2009 winner of the George London-Leonie Rysanek Award and American opera's latest Rigoletto: Marjorie Owens, soprano, and Quinn Kelsey, baritone, with Myra Huang, piano, will offer the second event in the season's George London Foundation Recital Series at The Morgan Library & Museum on Sunday, December 10, 2017, at 4:00 pm.

Simona Genga of Woodbridge, Ont. took home First Prize (the Chair's Prize) at the Canadian Opera Company's annual Ensemble Studio Competition on November 1, 2017 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

Canada is a country known for its musical talent. The Canadian Opera Company's Ensemble Studio Competition, CENTRE STAGE, showcased a curated selection of that talent last night. The competition auditions singers from across the country and selects a few lucky artists to compete for an invitation to the intensive COC Ensemble Studio training program.

The Canadian Opera Company has selected seven finalists from across the country to showcase in this year's exhilarating vocal competition at its fifth annual gala fundraiser, Centre Stage, on November 1, 2017.

One of the greatest Canadian voices in classical music, contralto Maureen Forrester was a legend. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra paid tribute to the beloved singer, in a concert of new works for Mezzo-soprano and one of Forrester's most memorable recital pieces, Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth).

The Canadian Opera Company has selected seven finalists from across the country to showcase in this year's exhilarating vocal competition at its fifth annual gala fundraiser, Centre Stage, on November 1, 2017.

Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Susan Graham opens her 2017-18 season with a return to the Boston Symphony to star in Berlioz's La damnation de Faust under Charles Dutoit.

Two of opera's rising young American stars open the 2017-18 concert season of The George London Foundation for Singers with a duo recital on Sunday, October 29, 2017, at 4:00 pm.

The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC opens its 20th anniversary season today, September 23 at 8pm, welcoming The Blind Boys of Alabama with Ben Heppner to the Chan Shun Concert Hall.

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO), led by Music Director Peter Oundjian, opens its 96th season today, September 19 at Roy Thomson Hall. The performance, part of Canada Mosaic (a Canada 150 Signature Project) is anchored by the World Premiere of Life of Pi-a new orchestral suite by Canadian composer Mychael Danna.