Concerts & Events

PERFORMERS

Gordon Gerrard, conductor

Conductor Gordon Gerrard is among the exciting new generation of music directors demonstrating new visions for orchestral leadership in Canada. Currently in his sixth season leading the Regina Symphony Orchestra, Gordon has distinguished himself as a leader in innovative and inclusionary programming. Trained first as a pianist and subsequently as a specialist in operatic repertoire, he brings a fresh perspective to the podium that endears him to audiences and musicians alike. After an international search, Gordon was appointed Music Director of the Regina Symphony Orchestra where he has taken bold steps reimagining the orchestra’s programming, including its Forward Currents Festival dedicated to social change and community engagement.

He has held the posts of Associate Conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Resident Conductor of Calgary Opera. He has returned to Calgary Opera to lead productions of La Bohème, Roméo et Juliette, Die Fledermaus, Lakmé and the Canadian premiere of Mark Adamo’s Little Women, which was recorded for national broadcast on CBC’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera. Gordon made his debut with Edmonton Opera leading the western Canadian premiere of Rossini’s Le Comte Ory.

Gordon has made appearances with many of Canada’s leading orchestras, including Toronto, Québec, Kitchener-Waterloo and Victoria. He has worked regularly with the National Ballet of Canada, and in 2016, he made his European debut at Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsburg in Germany.

Chelsea Kutn, soprano

Emerging Canadian soprano, Chelsea Kutyn, is doing her best to follow the advice of mentor Ben Butterfield who said, “Don’t bore me!” This year Chelsea made her debut with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and debuted two roles- "Susannah" from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro with Manitoba Underground Opera, and "Magda Sorel" in Menotti's The Consul with Opera NUOVA. 

“Kutyn was magnificent…capturing the full range of Magda’s anger, exasperation and ultimate despair chillingly…her depth of characterization and technical command owned the room”-Opera Canada

Chelsea is set to complete her Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance with Monica Huisman at the University of Manitoba in spring 2023.

​Chelsea is the 2022 recipient of the Rose Bowl, George H. Price Memorial Scholarship, and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra Community Concert Performance Award from the Winnipeg Music Festival.

Up next, Kutyn sings with Pacific Opera Victoria in Braunfel’s “The Birds” and Mozart’s “Cosi Fan Tutte.” Recent performances also include “ A New Year's Day Celebration” with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, “Postcards” with Pacific Opera Victoria,  “Poppea” in Monteverdi’s L'incoronazione di Poppea (Desautels Faculty of Music Chamber Opera) and musical theatre scenes in the roles of "Sergeant Sarah" from Guys and Dolls, "Velma Kelly" from Chicago, "Catherine Parr" from Six, and "Beth" from Merrily We Roll Along (Desautels Faculty of Music Theatre Ensemble). 

April 2023

Simran Claire, mezzo soprano

Simran Claire is a Punjabi-Canadian mezzo-soprano and creative based in Vancouver, BC. Her artistic practice is rooted at the intersection of innovation and tradition, with an emerging focus on multidisciplinary work. She is proud to represent her community in the white-domintated spaces of opera and art song.

This past February, Simran released Dadima (Pacific Opera Victoria), a short film exploring her identity, heritage and lineage using the framework of Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben. Her creative debut was praised as “utterly moving, disorientating in a beautiful way, like uncovering a cultural bias you didn’t know you had,” (Opera Canada). Dadima was created as a part of her work in Pacific Opera Victoria’s Civic Engagement Quartet.

Last season, Simran made her French debut as Gossip 3 and Dancer in John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, performed in the historic Opéra Royal at the Château de Versailles and co-produced by the Glimmerglass Festival; the production was recorded and broadcast internationally on arte.tv. Back home in Vancouver, she performed Oberaufseherin in the Canadian premiere of Mieczysław Weinberg’s Pasażerka (UBC Opera). As a member of Vancouver Opera’s Pre-Professional Internship Program, she understudied the role of Bunny in the world premiere of Maxime Goulet’s The Flight of the Hummingbird.

Simran is a graduate of the University of British Columbia (BMus 2018, MMus 2020), where she performed roles including Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Angelina in La cenerentola; she is a recipient of the music faculty’s highest graduating award, the UBC Medal for Music. She was a Young Artist at the Glimmerglass Festival in 2019, where she worked with director Francesca Zambello and sang in a concert curated and hosted by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

April 2023

Evan Korbut, baritone

Evan Korbut is a Toronto-based Anishinaabe baritone, born in Sault Ste. Marie, ON who is quickly garnering praise for his work in traditional, and particularly, new opera. His lyric baritone has been called “beautiful” and his command of the stage “complete” (Operaramblings, 2019).

Evan’s 2022-23 season includes multiple roles in Anchorage Opera’s Missing and a recital with the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto. 2021-22 season saw the baritone appear in a variety of live and digital presentations including Edmonton Opera’s ‘Wild Rose Project’ of new Canadian operas, as Bird in Ian Cusson’s Indians on Vacation, and as Virgil Thompson in The Mother of Us All and Michonnet in Adriana Levouvreur, both for Toronto’s VOICEBOX: Opera in Concert.

Other recent engagements include Owl in the premiere of Vancouver Opera and Pacific Opera Victoria’s production of Flight of the Hummingbird by Maxime Goulet. Korbut is a Dora Award winner for his roles as Simms/Spirit Chorus in Shanawdithit by Dean Burry, produced jointly by Tapestry Opera and Opera on the Avalon. The Stuart Hamilton Memorial Award Winner starred as Jamie Paul in the world premiere of The Ecstasy of Rita Joe for VOICEBOX: Opera in Concert, followed by the Canadian premiere of Schubert’s Fierabras for the same company. Other select credits include Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, Danilo in The Merry Widow, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Marcello in La bohème, Tarquinius/Junius in The Rape of Lucretia, Dandini in La cenerentola, Figaro/Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Taddeo in L’italiana in Algeri, Publio in La clemenza di Tito, and Moses in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.

Evan studied voice at the University of Western Ontario where he earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees.

April 2023

Mishael Eusebio, tenor

Filipino-Canadian tenor Mishael Eusebio is a dynamic performer whose creativity and charisma bring unique interpretations into every project. His recent portrayal of Young Harvey in the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis’s world premiere of Harvey Milk Reimagined was received with much acclaim as well as being featured in the summer 2022 edition of Opera America Magazine.

Other recent credits include covering Tamino (The Magic Flute, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and L’Opéra de Montréal), the cover for Rose’s Fiancé (Awakenings, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis). Recent roles include, Passager (Le Flambeau de la nuit) the Navigator/Manoj (A Space of Sky, Houston Grand Opera workshop), Brighella (Ariadne auf Naxos), Bardolfo (Falstaff), and Nemorino as part of CCM’s Fall Scenes Gala. He also created roles for several new short operas as part of the Juilliard Opera-Composer Collaborative Project, debuting at the National Sawdust in Brooklyn.

Alongside a grant from the Art Song Foundation of Canada, Eusebio was a Colburn Fellow at Songfest Los Angeles where he collaborated with John Harbison, Lydia Brownand Graham Johnson. He was also the resident Tenor soloist for the Bach Ensemble at St. Thomas from 2019-2021 where he regularly performed Bach cantatas with members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with the Musica Sacra of Cincinnati.

Eusebio was a semi-finalist for the 2021 Concours OSM, a finalist at the 2020 American National Opera Association Competition, a recipient of the 2019 John C. Erskine Prize, and the Encouragement Award at the 2020 Metropolitan Opera District Auditions.

His artistic diversity has also allowed him to explore other forms of theatre past opera, working in experimental theatre with Expect Theatre in Toronto, Beyond the Machine at Juilliard as well as having created the role of Winnie in the critically acclaimed Summerland the Musical at the Toronto Theatre Fringe Festival.

He is a graduate of the Juilliard School and the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati.

Currently, Mishael is completing his second season as a member of L’atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal.

April 2023

Ignite Chamber Choir, part of The Ablaze Vocal Arts Ensemble, under the Artistic Direction of Dorianna Holowachuk

Established in March 2023, Ablaze Vocal Arts Ensemble is a new group of community choirs founded and led by Artistic Director, Dorianna Holowachuk, and located on Treaty 4 Land in Regina, Saskatchewan. Ignite Chamber Choir is the auditioned division of Ablaze VAE. This group of singers rehearses once a week for two hours on Sunday afternoons. Ablaze VAE was born out of the ongoing hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these singers have sung under the direction of Dorianna Holowachuk as an ad hoc choir for past collaborations with the Regina Symphony Orchestra, including Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in May 2022 and Handel’s Messiah in December 2022. When these projects concluded, there was a strong desire among the singers to continue singing together, and this was the impetus for the creation of Ablaze Vocal Arts Ensemble and Ignite Chamber Choir.

Choir Member List as of September 2023

Dorianna Holowachuk, choir artistic director

Dorianna Holowachuk is the founder and Artistic Director of Regina’s newest choir, Ablaze Vocal Arts Ensemble. In her over 20 years of choral singing experience, Dorianna has sung in numerous choirs, including the 2010 and 2014 National Youth Choir of Canada. Dorianna finds joy in choral projects that encourage community building, and makes a deliberate effort to program works based on their artistic whole; drawing inspiration equally from the poetic text and the musical language. Dorianna is an active member of Regina’s music community as a singer, teacher, and choral conductor. She is the Director of Music at St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral where she enjoys fostering community through her work in the music ministry. Dorianna holds a Master of Music degree in Music Education from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, a Bachelor of Music Education degree and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Regina.