He makes his COC mainstage debut this season as the Hunter in Rusalka and appears as the Officer in The Barber of Seville.

He dreams of singing the title role in Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele in the future – his favourite aria is the opera's 'Son lo Spirito' – and he admires renowned Italian bass, the late Cesare Siepi. #WeTheNorthĪ new member of the Ensemble Studio, Vartan Gabrielian grew up in Toronto and studied opera at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Look for him at a Raptors game if he's not at the opera house. As passionate about cooking as he is about Puccini, Matthew loves a good charcuterie and cheese board – he even considered becoming a chef before he was bitten by the opera bug in grade 12. His favourite opera is another Puccini classic, La Bohème.

He makes his COC debut this season as the Prince of Persia in Puccini's Turandot, and dreams of singing the role of Calaf in that same opera someday or Cavaradossi in Tosca, following in the footsteps of his opera idol, Luciano Pavarotti. Catharines, Ontario native Matthew Cairns joins the Ensemble Studio for his first year, after studying opera at the University of Toronto. He also enjoys attending the Toronto Symphony Orchestra when he's not singing. Joel's also a big CFL and NHL fan, and likes spending time with his wife and their aptly named Holland Lop rabiits, Don Giobunny and Loporello. Joel dreams of singing the role of Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress one day and his favourite opera is Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. One of the opera singers he most admires is acclaimed Canadian baritone Gerald Finley. Originally from Ottawa, he went on to study opera at the University of Toronto. Joel Allison knew he wanted to be an opera singer from the age of 19. The start of the 2019/2020 season means the start for a new group of Ensemble Studio artists! Get to know each of our nine artists and learn what inspires them, both on and off the stage.

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