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Biography
Allison Cecilia Arends, soprano, has performed across Canada and Europe, where she “mesmerized the audience with her clear, strong voice” (Star Phoenix, Saskatoon). She was recently named one of this year’s Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques, which granted her the opportunity to represent Canada in the Spazio Musica International Competition for Singers in Orvieto, Italy, where she recently placed third. She was also the 2007 recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation Developing Artist Grant for Classical Voice and a British Columbia Arts Council Senior Award. A recipient of the Encouragement Award at the 2005 Western Canadian Metropolitan Opera auditions, Ms. Arends has been broadcast by CBC Radio.
In the fall of 2007, Allison will perform Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at the University of Toronto Opera School, as well as in The Aldeburgh Connection’s Discovery Recital Series. She will also be travelling to both Montreal for the Jeunes Ambassadeurs Gala and Sicily for an International Competition, adjudicated by Dame Joan Sutherland.
In concert, Ms. Arends has appeared as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah; Mozart’s Requiem and Vesperae Solennes de Confessore; Bach’s Saint John Passion, Magnificat, and BWV 209; Haydn’s Creation; Vivaldi’s Gloria; Faure’s Requiem; Mendelssohn’s Elijah; Rutter’s Magnificat; and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. She has sung with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, the Regina Symphony Orchestra, the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, the University of Victoria Orchestra, and Saskatoon Opera, among others. She enjoyed singing in Pacific Opera Victoria's chorus for their productions of Puccini's La Bohème and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. Her opera credits include Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia, Ida in Die Fledermaus, Madame Heartmelt in The Impresario, and Dortchen Wild in The Brothers Grimm.
She recently completed studies in the opera studio of “The Centre for Opera in Sulmona Italy”. Her studies took her as a young artist to the Banff Opera as Theatre program in 2006. A recipient of the Johann Strauss Scholarship and winner of the Gordon C. Wallis Opera Competition, Ms. Arends studied at the Franz Schubert-Institut in Baden, Austria. Allison has sung in the prestigious Stuttgart Festival International Choir under the direction of Maestro Helmuth Rilling. She has sung in masterclasses with Martin Isepp, Håkan Hagegård, Edith Wiens, Elly Ameling, Rudolf Jansen, Wolfgang Holzmair, Helmut Deutsch, Walter Moore, Jorma Hynninen, Robert Tear, Stuart Hamilton, Tracy Dahl, Selena James, and Darryl Edwards.
Allison is currently pursuing a Masters of Music at the University of Toronto Opera School under the esteemed tutelage of Mary Morrison, OC. A graduate of the University of Victoria Voice Performance program, Allison has studied in the studios of Alexandra Browning and Selena James.
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