The Story: First-person: Wendy Nielsen on the COC Ensemble Studio

The Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio: Then, But Especially Now

by Wendy Nielsen

Next week, the Canadian Opera Company will hold its second annual competition to see which young singers will be invited to join the COC’s prestigious Ensemble Studio training program for young opera professionals. It may well be history in the making.

In that historical light, I challenge you to think of Ben Heppner in any grassy shade of green. The same goes for Isabel Bayrakdarian, John Fanning, Joseph Kaiser, Gaetan Laperriere, Allyson McHardy, Jessica Muirhead, Gidon Saks, Janet Stubbs, and an all-star cast as wide as the Four Season Centre for the Performing Arts’ main stage. Before they ‘arrived’ they all shared one monumental step along the way. They were all members of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio program, an elite collection of extraordinarily talented young singers with futures in the big house.

It’s a story not unlike that fabled tale of young Canadian comics honing their skills at Toronto’s Second City. You’ve likely heard the Second City stories before, but what do you know about the Canadian Opera Company’s young artist program, the Ensemble Studio?

Soprano Sasha Djihanian, first prize winner of the 2011 Ensemble Studio Competition, in performance at the inaugural competition in November 2011. Photo: Chris Hutcheson.

Allow me to shed some light. My name is Wendy Nielsen and in 1988 I was invited to join the Ensemble Studio by the COC’s then General Director, Lotfi Mansouri. I had just finished my master’s degree in Voice at the University of British Columbia. The university program was exceedingly helpful, nourishing and comfortably insulating. Soon after, though, I was asking the question that most, if not all, 20-something singers ask…what now? Adrift in the operatic seas, I sailed into Toronto and did what I needed to do: audition, audition, audition. Lotfi Mansouri heard something he liked, I guess, so he created a position for me inside the already filled Ensemble program. It was a gift for which I will always be grateful. Without a green blade of doubt, it was the most illuminating and formative time in my operatic career. It was the launching pad, no question.

Fast forward to 2012 and my journey has come full circle. After those early years with the COC Ensemble Studio, I left Toronto for a life of rural tranquility in my home province of New Brunswick. From there I enjoyed the career/lifestyle balance that I wanted, and now….I’m back! Back to Toronto. Back to the COC. Back to the Ensemble Studio. I am now one of the regular voice consultants (teachers) for the company and I have the great pleasure of being a judge in this year’s Ensemble Studio Competition, which takes place on Thursday, November 29 in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. 

This year’s competition will once again feature a live audience, a relatively new development in the audition process for the COC’s Ensemble Studio, which was founded in 1980. A number of other opera companies use a similar format, with the Metropolitan Opera Auditions being a noteworthy contemporary. These competitions, or auditions if you will, take on the aura of a performance, and never has this been more evident than in the Ensemble Studio Competition. Audience members will actively vote for their favourite audition performance, and this awarding of an audience prize will emphasize the importance of the performer/audience relationship. (cont'd)

The winners of the COC’s inaugural Ensemble Studio Competition in November 2011: (l-r) second prize winner tenor Owen McCausland, third prize winner soprano Claire de Sévigné, first prize winner soprano Sasha Djihanian and audience choice award winner soprano Lindsay Barrett.  Photo: Chris Hutcheson

This ’live’ aspect also gives the jury a particular view of the singers that neither a traditional audition nor a coaching session/lesson can provide. It gives the singer an ‘in the moment’ opportunity to showcase their prowess as a performer in front of a veritable ‘who’s who’ of judges, and an audience that matters. Judging the 2012 competition will be the COC’s General Director Alexander Neef, COC Artistic Administrator Roberto Mauro, COC Music Administrator Sandra Gavinchuk, Head of the Ensemble Studio and Coach Liz Upchurch and me. 

This competition is unique in that the singers will have had the opportunity to work with several members of the jury in the days prior, theoretically taking away some of the all-or-nothing pressure often felt in auditions. It all makes for a very interesting evening with performance-based outcomes that can tip the scales. 

You might be interested to know what we, the jury, focus upon. What tips the scales in a singer’s favour? Primarily, a world class instrument is a must. Having made it to the finals, this is a given. We are looking for artistry combined with an emotional and vocal intellect that allows the singer to deploy their gift with subtlety and nuance. We are looking for promise because these singers, for the most part, have finished formal training (i.e. undergrad, opera school, etc.) and are now to become apprentices of their craft.  They need to be ready to absorb the intensity that this program offers and to not struggle with the professional pace. 

No grass, green or otherwise, will be growing under the feet of those talented enough to make it into the Ensemble Studio. I would personally invite you to see for yourself at the competition on November 29, but sadly/wonderfully all seats were quickly snapped up by the eager champions of the Ensemble program. Allowing myself to muse publicly, perhaps next year’s competition will move beyond the confines of the lovely Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre into the big house itself. 

Be assured that you’ll be seeing many of our present and future Ensemble Studio members there in the seasons that follow. 

For more information about the Canadian Opera Company’s Second Annual Ensemble Studio Competition and the COC Ensemble Studio visit www.coc.ca.

Soprano Wendy Nielsen has enjoyed an international career on the operatic and concert stage. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Fiordiligi in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte in 1996 and has performed numerous roles there in the ensuing seasons. These include Countess in Marriage of Figaro, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Micaela in Carmen. She has also performed with many companies across North America including the Canadian Opera Company (where she was a member of the Ensemble Studio training program), New York City Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Boston Lyric Opera, L'Opera de Montreal, Calgary Opera, Minnesota Opera, and Florida Grand Opera.

With orchestra she has performed worldwide from Beijing to St John's in a variety or repertoire from Mozart to Penderecki with such acclaimed conductors as James onlon, Kurt Masur, Ivan Fischer, Long Yu, Eiji Oue, Charles Dutoit, and Mario Bernardi.

Ms Nielsen is also an active voice teacher, clinician and adjudicator. In addition to being a regular voice consultants for the Canadian Opera Company, she has been a guest teacher at the Glenn Gould School, University of Manitoba, McGill, Dalhousie and Mt Allison University to name a few. She has taught at a variety of summer programs including Orford, Opera Nuova and the new University of Toronto summer opera program COSI in Sulmona Italy, and is the artistic director of the summer program at St Andrews by the Sea, which she has developed into a nationally recognized program over the past 16 years. Ms Nielsen is a fulltime faculty member in the voice and opera areas of the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto.