Born and raised in Calgary, Canadian/American Andrea Hill has had the honour of singing in France, England, Spain, Italy, Romania, Luxemburg, Belgium, Norway, the United States, Germany, Austria... Stages include the Metropolitan Opera New York, l’Opéra National de Paris, Covent Garden London, Teatro alla Scala Milan, and at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Operatic roles include Carmen (Carmen, Bizet), Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rossini), Varvara (Janaček’s Katia Kabanova), Judith (Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle), and Mélisande in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. Andrea also has the distinction of having been selected by Kurt Masur himself to sing Octavian in a concert of excerpts from Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier under his baton at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, and was an original cast member of Patrice Chéreau’s brilliant final production, Strauss’ Elektra.

Having lived in Paris, France for twelve years, she is fluent in French and highly proficient in German, as well as having a strong basic grasp of Italian. Transitioning to soprano repertoire, she is learning and studying new roles and works that include Puccini's Tosca and Mimi, Mozart's Fiordiligi, Floyd's Susannah, and Handel's Messiah.

One of today’s most sought-after lyric baritones on the international stage, Canadian-Italian Brett Polegato has earned the highest praise from audiences and critics for his artistic sensibility: "his is a serious and seductive voice" says the Globe and Mail, while the New York Times has praised him for his "burnished, well-focused voice", which he uses with "considerable intelligence and nuance".  His career has encompassed over fifty operatic roles at the world’s most prestigious venues including La Scala, l’Opéra National de Paris, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, the Teatro Real, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Carnegie Hall.

In the 2024/ 2025 season, he performs the roll of Sharpless Madama Butterfly with Vancouver Opera and Golaud Pelléas et Mélisande at Longborough Festival Opera. He appears in concert with the Richard Eaton Singers and The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.

Recent operatic highlights include his debuts at MusikTheater an der Wien (Capulet Roméo et Juliette), the Metropolitan Opera (Brétigny Manon), and Wexford Festival Opera (Dr Talbot in the European premiere of William Bolcom’s Dinner at Eight); title role Guillaume Tell (Irish National Opera); title role The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (Calgary Opera) Fanuèl in Boito’s Nerone (Bregenzer Festspiele); Sharpless Madama Butterfly (Bregenzer Festspiele) Posa Don Carlo, title role Eugene Onegin and Marcello La bohème (Grange Park Opera); Kurwenal Tristan und Isolde (Opera di Roma, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Opéra National de Bordeaux); his role debut as Amfortas Parsifal (Festival de Lanaudière); Count Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro (Palm Beach Opera); Sharpless Madama Butterfly (Irish National Opera); Howie Albert Champion (Opéra de Montreal); Starbuck Moby Dick, Lieutenant Audebert Silent Night and Frank and Fritz Die Tote Stadt (Calgary Opera); Posa Don Carlos and title role Don Giovanni (Vancouver Opera); title role Wozzeck (Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow); Zurga Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Dandini La Cenerentola and Sharpless Madama Butterfly (Seattle Opera); and Papageno Die Zauberflöte (Cincinnati Opera). He originate the role of Prospero in Anthony Bolton’s Island of Dreams at Grange Park Opera.

Equally at ease on the concert platform, he has appeared with almost every major orchestra in the USA and Canada and several in Europe, performing repertoire including Zemlinsky’s Lyrische Symphonie (Orchestre Métropolitain); the world premiere of Jeffrey Ryan's Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra); Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra); and Ravel’s L’heure espagnole (BBC Proms). He recently made his recital debut at London’s Wigmore Hall. Other concert repertoire includes Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs and A Sea Symphony, Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, Saariaho’s Cinq Reflets (US premiere) and Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and Ottawa Choral Society and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Victoria Symphony. He also sang Richard Brown in the world premiere concert of Kevin Puts’s The Hours with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézét-Séguin.

Polegato's discography shifts as seamlessly through genres as his live appearances.  His recordings include Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony (Grammy Award winner, Best Classical Recording), his acclaimed solo disc To A Poet (CBC Records), an Analekta-Fleur de Lys disc of Bach's popular Coffee and Peasant Cantatas with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, a live period-instrument performance of Handel’s Messiah under Andrew Parrott, Emmerich Kálmán's Die Herzogin von Chicago with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (Decca), and Gluck's Armide with Les Musiciens du Louvre (Deutsche Grammophon Archiv Produktion).

Bio courtesy of Rayfield Allied | www.rayfieldallied.com

Hungarian-Canadian, mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó is highly sought after in North America and Europe as an artist of supreme musicianship and stagecraft. She is known for her promotion and performance of contemporary Canadian works. 

In the 2024-25 season, Krisztina will perform with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Handel’s Messiah), Edmonton Opera (Judith in Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle), Canadian Opera Company (Madame Larina in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Margret in Berg's Wozzeck) and a tour of George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill.

Krisztina’s career has seen her on all the major opera and concert stages across Canada. She regularly performs with the Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver Opera, Tapestry Opera, Early Music Vancouver, and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra.

Outside of Canada, she has performed with San Francisco Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Stadttheater Klagenfurt, and Wexford Festival Opera. In 2018, Krisztina made her Royal Opera and Netherlands Opera débuts in George Benjamin’s new opera, Lessons in Love and Violence, the recording of which received a Grammy nomination for Best Opera Recording.

She has been nominated for Outstanding Performance by the Dora Awards twice and was in Kopernikus (Claude Vivier) with Against the Grain Theatre (Toronto) which won a Dora Award for Best Ensemble.  

Her discography includes Dean Burry: The Highwayman (Centrediscs), Found Frozen:  Songs of Jeffrey Ryan (Centrediscs), New Jewish Music, Vol. 3 (Analekta), Ana Sokolovic – Sirens (Naxos), and Talisker Players Where Words and Music Meet (Centrediscs). 

Digital projects include Canadian Opera Company’s Bluebeard’s Castle, Canadian Art Song Project’s Four Short Songs (2014), Tafelmusik’s The Voice of Vivaldi,  Festival of the Sound’s Arias and Antics, Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder (Vancouver Opera), An Italian Baroque Festive Celebration (Early Music Vancouver); performing in recital for the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts and Behind the Keys for Vancouver Bach Choir, and Tapestry Opera’s S.O.S. Sketch Opera Singers.

Ms. Szabó finished her postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, England, after completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Western Ontario studying with Darryl Edwards. She has received a grant from Canada the Council and has been honoured by her hometown of Mississauga, Ontario with a star on the Music Walk of Fame in its inaugural year.  Krisztina lives in Vancouver and Toronto with her husband, Kristian Clarke and their daughter, Phoibe. Ms. Szabó is an Assistant Professor of Voice and Opera at the University of British Columbia School of Music.

Edmonton based soprano and conductor, Jolaine Kerley is active as a soloist, voice instructor, choral conductor, adjudicator, and clinician. She is currently Associate Professor of Music at Concordia University of Edmonton as well as artistic director of Ariose Choir. Jolaine holds a BMus and an MMus from the University of Alberta, as well as an MMus from the Early Music Institute at Indiana University’s Jacobs school of Music.

Jolaine has been heard frequently as soprano soloist with choruses and orchestras throughout North America including the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Alberta Baroque Orchestra, Richard Eaton Singers, Luminous Voices, and Pro Coro Canada. Jolaine performs regularly with Early Music Alberta. Recent solo engagements include The Music of Vaughan Williams with the Richard Eaton Singers and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Geistliche Konzerte with Early Music Alberta, Arietta with Early Music Alberta, Alan Bevan’s Nou Goth Sonne Under Wode at Carnegie Hall in New York City, Bach’s Johannes Passion with Calgary’s Professional vocal ensemble Luminous Voices, and an immersive Game of Thrones production with HBO and Giant Spoon Productions in Austin, Texas. Jolaine performs solo recitals throughout the Edmonton area and is frequently heard performing events with HASA, the Health Arts Society of Alberta. Upcoming solo engagements include BWV 36 with the Alberta Baroque Orchestra, Faure’s Requiem and Goodall’s Eternal Light with da Camera Singers, and Singing Sirens of the Seicento with Early Music Alberta.