Elizabeth Turnbull joins Department of Music

 Renowned Canadian Mezzo-Soprano Elizabeth Turnbull joins Music Department at the University of Alberta

Canadian Mezzo Elizabeth Turnbull has been described as “totally convincing,” “a revelation,” and “ardent and expressive” by critics across Canada—and now we are happy to announce that she will be returning to the University of Alberta Department of Music, beginning in the fall of 2009. After her undergraduate studies with Harold Wiens at the U of A, Turnbull went on to study voice at the Nordwestdeutsche Musikakademie in Germany and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and opera at the University of Toronto. She has been a Vocal Fellow at both the Tanglewood and Ravinia Festivals, a North American finalist in the International Bernstein Song and Oratorio Competition and a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions. Her career embraces operatic and oratorio performances across North America. She appeared last month in Eugene Onegin with Opera Lyra Ottawa, and in the coming year, she’ll perform in Otello with the Dallas Opera, the Canadian premiere of Little Women with Calgary Opera, Bach’sChristmas Oratorio with the Toronto Bach Consort, Mozart’s Requiem with the Vancouver Symphony, and in the Verdi Requiem with Edmonton’s Richard Eaton Singers, conducted by her U of A colleague Leonard Ratzlaff.

Elizabeth Turnbull joins a vibrant voice faculty, coordinated by Canadian bass-baritone Brian McIntosh, who is also enjoying a distinguished career in opera and in concert.  Additionally, the faculty includes not only former teacher Wiens, whose lifetime of skill and dedication in working with young singers has been recognized with a Faculty of Arts Undergraduate Teaching Award and who, despite official “retirement,” continues to train young voices, but also Jolaine Kerley, whose expertise in early music has brought a new level of performance to that area of the department. Turnbull’s appointment adds even greater strength to operatic studies, to which Brian McIntosh's appointment in the Department of Music in 2008 has already brought new vitality, evidenced in the opera workshop’s performance this spring of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. With the addition of Elizabeth Turnbull, the new era in vocal studies at the University of Alberta has emerged in full bloom.