The 2023/24 season sees Canadian soprano Elizabeth Polese in concert with The Happenstancers chamber collective in Toronto, as Norina in Don Pasquale with Vancouver Opera (role and house debut), as the Soprano I soloist in Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with Choral Connection, as the Governess in The Turn of the Screw with Opera5 in Toronto (role debut), and appears in a recital with cellist Beth Silver and pianist Jenna Richards for Ottawa ChamberFest. Recently, she has been a young artist at Detroit Opera, l’Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, and Tanglewood Music Center, and is the winner of the prestigious Sullivan Foundation Award and Hnatyshyn Foundation Developing Artist Award for Classical Voice.

During the 2022/23 season, Elizabeth was a young artist at Detroit Opera, where she sang the role of Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte with Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, and covered the roles of Marguerite in Faust and Margarita and Nuria in Ainadamar. She also returned to Opéra de Montréal in the role of Nuria in Ainadamar, and in concert with Orchestre Classique de Montréal, Domaine Forget (Charlevoix), and Gewandhaus Orchester (Leipzig). Notably, she appeared as Isabel in George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence with Tanglewood Music Center with the composer at the podium, to critical acclaim by the New York Times and Boston Globe.

Highlights of Elizabeth’s young artist residency at l’Atelier lyirque de l’Opéra de Montréal include Alice B. Toklas in the Canadian premiere of Twenty-Seven, Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw (l’Orchestre de l’Agora) Contessa di Ceprano in Rigoletto, and covers of Marzelline in Fidelio (Orchestre Métropolitain), and Agnès in Written on Skin. In 2019, Elizabeth was the winner of the Sullivan Foundation Gail Robinson Award for Soprano, the Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Classical Voice in 2021, and has won several competitions for her rendition of Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate (University of Toronto Concerto Competition, Toronto Mozart Competition, Ottawa Symphony Orchestra Mozart-Sénécal Prize). A proponent of new music as well, Elizabeth regularly performs works by Golijov, Messiaen, Knussen, Foss, Gordon, Freedman, Cage, Crumb, Benjamin, and Stravinsky, among others.

Ms. Polese is an alumna of many esteemed training institutions internationally, including the Rebanks Family Fellowship of the Royal Conservatory of Music, Highlands Opera Studio, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the Universität der Künste Berlin, Domaine Forget, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Brott Opera, Opera NUOVA, Centre for Opera Studies in Italy, Victoria Conservatory of Music, and Centre d’Arts Orford. Ms Polese holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Toronto, where she studied under the tutelage of celebrated Canadian soprano, Mary Morrison (OC).  

Elizabeth is currently based in Montréal, Canada where she resides with her husband and dog by the beautiful St. Lawrence River.

Photo: Kevin Calixte