Canadian Opera Company announces latest crop of promising young singers for Ensemble Studio

The Canadian Opera Company has announced next season's rotation of young singers for its Ensemble Studio program. The departures and arrivals come with their own, free, hi-and-thanks recitals in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre.

Graduating at the end of this season are sopranos Laura Albino and Teiya Kasahara, mezzo Erin Fisher and tenors Michael Barrett and Adam Luther.

The graduating quintet has its farewell recital on May 25 at noon, in a program of solo and ensemble operatic pieces.

Staying on for another season are sopranos Ileana Montalbetti and Simone Osborne, mezzo Wallis Giunta (who has been incredibly busy around town since January, with the blessing of the COC), baritone Adrian Kramer and basses Neil Craighead and Michael Uloth. This crop of apprentices also includes music coach intern Anne Larlee.

The whole 2009-10 gang gets to star in their own mainstage foray into Mozart's Idomeneo, on May 19.

The official public début of the 2010-11 gang is at a free recital at noon on Sept. 21. The new faces and voices are:

-Soprano Amber Braid, a B.C.-born Glenn Gould Professional School graduate who has just finished her Master's at the San Francisco Conservatory;

-Southampton, Ont. native, soprano Jacqueline Woodley, brandishing a fresh Master's degree from McGill University;

-Mezzo Rihab Chaieb, who was born in Tunisia, and who has also just completed a Master's at McGill;

-University of Toronto graduate, tenor Chris Enns, a Manitoba native.