Sopranos Nikan Ingabire Kanate and Sarah Caulfield are the newest vocalists to obtain an invite to affix the Canadian Opera Firm’s Ensemble Studio program for its forty sixth season in 2026/27. They’ll be a part of 5 returning Ensemble Studio artists who might be getting into their second yr of this system — mezzo-soprano Ariana Maubach, tenor Angelo Moretti, bass-baritone Nick Murphy, soprano Emma Pennell, baritone Ben Wallace, and pianist/coaches Elisabeta Cojocaru and Kimly Wang.
Kanate and Caulfield have been chosen to carry out among the many seven finalists at the COC’s 12th annual Centre Stage: Ensemble Studio Competition after a nationwide audition tour. On the competitors, Kanate received each First Prize and the Hatch Audience Choice Prize for her efficiency of the aria “Dupuis le jour” from Charpentier’s opera Louise. Sarah Calulfied made her debut on the Banff Centre in 2025 of their manufacturing of Poul Ruders’ The Handmaid’s Story after a month-long residency.
“The COC is thrilled to welcome Nikan Ingabire Kanate and Sarah Caulfield to our program,” says Dorian Cox, Director of the Ensemble Studio in a press release.
“As two of probably the most distinctive and thrilling voices we encountered all through our cross-Canada tour, I’m excited to see their development throughout this subsequent step of their skilled careers. We’re so happy with all our resident artists as they form a daring new future for Canadian opera!”
The New Singers: Nikan Ingabire Kanate and Sarah Caulfield
A local of Ottawa, Nikan Ingabire Kanate comes from an Ivorian-Rwandese background. She accomplished her Bachelor of Music diploma in efficiency on the College of Toronto, the place she carried out the function of a bridesmaid in Nino Rota’s Il cappello di paglia di Firenze in 2023. She toured with the Nationwide Youth Choir of Canada in 2022 and 2024. In 2024, she carried out because the soprano soloist in in Carlos Alberto Pinto Fonseca’s Missa Afro Brasileira with the Nathaniel Dett Chorale at Koerner Corridor. Since 2024, she has been learning in direction of her Grasp’s diploma within the opera program on the Curtis Institute of Music. In fall 2024, she sang the roles of Ottavia and Fortune in Curtis Opera Theatre’s East Coast premiere of The Comet / Poppea by George Lewis and Claudio Monteverdi. In November 2025, she received the Stingray Music Viewers Alternative Award on the L’Opéra de Montréal expertise gala, and in February 2026, will debut the title function in Kaija Saariaho’s La Ardour de Simone.
Soprano Sarah Caulfield graduated from the College of British Columbia with a Grasp’s of Music diploma in 2023. Her vocal credit embody the title function of Rusalka, Frau Fluth (Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte,) Corinna (Il viaggio a Reims), Giulietta (Les contes d’Hoffmann), Casilda (The Gondoliers), Mrs. Norris (Mansfield Park), and the Madame in Shadow Catch, a Noh theatre-inspired chamber opera set in Vancouver’s Oppenheimer Park. She participated within the Bel Canto residency on the Lunenberg Academy of Music Efficiency in 2025, and carried out as Suzy in La Rondine with Good Mess Opera. Within the fall of 2025, she sang a program of arias with the Vancouver Island Symphony because the soloist for his or her Bella Italia live performance sequence. She has carried out with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Orchestra, Chilliwack Symphony Orchestra, and with the UBC Early Music Ensemble, amongst others. Sarah carried out within the premiere of composer Dr. Matthew-John Knights’ “The Soundscape (1),” that includes textual content commissioned from the late R. Murray Schafer, and in composer Holly Winter’s Tune of Hypatia.
The Ensemble Studio Program
The Ensemble Studio Program is designed to breach the hole between rising artist and absolutely fledged skilled. Members obtain a mix of intensive teaching and sensible expertise by means of the multi-year program. That features performances and understudying mainstage roles in COC productions, in addition to performing as ambassadors for the corporate in group performances.
They’ll obtain an individualized profession mentorship program that features coaching from high business coaches in vocal strategies, language, motion, and performing, and time spent one-on-one with visiting stars of the opera world — which has just lately included tenor Matthew Polenzani and conductor Speranza Scappucci. The COC’s govt and creative management work immediately with Ensemble Studio members to assist them develop their ability set previous to launching their careers internationally.
Bass Duncan Stenhouse and soprano Emily Rocha will graduate from the Ensemble Studio on the finish of the 2025/2026 season. Stenhouse will carry out in a particular upcoming scholar efficiency of The Barber of Seville, and audiences will be capable of hear Rocha within the upcoming COC manufacturing of Rigoletto as Countess Ceprano.
Present Ensemble Studio artists Maubach, Moretti, Murphy, Pennell, and Wallace may even seem within the COC’s productions of Rigoletto, The Barber of Seville, and Massenet’s Werther. They may even work with the Ensemble’s pianist/coaches Elisabeta Cojocaru and Kimly Wang throughout rehearsals for all productions.
Toronto audiences may even get an opportunity to listen to Duncan Stenhouse and Emily Rocha in a farewell live performance on Could 12, 2026 as a part of the Free Live performance Collection within the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre. Data here.
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 a long time, and a artistic writing teacher for Ontariolearn.
