Praised for “her natural warmth matched equally by innate lyricism, ” (Opera Canada), Canadian soprano Nicole Leung is thrilled to be an Emerging Artist with Opera on the Avalon for the 24/25 season. This summer, she joined the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in its workshop of The Handmaid’s Tale, singing the role of Ofglen. Recently selected as a laureate of Les Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques for the season, she will be performing in a series of concerts and featured in its 30th Anniversary Gala this October in Montreal. This season, she also makes debuts with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra as well as with Toronto City Opera, where she will reprise the role of Adina in L’elisir d’amore. She is an alumna of the McPhee Artist Development Program at Calgary Opera, where she spent the past two seasons. While at Calgary Opera, she made her professional debut in the role of Adina in L’elisir d’amore, a role she first sang at The Yale School of Music and covered at Festival Napa Valley as a Manetti Shrem Vocal Fellow. She also performed the roles of Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro, Frasquita (Carmen), Delia in Joe Illick’s Stone Soup, and Héro (Béatrice et Bénédict) at Calgary Opera.
A graduate of the Yale School of Music, Ms. Leung was seen as Rosalba in Florencia en el Amazonas, Adina in L’elisir d’amore, and Morgana in Alcina. She sang the role of Amy in a workshop of the world-premier opera The Snowy Day by Joel Thompson and libretto by Andrea Davis Pinkney, commissioned by Houston Grand Opera. Within the Yale Opera Scenes Program, she was seen in Falstaff (Nanetta), Le Comte Ory (Comtesse Adèle), Ariadne auf Naxos (Naiad), Béatrice et Bénédict (Héro), La Rondine (Lisette), Der Rosenkavalier (Sophie), and La Bohème (Musetta). In addition to operatic performances, Ms. Leung appeared as Soprano Soloist with Waterbury Symphony Orchestra in their Mozart Requiem performance and as Soprano Soloist in Beethoven’s Chorale Fantasy with the Yale Philharmonia.
She has also attended SongFest in Los Angeles, CA as both a Young Artist and Studio Artist, underwritten by the ArtSong Foundation of Canada. At SongFest, she had the opportunity to work alongside composers John Musto and Jake Heggie in curated concert performances. As a devoted interpreter of song repertoire, she was honored to receive Third Place in the Hal Leonard American Vocal Competition for Art Song in 2019.
Other operatic roles include Pamina (The Magic Flute), Nerone (L’incoronazione di Poppea) and Romilda (Serse). In addition to her operatic and song performances, she has appeared as Soprano Soloist in a variety of concert programs, including Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and Brahms’ Neue Liebeslieder. She has been named a semifinalist (Tier 2) with the James Toland Vocal Competition and has received support from The Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation. Ms.Leung holds degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music (BM ‘19) and the Yale School of Music (MM ‘21, MMA ‘22). She currently studies privately with renowned operatic tenor and acclaimed voice teacher, Jason Ferrante. She splits her time between Calgary and her hometown, Toronto.
