JACOBA BARBER-ROZEMA BIOGRAPHY

Canadian soprano Jacoba Barber-Rozema has been praised for her expressive, clear voice, her acting abilities and skills in a wide variety of art forms and musical genres. As a young singer in , Jacoba performed as a soloist with the Canadian Opera Company and the Canadian Children’s Opera Company.

She holds a Bachelor’s from the Schulich School of Music (McGill University, Montreal) where she studied and coached with Dr. Tracy Smith-Bessette and Michael McMahon and performed with Opera McGill: Dalinda (Ariodante), Ida (Die Fledermaus), Anna Gottlieb (The Impresario) and directed an adapted version with the characters gender’s flipped of the opera Une Demoiselle en Loterie (Offenbach). In 2018, she took home the 3rd place prize in the Classical Singer Competition in Boston, Massachusetts and the Outstanding Achievement in Voice Award of McGill University. She is currently one of a handful of Canadians to hold a coveted Foreign Graduates in the Field of Music grant from the German Academic Exchange Service (D.A.A.D.) as she completes her Masters in Opera at the Theaterakademie August Everding at the Prinzregententheater, Munich with Prof. Julian Prégardien and Talia Or. Most recently, Jacoba conceptualized, wrote and starred in the acclaimed Bechdel-Opera, a feminist satirical opera collage at the Theaterakademie, directed by Malte C. Lachmann.

Jacoba has been a part of the workshop/creation process playing Kathleen for the musical adaption of Ann-Marie Macdonald’s Fall On Your Knees (National Arts Centre, Citadel Theatre & Vita Brevis Arts) and playing Beatrice in James Garner & Patrick Hansen’s opera adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (Guildhall, , England).

In the concert realm, Jacoba has been a soloist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Bach Consort, McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble and Accademia di Monaco Orchestra. Jacoba also spent several years singing, recording and touring with the R&B a cappella group Effusion and represented Quebec as a soloist and choral singer in the 2016 Youth Choir of Canada.

Jacoba has also made a name for herself in the world of film. Her a cappella songs for Academy Award-winning film Manchester by the Sea (described as a “beautifully harmonized vocal performance” - Variety Magazine), were a central feature of the score by Lesley Barber (hailed by Peter Bradshaw of as belonging to “an elite squad of […] like , , Mica Levi and Lesley Barber”).

Other credits include Into the Forest (: Max Richter), The Moth Diaries, Listen to the Chorus (vocals), BON(E)FIRE (composer, singer, dancer, cello) and as a child actor: The Peace Tree, A Wrinkle in Time, Kit Kittredge and Mansfield Park.

February 2021