Today’s opera singers are members of the Opera Lyra Studio program, a comprehensive training ground for aspiring young Canadian singers. This program consists of both professional learning opportunities and on-stage experience for its artists, which include:

~ Vocal, diction, and acting lessons with Opera Lyra affiliate coaches

~ The chance to tour under the direction of a professional stage manager ~ Master classes and workshops led by a variety of opera professionals in such areas as elocution, movement, stage combat, handling auditions, and professional representation Working closely with Opera Lyra staff and affiliates provides our studio artists with a new perspective on professional opera and allows them to establish lifelong connections to opera in the National Capital Region.

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An abridged Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Organizations Who Support and Help Us: Individual Donors: for children and families Crabtree Foundation Anonymous The Opera Lyra Guild Carole Stelmack The Orléans Young Players Theater School Fran MacKenzie Italo Tiezzi Janet Kushner Joanne Lee Judy Burrows Murray Kitts Ute Davis October 19th, 20th, and 26th 2013 Val Donnelly Our Granting Agencies Arts Court Theater, 2 Daly Avenue

Thanks very much for joining us for The Pirates of Penzance. This production features emerging professional artists, who receive training and performance ALIX SIDERIS from Montreal, QC experience with Opera Lyra’s Studio program. They have completed an intense two-week training course and have already given three performances Some Career Highlights: [boxhead] (Evolution of varying repertoire in Ottawa and Gatineau. Theater, Director); Like Wolves (GCTC, Nina); NAC You are enjoying one of five performances for the general public given at Arts English Acting Company Resident Actor 2012/2013 Court Theatre. This production has been staged especially for Opera Lyra by (Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Gardiner; Metamorphoses, director, actor, and educator Alix Sideris, and coached and accompanied by Myrrah et al.); Frequent performer at the St. Lawrence our long-time principal repetiteur, Judith Ginsburg. Shakespeare Festival (Hamlet, Gertrude; A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Titania; The Taming of the Shrew, After this weekend’s shows, Opera Lyra will entertain young people with Kate; Othello, Emilia); The Changeling (NAC, Wife); eight additional performances for school groups, here in the Arts Court Resident Artist Educator at MASC; Acting Instructor at Theatre. Then the show goes on the road to seventeen area schools. the Ottawa Theater School; Founding Member of the Altogether, The Pirates of Penzance will be heard and enjoyed by more than Prix Rideau Awards; Co-Artistic Director of Guerilla

6,000 young people and adults. Heart Juice; Trained at Concordia University

In the Studio program and the tour, Opera Lyra combines two important Last Seen: Amanda in Private Lives at The Gladstone elements of its mission: providing professional training for promising artists and introducing young people to opera and educating them about the art Upcoming: Producing and performing in em, a play form. Today, we hope that you will enjoy the result of these twin endeavors! she has written inspired by her mother’s story

KATERINA SOKYRKO from Ottawa, ON

Our story begins by taking you on a journey of a boy who is obsessed with Some Career Highlights: Whose Wives Are They pirates. His family seems to be struggling with his wild side. They send him to Anyway? (Upper Canada Playhouse, Stage bed without his supper, but his imagination sweeps him away into a journey Manager); The Taming of the Shrew (The Grand of pirates and adventure. What he doesn’t expect to discover is forgiveness, Theatre High School Project, Stage Manager); compassion and the realization that he has a noble heart. Cinderella (Opera Lyra, Stage Manager); Wanderlust Adaptation by: Opera for the Young (Stratford Festival, Apprentice Stage Manager); La Bohème (Opera Lyra, Apprentice Stage About The Pirates of Penzance: Manager);Oliver! (NAC, Apprentice Stage Manager); Billy Elliott (Mirvish Productions, Production When a starry-eyed young man named Frederic is released from his Assistant); Trained at Sheridan College and The Banff apprenticeship to a band of tender-hearted pirates on his 21st birthday, he Center meets Mabel, the daughter of Major-General Stanley. The two young people fall instantly in love. Frederic discovers, however, that he was born on Last Seen: Stage managing at the Classic Theater February 29, and so, technically, he has a birthday only each leap year. He is Festival in Perth, Ontario bound by his apprenticeship to serve the pirates until his 21st birthday; therefore he must serve for another 81 years! Steadfast to his own sense of Upcoming: Stage managing Marathon of Hope at duty, Frederic's only solace is that Mabel agrees to wait for him faithfully. Theatre Sheridan

Swashbucklers and Scoundrels TYRONE PATERSON from Calgary, AB John Peter Jeffries, General Director

Some Career Highlights: Lucia di Lammermoor Tyrone Paterson, Artistic Director featuring Sumi Jo; Borodin's Russian masterpiece Judith Ginsburg, Music Director/Repetiteur Prince Igor for the National Theater of Moravia- Alix Sideris*, Stage Director Silesia; La Traviata and Rigoletto for Opera Constanta in Romania; Tosca for the Opern Air Katerina Sokyrko*, Stage Manager Festival in Austria; Jenůfa at the Hukvaldy Festival; Jess Preece, Assistant Stage Manager Bartók's Blue Beard's Castle in the Czech Republic; Turandot for the Hawaii Opera Theatre; The Magic Leeza Gulliver, Stage Technician Flute in Beijing; and concerts with the International Ron Ward, Production Manager Music Festival in Macau Sarah Waghorn, Costume Designer

Ashley Proulx, Video Designer Last Seen: Opera Lyra’s Carmen at the NAC John Doucet, Set Designer Upcoming: Don Pasquale for ; William Somers, Carpenter Madama Butterfly for Opera Lyra; and Verdi’s Otello in Germany Dagmar Stonehouse, School Outreach Coordinator Mary Frances Taylor, Opera Lyra Guild President JUDITH GINSBURG from Ottawa, ON

Some Career Highlights: Principal Repetiteur with Musical Marauders Opera Lyra since 1987; Principal Pianist with the Ania Hejnar*, Mabel (Soprano) and Children’s Chorus Master Ottawa Symphony Orchestra; Principal Keyboard for musicals at Place des Arts, Montréal; Frequent Arminè Kassabian*, Ruth (Mezzo-Soprano) performer in the Ottawa International Chamber Christopher Enns*, Frederic (Tenor) Music Festival, and Music and Beyond Festival; Dion Mazerolle*, Pirate King/Major General (Baritone) Collaborative pianist with many of Canada’s leading artists; Studied at the University of Ottawa with Iain Macpherson, Children’s Chorus Master Jean-Paul Sevilla; Pursued further studies in London, England with Paul Hamburger and Martin Isepp Children’s Chorus**: Emilie Bordeleau-McCallum, Jack Donohue, Joey

Last Seen: Opera Lyra’s Assurément Français and Donohue, Maggie Donohue, Thomas Donohue, Charlotte Inshaw, Lilah An Evening of Arias concerts, and Opera Lyra’s Sheehan, Abbey Sugars-Keen, Dahlia Taylor, Donovan Taylor Carmen at the NAC Supernumeraries**: Elias Gharbi, Joel Mastrangelo, Lia Mastrangelo

Upcoming: Hockey Night at the Opera with Opera Lyra and the Ottawa Senators Foundation; Madama *Appearing courtesy of Canadian Actor’s Equity Association Butterfly for Opera Lyra **Members of the Ottawa Suzuki Strings Voice Program

ANIA HEJNAR from Maitland, ON CHRISTOPHER ENNS from rural Manitoba

Some Career Highlights: La Sonnambula (Lisa, Some Career Highlights: Die Zauberflöte (Tamino, Altamura Center for the Arts);Turandot (Chorus, COC); Ariadne auf Naxos (Scaramuccio, COC); Opera Lyra); Featured guest artist at The Fifth Semele (Jupiter, COC); Les Contes d’Hoffmann Annual ABC Gala; Performed with the NYCO (Nathaniel, COC); The Enslavement and Liberation Symphony Orchestra as the winner of their Mozart of Oksana G. (Father Alexander, Tapestry New Vocal Competition; Performed at Carnegie Hall as Opera); Handel’s Messiah in Concert (Soloist, the winner of the 2009 Barry Alexander Menno Singers); Candide (Candide, University of International Vocal Competition; Graduated with a Toronto); Il Mondo della Luna (Ecclitico, University BMus. and M.F.A. in Voice from the University of of Toronto); Graduated from the University of Ottawa Manitoba Vocal Performance Program, the University of Toronto Opera Diploma Program, and Last Seen: Opera Lyra’s Assurément Français and the ’s Studio Program An Evening of Arias concerts Last Seen: La Clemenza di Tito (Titus Cover, COC) Upcoming: Brian Law Competition Finals (Nov. 2013), Viennese Ball (Feb. 2014), Haydn Creation Upcoming: Persée (Persée, ) (NYCO Symphony Orchestra, Spring 2014)

ARMINÈ KASSABIAN from Ottawa, ON DION MAZEROLLE from Rogersville, New Brunswick

Some Career Highlights: Carmen (Mercedes, Opera Some Career Highlights: La Bohème (Schaunard, Lyra);Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina, Opera Brasov); Orlando Opera and Opera Hamilton); Così fan Tutte Carmen (Carmen, Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques);La (Don Alfonso, Opera York); And the Rat Laughed Cenerentola (Cinderella, Opera Lyra), Evangeline (The Priest, Opera York, North American Premiere); (Sister of Mercy, Festival Opéra de Saint-Eustache); L’Elisir d’Amore (Dulcamara, Montreal Italian Festival); The Barber of Bytowne (Rosie, Opera Lyra); Così Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Villains, Brasov State Opera, fan Tutte (Dorabella, The Green Mountain Opera Romania); Titanic (Thomas Andrews, Opéra-Theatre Festival); Performed at The Music and Beyond de Rimouski); The Tempest (Ferdinand, Pacific Opera Festival; Graduated with a BMus., MMus. and Artist Victoria); Pelléas et Mélisande (Golaud, Opéra de Diploma in Voice from McGill University Montréal); Studied at the University of Moncton, University of Montréal, and McGill University Last Seen: Opera Lyra’s Assurément Français and An Evening of Arias concerts Last Seen: Opera Lyra’s Assurément Français and An Evening of Arias concerts Upcoming: Hockey Night at the Opera with Opera Lyra and the Ottawa Senators Foundation; Madama Upcoming: Le Rêve de Grégoire (The Guide, Chants Butterfly (Suzuki, Opera Lyra); Ariadne auf Naxos Libres in Montréal) (Komponist, )