Hailing from Chilliwack, BC, soprano Sarah Caulfield has been lauded by Opera Canada as “a singer to watch.” An alumna of the University of British Columbia, she looks forward to joining the Ensemble Studio of Canadian Opera Company in the 2026-27 season. Her operatic roles include the title role of Rusalka, Frau Fluth (Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Corinna (Il viaggio a Reims),  Giulietta (Les contes d'Hoffmann), Casilda (The Gondoliers), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte,) and the Madame (Shadow Catch). She's appeared in concert with the Vancouver Symphony (Traditional Christmas tour), Richmond Orchestra (Fauré Requiem), Bach on the Rock (Handel Messiah), and the UBC Early Music Ensemble. 
Sarah made her Banff Centre debut last year in the ensemble of The Handmaid's Tale. Other highlights of 2025 include portraying Suzy in La Rondine (Good Mess Opera Theatre),  a residency at the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance, and a solo appearance with the Vancouver Island Symphony in Bella Italia, a program of Italian arias. In 2026, she was a winner of the Northwest District in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont competition, and enjoyed a return to the Vancouver Island Symphony as a guest in their Cuban Vibes festival.
 

During the Canadian premiere of Walter Braunfels’ opera The Birds, Alex Chen’s passions for classical music and zoology came together. 
Alex is a baritone, collaborative pianist, and vocal coach. Yet he began his professional life studying zoology and working with birds – entertaining crows, flying kestrels, and trading glances with owls on his gloved hand.
Alex grew up in Cambridge, ON beginning piano lessons at 9 and voice at 12. While studying science at the University of Guelph he pursued a minor in music. Unable to resist the allure of a juicy melody, a rich story, or a misty musical passage, he pursued the Master’s in Collaborative Piano program at Western University.
Alex moved West to study with Baroque soprano Nancy Argenta. Now, he is a key member of the Victoria musical community, frequently performing as an art song collaborator, solo singer, and opera chorus member.
His projects with Gay4Nature Collective (co-founder), BC Culture Days, and Ocean Wise provide outlets for Alex to share the crossover between human music and the natural world.

James Coole-Stevenson, baritone, has impressed audiences in a number of operatic roles thanks to his “sensitivity and nuance”. Currently living and working as a musician in Toronto, he strives for authenticity in each performance. 
In 2024, James had his professional debut as Ping and the Mandarin in Puccini’s Turandot, through the Gate City Bank Fargo-Moorhead Young Artist Program. There he fostered a love for Puccini, and developed serious interest in the role of outreach as a tool to educate and introduce people to opera. With his newfound desire to broaden Opera’s reach, James had the honor of participating in Manitoba Opera’s Digital Emerging Artist’s Program, where he worked with several industry talents to create a video project tracing his Newfoundland heritage through the lens of traditional folk songs collected by Maud Carpeles and Ralph Vaughan-Williams. James is currently a Rebanks Fellow at the Royal Conservatory of Music. Performing as Gianni Schicchi and Slook in the Glenn Gould School's production of Gianni Schicchi and La cambiale di matrimonio, James showed “an honest and engaging performance in even the most outrageous scenes”. 
 

Soprano Leandra Dahm is currently based in Toronto. This season, she completes her Artist Diploma at the Glenn Gould School where she studies with Stephanie Bogle.
2025/26 entails exciting debuts for Leandra. In February, she performs in recital with colleagues from the GGS at the Richard Bradshaw Ampitheatre (COC). In March, she makes her anticipated Koerner Hall and role debut as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi (GGS). In April, she performs Golijov’s Three Songs for Soprano with string orchestra (21C Music Festival). This past November, she sang the role of Rita in the staged premiere of Dean Burry’s radio opera Baby Kintyre (GGS). 
An avid concert singer, she has performed with Stratford Summer Music, Toronto Summer Music, Tapestry Opera, Ottawa Chamberfest and the Thirteen Strings Orchestra. She was a finalist in the Corcoran Concerto Competition (GGS), performing Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder. She is a former Sidgwick Scholar with the Orpheus Choir of Toronto, where she was a soloist in Coleridge-Taylor’s The Atonement, in its first orchestral performance in over 100 years, as well as at Roy Thompson Hall in Poulenc’s Gloria. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto and has further trained as a fellowship recipient at SongFest and Toronto Summer Music.

Mexican tenor Alberto Galicia was born in Cuautla, Morelos, and studied at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico under Arturo Nieto Olmedo. He has worked with Francisco Araiza, Ramón Vargas, Teresa Rodríguez, Huberto Velázquez, and Michael Sylvester, and was a member of the Bellas Artes Opera Studio Young Artist Program (2022– 2023).
He has participated in the Francisco Araiza Intensive Workshop (2016–2018), the Bel Canto Institute in San Miguel de Allende (2018, 2024, 2025), and the Zarzuela International Studio in Valleseco, Spain (2023). 
His awards include the Youth Revelation Prize at the Sinaloa International Singing Competition and the Carlo Morelli Singing Competition (2019). In 2026, he was awarded Third Prize at the San Miguel de Allende International Competition, where he also received a scholarship from The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Canada). 
Operatic roles include Count Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Alfred (Die Fledermaus), Goro (Madama Butterfly), and Delli (Giovanna d’Arco). 
He has performed at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, including Rossini’s Stabat Mater, and has appeared as a soloist in Mozart’s Requiem. He has collaborated with leading Mexican orchestras and conductors including Iván López Reynoso, Ludwig Carrasco, Enrique Patrón de Rueda, Jorge Parodi, and Mark Kadin.

Canadian soprano Olivia Haramis holds degrees in Voice Performance from both McGill University and Wilfrid Laurier University. Recent performance highlights include Zora in Ana Sokolović’s chamber opera, Svadba (Opera McGill), Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème (Festival Ljubljana), Fauré’s Requiem (Les Muses Chorale), Jesse Maker’s Devolving Songs (McGill University), Handel’s Messiah (Menno Singers), Daniel Regnier’s Évangéline (Opera from Scratch), Poulenc’s Gloria (Laurier Choirs), Anne in Livingston’s Singing Only Softly (Opera Laurier), Baby Doe from Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe (Opera Laurier), Blanche from Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites (Opera Laurier), Ophélie from Thomas’ Hamlet (Opera Laurier), and Christina Campbell in the world premiere of Canadian composer Stephanie Martin’s The Llandovery Castle (Opera Laurier). A dedicated and versatile artist, Olivia is a recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including a McCall MacBain Regional Award and an RCM National Gold Medal. In addition to her work as a performer, Olivia maintains an active private studio in Cornwall, Ontario, where she teaches voice, violin, and piano to students of all ages. She also serves as the Director of Music at St. John’s Presbyterian Church.

Ella Jeon is a Korean Canadian Soprano entering her fourth year of undergraduate Opera Performance studies at the University of British Columbia. This past summer, Ella participated in both the Highlands Opera Studio and the Mediterranean Opera Studio and Festival (MOSF). As an Independent Study Participant at Highlands, Ellarefined her techniques with the renowned faculty, including Nathalie Doucet, John Fisher, and Craig Rutenberg. She also jumped into the role of Olga in The Merry Widow under the baton of Kamna Gupta and the direction of Richard Margison. During her time at MOSF, she performed the role of Musetta in La bohème in public performances under the baton of Leonardo Catalanotto and the direction of Lyne Fortin.
Ella began performing with UBC Opera in 2024 under the direction of Nancy Hermiston. She recently performed Pamina as an understudy in Die Zauberflöte and understudied Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare. She also participated in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene and Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore. Ella will be continuing her studies with Krisztina Szabó in her upcoming year at UBC.

Gabriel Klassen is a versatile vocal artist currently studying at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto. He enjoys broadening his artistry through exploration of various genres, and finds great joy in sharing music with others. Outside of the theatre, he can often be found connecting with nature in his home town of Vancouver, BC. Most recently, he has performed as a feature soloist with Pax Christi Chorale in Ariel Ramirez’ Misa Criolla, and in the Canadian premiere of Robert Cohen's Alzheimer's Stories. He has also performed as a soloist with the Dundas Valley Orchestra as the winner of the Dundas Valley Orchestra-HAALSA Young Artist Competition. On the operatic stage, he has sung roles such as Tobia Mill in Rossini’s La Cambiale di Matrimonio and George in Dean Burry’s Baby Kintyre at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto; Minskman in Jonathan Dove's Flight with Opera Nuova; and Lorry in Arthur Benjamin's Tale of Two Cities with U of T Opera.
 

Camille Labonté is an active young performer based in Toronto, Canada. A versatile artist, Camille enjoys performing a variety of repertoire, including opera, oratorio, art song, and musical theatre. Her operatic credits include Lucia (The Rape of Lucretia), Prima Donna (Viva la Mamma!), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Cathleen (Riders to the Sea), Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare), and Frasquita (Carmen). Concert appearances include soprano solos in Carmina Burana with the Bergmann Duo and TorQ Percussion (Stratford Summer Music), Messiah (York Chamber Ensemble) and Considering Matthew Shepard (Concreamus). 
An enthusiastic interpreter of contemporary works, Camille is a national finalist for the 2026 Eckhardt-Gramatté competition in voice. World premiere performances include Antigone in With the Telling Comes the Magic and Anna Massey in Avenue of Avarice. She has also workshopped new operatic compositions by Canadian composers Cecilia Livingston and Danika Lorèn. 
This summer, she will perform as the soprano soloist in Carmina Burana with the Elmer Iseler Singers, and enjoy residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and the Académie Francis Poulenc. A graduate of the University of Toronto, Camille holds a B.Mus with Honours in Vocal Performance and will graduate in June 2026 with an M.Mus in Opera Performance.

Evan J Lawson (he/they) is one of Australia’s leading queer artists, working at the forefront of contemporary culture as a composer, writer, singer and conductor. Evan is a founding member and artistic director of interdisciplinary dance company-chamber orchestra Forest Collective.
Hailed by Clive O’Connell that ...the sonorities that emerged often proved extraordinary... Evan has been composing music since the age of 10, is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, and developing artist programs with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and Grafenegg Festival.
Evan was a member of the Academy of Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and served as the principal conductor for the Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music. Evan’s work ranges from art music and opera to immersive electro-acousmatic works. His work has brought on collaborations with a wide range of professional, educational and community organisations, such as the Volksoper Wien, Australian Saxophone Quartet, Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), Stonnington Symphony, Moravian Filharmonic Orchestra, Tonkünstler Orchestra, and many more.
He has studied with Benjamin Northey, Richard Gill, and Matthias Pintscher, who has said that his music is serene, deep, it's even breathing the heritage of Mahler.