Toronto City Opera Unveils Finalists For The Second Annual Macina Voice Competition

Toronto City Opera has revealed the eight finalists selected for the second annual Macina Voice Competition. The event, set for February 22, 2025, will feature some of Canada's most promising young opera singers as they compete in front of a live audience for cash prizes and future performance opportunities.

This year's competition saw a record-breaking 110 video submissions from talented vocalists across the country. After careful deliberation, the TCO artistic staff has chosen the following finalists to perform in the live competition:

Alex Hetherington - Mezzo-Soprano
Matthew Li - Bass
Lauren Margison - Soprano
Christian Masucci-Facchini - Countertenor
Sara Schabas - Soprano
Paulina Swierczek - Soprano
Spencer VanDellen - Tenor
McKenzie Warriner - Soprano

Each artist will showcase their talents by performing two arias, demonstrating their vocal artistry, technical skill, dramatic interpretation, and stage presence. The singers will be judged by an esteemed panel of industry professionals, with a total of $5,000 in prizes at stake.

The competition will be judged by:

Adrianne Pieczonka, Soprano & Chair in Voice, Glenn Gould School
Anna Theodosakis, Stage Director, Canadian Opera Company
Rebecca Townsend, Artist Manager, Stratagem Artists
Sandra Horst, Chorus Master, Canadian Opera Company & Program Director, UofT Opera
Jennifer Tung, Artistic Director, Toronto City Opera

While the jury deliberates, the Toronto City Opera Chorus will perform classic opera choruses, adding to the afternoon's excitement. Additionally, the live audience will have the opportunity to vote for the Audience Prize, which will be awarded to one of the finalists based on their performance.

Established in honor of TCO's longtime Artistic Director, Giuseppe Macina, the Macina Voice Competition celebrates his commitment to providing emerging artists with valuable performance opportunities. "Giuseppe Macina inspired and mentored many young talents, helping them hone their craft and find their voices on stage," says John Minardi, Board President and long-time TCO Chorus member. "This competition continues his legacy by offering a platform for the next generation of opera stars."

Join us for this exciting evening of exceptional music and passionate performances. February 22nd at 2pm, Church of the Redeemer (162 Bloor St W, Toronto). Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online at bit.ly/40i2dee or by visiting www.torontocityopera.com/macinacompetition for more details.

About Toronto City Opera:
Toronto City Opera is passionately committed to opera for everyone. TCO is a community driven opera company that gives emerging professionals an opportunity to perform principal roles with coaching in musicianship and stagecraft and we give our community choristers inspiration and skills to perform in fully staged operas. TCO is committed to providing affordable access to opera to raise up the human spirit of everyone it touches.

Meet the finalists:
Praised for her "wonderfully rich, warm sound" (Opera Canada), mezzo soprano Alex Hetherington was recently named one of CBC's "30 hot classical musicians under 30". She completed her tenure in the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio this past season. Recent operatic highlights include singing Mercédès in Carmen, Lapák in The Cunning Little Vixen, First Handmaiden in Medea, and the Attendant in Salome with the Canadian Opera Company, Offred in The Handmaid's Tale at the Banff Centre for Arts, as well as premiering the role of Riley in R.U.R. A Torrent of Light with Tapestry Opera. Equally at home in concert repertoire, Alex has given performances with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Victoria Symphony, Toronto Summer Music Festival, and the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In the coming season, Alex will be returning to the Canadian Opera Company to sing Siebel in their new production of Faust, as well as making her house debut with Vancouver Opera as the Stewardess in Jonathan Dove's Flight.

Possessing a "vibrant stage presence and a rich, commanding voice" (La Scena Musicale), bass Matthew Li recently completed his residency at the Atelier lyrique de Opéra de Montréal. His operatic roles include Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Dulcamara in L'elisir d'amore, Seneca in L'incoronazione di Poppea, Polyphemus in Acis and Galatea, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Masetto and Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni, and Colline in La Bohème. Concert highlights include the bass solos in Haydn's Die Schöpfung, Handel's Messiah, Dvořák's Stabat Mater, and Mozart's Requiem. An ardent collaborator with contemporaries, Li created the leading bass-baritone role of Xon Pon in Alice Ping Yee Ho and Madeleine Thien's opera Chinatown (2022) with City Opera Vancouver in its world premiere, to critical acclaim. Upcoming engagements include Sarastro in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte with the Glenn Gould School of Music and Leporello in Don Giovanni with Opéra du Royaume.

Canadian soprano Lauren Margison is a graduate of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble studio, the Atelier Lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal and a multi year alumna of the Highlands Opera Studio. In 2024 she was a first prize winner of the Sullivan Foundation and the recipient of a Sylva Gelber Foundation Grant. She was a first prize winner of the 2018 George London Competition, and was also the youngest finalist in the Meistersinger von Nürnberg competition in 2016. In 2020 she was a semifinalist in the Glyndebourne Cup, in 2021 a grand prize laureate Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques and in 2022 a semi finalist of the CMIM competition in Montreal, the recipient of a Sylva Gelber Foundation grant, and the first prize winner of Edmonton Opera's inaugural Rumbold Vocal Prize. In 2023 Lauren was a semifinalist in the Paris Opera Competition. Her recent credits include Desdemona in Otello, Nedda in Pagliacci, Anna in Le Villi (Staatstheater Mainz); Micaëla in Carmen (Pacific Opera Victoria); the titular role in Vanessa (VoiceBox Opera); the titular role in the Csardas Princess (Toronto Operetta Theatre); Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, the titular role in Suor Angelica (Highlands Opera Studio) and appeared as the soprano soloist in Beethoven's Ninth with the Quebec Symphony. 24/25 season highlights include the role of Mimi in La Boheme with Opera de Montreal and the titular role in Alceste with VoiceBox Opera. Margison holds a Master of Music degree from the University of Montreal where she studied under the tutelage of Rosemarie Landry and Richard Margison.

The Toronto-born and raised countertenor, Christian Masucci-Facchini, is described as a "marvel" (Stage Door), and having a "rich, full voice" (Stage Door) with an "impressive stage presence" (Opera Canada). He is an alumnus of St. Michael's Choir School, York University and The Glenn Gould School at The Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto). At just twenty-five-years-old, Christian has already begun to make his mark in Europe by joining Baroque music ensemble, Les Arts Florissants, and was selected as one of twenty-four singers world-wide for the semi-finals of the Jette Parker competition at The Royal Opera House in London, England. Currently, one may find Christian at the University of Toronto, where he is completing a master's degree in Historical Performance, under the tutelage of renowned Canadian countertenor, Daniel Taylor. Highlighted stage credits include Rinaldo in Handel's Rinaldo (GGS Spring Opera, 2022), Cupid in John Blow's Venus and Adonis (GGS Fall Opera, 2022), Refugee in Jonathan Dove's Flight (GGS Spring Opera, 2023), and Henry Ford in Canadian composer Abigail Richardson-Schulte's opera The Perfect Screw (GGS Fall Opera, 2023).

Praised for her "beautifully clear, light lyric soprano" (Ludwig Van), Toronto-born soprano Sara Schabas endeavours to share previously unheard stories through her artistic practise. Her recent awards include the Wirth Vocal Prize, first prize in the Metropolitan Opera Ohio District, and awards from the Eckhardt-Grammaté Competition, the Hnatyshyn Foundation, and the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation. This season, she records James Rolfe's O Greenest Branch, tours China, Bavaria, and Burgundy with the Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques, and sings Messiah with Masterworks of Oakville. Schabas has performed roles in 21st-century works with Pacific Opera Victoria, Vancouver Opera, the Dayton Opera, the Little Opera Company of Winnipeg, Tapestry Opera, and Loose Tea Music Theatre, including Anne Frank in Cecilia Livingston's Singing Only Softly, for which she was nominated for a Dora for Outstanding Performance. She is an alumna of Barbara Hannigan's Equilibrium Young Artists, serves as editor of Art Song Canada's quarterly magazine, and is currently pursuing doctoral studies at McGill University researching the Austrian-Canadian mezzo-soprano and pedagogue Emmy Heim. www.saraschabas.com

Lauded for her "exceptional voice, cloudless and soaring," and her "killer side-eye," soprano Paulina Swierczek is a vibrant storyteller and powerful voice in the operatic and concert repertories. Concert highlights include Handel's Messiah with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven's Choral Fantasy with the Boston Symphony under Andris Nelsons, Szymanowski's Stabat Mater and Mozart's Davide Penitente with the Broad Street Orchestra, and Strauss's Four Songs under Leon Botstein. She has most recently been heard in Toronto as Contessa Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro with the Toronto Concert Orchestra and as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Toronto City Opera. A 2024 Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Artist, Paulina covered Berta in Rossini's Barber of Seville and study-covered Salome, performing excerpts of Der Rosenkavalier, Falstaff and Die Meistersinger with the DMMO Orchestra. She will rejoin DMMO for the 2025 Season, covering Senta in Der Fliegende Hollander and making her mainstage debut as Chocholka in The Cunning Little Vixen.

Praised for his "glorious, lyric sound" and "accomplished vocal technique" [Opera Canada] Spencer VanDellen has performed leading roles across Canada and the United States. He studied with Benjamin Butterfield at the University of Victoria where he received a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance, and then continued on to the University of Michigan for a Master of Music, studying under Stanford Olsen. He is currently in Michigan pursuing a Specialist of Music degree. Spencer has performed many Opera, Operetta and Musical Theatre roles, some including The Witch in Hänsel und Gretel (University of Michigan), Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Highlands Opera Studio), Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Chicago Summer Opera) and Nanki-Poo in The Mikado (Victoria Gilbert & Sullivan Society). He also performs concert repertoire regularly and has performed as the tenor soloist in works such as Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Handel's Messiah, and Bach's Magnificat.

Acclaimed for her "poise and great musical aplomb" (Opera Canada), Saskatchewan-born soprano McKenzie Warriner has made her mark on repertoire spanning centuries. Her 2024/25 season sees her make her role debut as the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte (GGS Opera), sing Messiah with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, appear as a soloist with the GGS New Music Ensemble, and perform as an artist fellow with the Cincinnati Song Initiative. A current member of the Rebanks Family Fellowship and a graduate of Vancouver Opera's Yulanda M. Faris Young Artist Program, McKenzie has performed roles across Canada including Papagena in Die Zauberflöte (Vancouver Opera), Moira in The Handmaid's Tale (Banff Centre), Aurore in Le Portrait de Manon (Vancouver Opera), and Madame Herz in Der Schauspieldirektor (Eastman Opera Theatre). McKenzie has also recently made concert debuts with Edmonton Opera, Regina Symphony, Saskatoon Symphony, and the Banff Centre in works ranging from the high Baroque to the cutting-edge.

To post a comment, you must register and login.