Two New Pianists Invited to Join COC's Ensemble Studio

The Canadian Opera Company welcomes Elisabeta Cojocaru and Kimly Mengyin Wang to the company’s Ensemble Studio as pianist coaches for the 2025/2026 season. Cojocaru is currently a pianist with McGill-Université de Montréal Vocal Arts Residency who has recently participated in festivals across North America and Europe including l’Académie vocale internationale de Lachine in Montréal, SongFest in Nashville, Opera Nuova in Edmonton, and Exzellenz Labor Oper in Germany. Wang’s extensive career spans solo recitals, chamber music, and opera performances across North America, Europe, and China; recently she served as a vocal coach at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and as a répétiteur for opera productions at the Boston University Opera Institute.

“We are delighted to have Elisabeta and Kimly joining our program,” says Dorian Cox, Director of The Ensemble Studio. “Our pianist coaches serve a vital role, not only in day-to-day sessions with our Ensemble Studio training staff, but also throughout preparations for mainstage and concert performances at the COC. With such a breadth of experience behind them, our graduate pianists have gone on to hold music staff and repetiteur positions across North America and in Europe. I look forward to working with Elisabeta and Kimly and seeing their continued development!”

Ensemble Studio pianists receive the same blend of intensive coaching and practical experience provided to vocalists in the program and take a leading role alongside the company’s music staff in coaching artists in the rehearsal room for performances on the COC mainstage. They, too, are given one-on-one time with acclaimed visiting artists and work directly with the COC’s executive and artistic leadership through every stage of their creative development.

Cojocaru and Wang join five recently announced singers who also begin their tenure in the season ahead—Ariana Maubach, Angelo Moretti, Nicholas Murphy, Emma Pennell, and Ben Wallace—alongside two returning Ensemble Studio artists, Emily Rocha and Duncan Stenhouse. Final auditions for this critical role within the program were recently completed in Toronto with offers being sent and accepted this past week.

National auditions for the 2026/2027 Ensemble Studio will be announced in the spring, with the next COC Ensemble Studio Competition scheduled for October 23, 2025. 

For more information on the Ensemble Studio and its artists, please visit coc.ca/Ensemble