Canadian soprano Elizabeth McDonald has been described as having “a gorgeous, gleaming tone and powerful coloratura attack” (Urjo Kareda –The Globe and Mail) after her successful last minute debut in the role of Elettra in the Canadian Opera Company’s 2001 production of Mozart’s Idomeneo. She garnered more rave reviews the following summer performing with the Company in their popular Altamira Opera Concerts. A former member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, Elizabeth appeared as Miss Jessel in the 2002 Studio production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and understudied a number of roles including the Woman in Robert Lepage’s critically acclaimed production of Schönberg’s Erwartung, Madama Cortese in Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims, and the title role in Janáček’s Jenůfa.

Elizabeth was an Apprentice Artist with the Santa Fe Opera and a recipient of the Judith Raskin Memorial Award for Singers. She covered the roles of the Prima Donna in the North American premiere of Venus und Adonis (a role she also covered for the COC during its Canadian premiere in January 2001), and the Overseer in Strauss’ Elektra. During Santa Fe Opera’s Apprentice Showcase Series of staged opera excerpts, she was heard as Musetta in La Bohème and in the title role in Tosca.

On the concert and recital stage Elizabeth has sung David Del Tredici’s Child Alice: Part I In Memory of a Summer Day with the National Ballet of Canada, Beethoven’s Symphony #9, Orff’s Carmina Burana and Bach’s Cantata 64 with the Kingston Symphony, and opera excerpts with Chorus Niagara. She has covered Verdi’s Requiem for the Canadian Opera Company and Poulenc’s Gloria for the Eastman Rochester Chorus and Orchestra. Elizabeth has presented recitals for the Queen’s University Faculty Recital Series, Eastman Faculty Recital Series, the Virginia Polytechnic University Chamber Music Series, the Toronto Mozart Society, the Brantford Opera Guild and the Off Centre Music Series in Toronto. The 2009-10 season will see Elizabeth perform in the Night in Vienna fundraiser for Queen’s University and bring the same show to the Quinte Symphony in the spring. Elizabeth will also be recording selections from Martha Hill Duncan’s Singing in the Northland with pianist Kathryn Tremills for release in 2010.

Named a Laureate of the Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques, Elizabeth was also a finalist and first Canadian representative at the Fourth International Festival of Operatic Singers “Marie Kraja” in Tirana, Albania, a semi-finalist at the Eckhardt-Gramattee Competition, and a winner of the Ontario Provincial Music Festival, the first ever Lotte Lenya Competition and the Great Lakes Districts in the Metropolitan Opera Competition.

Elizabeth is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music where she received a Master of Music in Performance and Literature and was awarded a Performers’ Certificate. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Performance from the University of Toronto and has trained at the Banff Centre for the Arts in the Dramatic Integration Program, the Britten-Pears School in Contemporary Song Literature, the Orford Arts Centre, and at the Vancouver Early Music Festival.

Elizabeth currently maintains a blog titled “from the voice of…” dedicated to informing and inspiring young Canadian singers. She is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), Ontario Registered Music Teachers Association (ORMTA) and is on the faculty at Queen’s University School of Music where she teaches applied voice.