about
As a faculty member of the University of Toronto, Elizabeth teaches applied voice to undergraduate and graduate-level singers and is the instructor of the second-year voice performance course, Topics in Performance Studies (PMU230Y).
Elizabeth's students have won major awards, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition, the Canadian Opera Company Centre Stage Competition, the Sylvia Gelber Music Foundation Award, the Art Song Preservation Society Competition German Lieder Prize, the American National Opera Association Vocal Competition, and the Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition.
Her students have been young artists at the Canadian Opera Company, the Metropolitan Opera Lindeman Program, and Vancouver Opera as well as been accepted to prestigious summer programs including the Ravinia Festival, Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS Program, The Franz Schubert Institute, and the Mark and Eva Stern Fellowship Program at SongFest.
Elizabeth’s students are regularly accepted to major graduate programs across North America and the United Kingdom and have received Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation Grants, the Norcop Prize in Song (UofT), the Tecumseh Sherman Rogers Graduating Award (UofT), the Metcalf Foundation Performing Arts Internship and been featured on the 2016 and 2017 CBC's annual list "Hot 30 Under 30 Classical Musicians."
Elizabeth works to create an exciting, holistic, and equitable teaching environment in her studio as well as in the faculty community at large. She was a founding member of the Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Standing Committee, is a member of the Faculty of Music Safe Space, and has served as a faculty mentor for the UofT Student NATS organization producing a 12-hour song recital for the 2016 Toronto NUITBLANCE. With her trio Women on the Verge, she also produced the first Canadian SongSLAM for new art song compositions.
As a principal and co-founder of the creative facilitation coaching practice em2CONNECT, Elizabeth offers consulting, grant writing, event production, and career development mentorship for arts organizations and individual artists.
A young artist with both the Santa Fe Opera and the Canadian Opera Company, Elizabeth understudied and performed several major roles including Elettra in Mozart’s Idomeneo, The Woman in Schoenberg’s Erwartung, Miss Jessel in Britten’s Turn of the Screw, and Jenufa in Janecek’s Jenufa. She has appeared with the National Ballet Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, and the Kingston Symphony and is a regular recitalist having been featured at Virginia Polytechnic University, Eastman School of Music, and the Off Centre Music Salon in Toronto.
High-energy and innovative voice teacher, singer, and entrepreneur, Elizabeth McDonald has made a commitment to supporting the next generation of operatic artists.
A co-founder of the trio, Women on the Verge (WOV), Elizabeth has worked with her colleagues to bring awareness to the works of Canadian female composers as well as tell the stories of women’s lives through songs that are relevant to contemporary culture. Their most recent initiative sees the launch of a new podcast called “Getting the Song Out” in September 2020. Past performances with Women on the Verge include recitals at Universities in western Canada including Lethbridge, Calgary, Grand Prairie, and Alberta as well as further stops at Pacific Lutheran University, Western Washington State University, the Iceland University of the Arts, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Women on the Verge have written successful grants for the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council.
Elizabeth graduated from the Eastman School of Music with a Master of Music in Performance and Literature and was additionally 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, and the Orford Arts Centre.
Elizabeth resides full-time in Prince Edward County, Ontario with her husband and standard schnauzer Oscar and texts regularly with her two university-bound children.
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