Meet 2025 Emerging Artist, Nicole Leung
Published 03 Oct, 2024
Opera on the Avalon is proud to reveal the participants of our 2025 Emerging Artist Program, designed to provide talented artists with unique opportunities to learn and grow. This program offers training, mentorship, and performance experiences, allowing emerging artists to develop their craft and make their mark in the world of opera. Through this initiative, we continue our commitment to fostering new talent and supporting the next generation of artists.
Nicole Leung
Praised for “her natural warmth matched equally by innate lyricism,” (Opera Canada) Canadian soprano Nicole Leung is thrilled to be an Emerging Artist with Opera on the Avalon for the 24/25 season. This summer, she joined the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in its workshop of The Handmaid’s Tale, singing the role of Ofglen. Recently selected as a laureate of Les Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques for the season, she will be performing in a series of concerts and featured in its 30th Anniversary Gala this October in Montreal. This season, she also makes debuts with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra as well as with Toronto City Opera, where she will reprise the role of Adina in L’elisir d’amore. She is an alumna of the McPhee Artist Development Program at Calgary Opera, where she spent the past two seasons. While at Calgary Opera, she made her professional debut in the role of Adina in L’elisir d’amore, a role she first sang at The Yale School of Music and covered at Festival Napa Valley as a Manetti Shrem Vocal Fellow. She also performed the roles of Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro, Frasquita (Carmen), Delia in Joe Illick’s Stone Soup, and Héro (Béatrice et Bénédict) at Calgary Opera. Other operatic roles include Pamina (The Magic Flute), Rosalba (Florencia en el Amazonas), Morgana (Alcina), and Romilda (Serse). An avid interpreter of art song, Nicole has attended SongFest in Los Angeles as both a Studio Artist and Young Artist, underwritten by the Art Song Foundation of Canada. Nicole holds degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music (‘19) and the Yale School of Music (‘21, ‘22) and currently studies privately with renowned operatic tenor and acclaimed voice teacher, Jason Ferrante.
Our 2025 Emerging Artist Program
In 2025, Opera on the Avalon’s Emerging Artist Program will offer a rich blend of development, mentorship, and professional experience from October 2024 through June 2025. This hybrid program features monthly stipends and personalized coaching to help participants refine their skills. Additionally, participants will be given the opportunity to cover roles with our partner organizations, providing them with broader industry exposure. Participants will again collaborate with world renowned composers and librettists on new works, and then collaborating with filmmakers to create digital shorts, which will be filmed in Newfoundland. Additionally, mentorship from industry professionals and monthly seminars will provide tailored guidance to support each artist’s growth, culminating in a recital tour and project filming in May and June.
You won’t want to miss a moment of what’s to come!
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