Elena Howard-Scott is a versatile soprano and actress across both opera and musical theatre, noted as “someone to watch” (LudwigVan Toronto).
Recent highlights include her debut with Toronto’s Mirvish productions in Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, and her Canadian Opera Company debut as the Page in Christopher Alden’s production of Verdi’s Rigoletto. Additionally, she joined City Opera Vancouver for the Canadian premiere of Beecher’s Sophia’s Forest, as the titular role. Elena also joins Opera on the Avalon’s Emerging Artist Program, which includes a residency in Newfoundland working with celebrated Canadian composer, Ian Cusson.
On theatre stages, recent seasons have seen Elena return to Victoria Playhouse Petrolia for Starbright Christmas, Drayton Entertainment as Sibella in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, and Toronto’s Koerner Hall as both Rapunzel in Sondheim’s Into the Woods and a Liebeslieder Singer in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. Elena also appeared in the world premiere of Narnia as The White Witch by the Dora Award-winning company BadHats Theatre. On the concert stage, she made her Maison Symphonique (Montréal) debut with Orchestre FILMharmonique for Frozen in Concert.
During her Rebanks Family Fellowship tenure at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music, Howard-Scott made her role debuts as Blanche de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites and Tina in Dove’s Flight. She also made appearances in recital with Soundstreams, the Hamilton Conservatory of the Arts, and performed nearly a dozen solo recitals as a part of their programming. Elena additionally spent the 2024 summer season studying at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, performing the role of Janine in Ruders’ The Handmaid’s Tale.
Her recent concert work includes Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra under the baton of Earl Lee, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Toronto Classical Singers and Players, and a presentation of Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith’s Cut Flowers with the Glenn Gould School’s New Music Ensemble. Concurrently cultivating an impressive discography, Elena has had the opportunity to record several Canadian compositions, including selections of Brian Current’s Echoes of River of Light, and a program of Canadian works composed by her father, David R. Scott, and mentor John Greer, at CBC’s Glenn Gould Studios.
Elena was the Grand Prize Winner of the Corcoran Concerto Competition at the Glenn Gould School (2022); was a finalist and the Kurt Weill Foundation Prize winner at the 2020 Lotte Lenya Competition; was a finalist for l’Opéra de Montréal’s Atelier Lyrique competition; and placed first in both the North Dakota/Manitoba District of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, and the CFMTA National Vocal Competition.
Additional stage credits include Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Opera Nuova); Strike! the Musical, and Beauty and the Beast (Rainbow Stage); Kiss of the Spider Woman (Dry Cold Productions); Fiddler on the Loose (Drayton Entertainment); Evil Dead: The Musical, and The Rocky Horror Show (Wasteland Productions).
Elena completed her Artist Diploma in Voice at the Glenn Gould School (Royal Conservatory of Music), under the tutelage of Adrianne Pieczonka and Peter Tiefenbach, and holds a Bachelor of Music (Vocal Performance) from the University of Manitoba, where she studied with soprano Tracy Dahl.
Hailed for her “tour-de-force performance” (Winnipeg Free Press) in the title role of Manitoba Opera’s Susannah, Lara Ciekiewicz has established herself as a dynamic, intelligent, and moving singing-actress. Her facility for fully transforming into a character, regardless of genre, has earned her the reputation of being an artistic chameleon.
Lara is excited to join Flipside Opera’s Bingeworthy series, and explore Duparc’s complete works! Upcoming projects include time in the studio with pianist Laura Loewen to record selections from Leslie Uyeda’s catalogue of song, and making her Manitoba Underground Opera debut in their summer festival.
This season saw Lara return to Vancouver Opera as Musetta in La Bohème following her fiery Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus for their 65th Anniversary season. Recently, she made her Regina Symphony Orchestra debut as soprano soloist for their Messiah, and rejoined her Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra family for Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Lara also returned to NUOVA Vocal Arts to create the role of Ymma in the world première of Uyeda and Hagen’s Silence.
Additional recent appearances include creating the role of Bartender in Kaminsky and Moore’s February for Opera on the Avalon, making role and house debuts as Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music for both the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre and The Citadel Theatre, and a role debut as Bird Woman in Mary Poppins for Rainbow Stage. Lara also returned to her Manitoba Opera family as Micaëla in Carmen, and to NUOVA Vocal Arts for their workshop of Uyeda and Hagen’s Silence.
Lara serves as a Voice Instructor at the University of Manitoba’s Desautels Faculty of Music, and is increasingly in demand as an adjudicator and teacher. Lara also enjoys gardening, is an avid walker, loves fabulous footwear, and is a self-professed prairie-girl forever.
Praised for her “fierce artistry” (Winnipeg Free Press) and poetic pianism, “powerhouse” Winnipeg-based pianist and coach Lisa Rumpel is an active member of Manitoba’s arts scene. Lisa’s vibrant and varied freelance career has included performances with a myriad of Manitoba’s arts organizations and distinguished artists, such as the Brandon University Pro Series, Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg, Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, Manitoba Opera, and Brandon Chamber Players; her collaborators have included Tracy Dahl, Clarence Frazer, Kerson Leong, Jonathan Russell, Lizzy Hoyt, and many others.
Since completing her Master of Music (Collaborative Piano) at the University of Manitoba in 2015, Lisa has built her reputation as a coach and pianist for musicians of all experience levels. An enthusiastic lifelong learner, Lisa is an alumna of the Franz Schubert Institute, Vancouver International Song Institute, Opera NUOVA, and the Brandon University School of Music.
Alongside her demanding performance schedule, Lisa is Co-Artistic Director of Flipside Opera & Art Song Collective, and sits on the board of Cluster New Music + Integrated Arts Festival. She is a sessional instructor at the Desautels Faculty of Music, adjudicates music festivals across Manitoba, and teaches piano at the Winnipeg Conservatory of Music.
Nereo Zorro aka Scenereo is a multidisciplinary artist – painter, poet, mover, teacher, father who believes in art being utilized as a powerful tool for creating positive social change. Whether painting large scale murals, speed painting beside a live orchestra, leading dance workshops, performing spoken word poetry or sculpting larger than life creatures, Nereo always looks for the interconnectedness in all of his work. When asked “what is your favourite medium to work with?” You may often catch him responding with the answer: “life.”
Jacqueline Loewen is a physical theatre maker whose career has included performance, mime, sketch comedy writing, fight choreography, in addition to shaping operas.
She also works with singers as a performance coach – privately and at the University of Manitoba’s school of Music – helping singers create a sense of embodied action in their characters.
Opera directing credits include: The Telephone, La Voix Humane (Manitoba Opera), Hansel and Gretel, The Velveteen Rabbit, Face on the Barroom Floor (Little Opera Company), Gisela In Her Bathtub (Flipside Opera), as well as Creating/Directing site-specific productions of Così Fan Tutte, Orpheus in the Underworld, Don Giovanni (Manitoba Underground Opera), and The Medium (Flipside Opera).
