Halifax Summer Opera Festival 2023
The supportive summer performing experience.
Mezzo Soprano Corinne James is musical theatre and classical singer from Toronto, Ontario. Corinne is currently studying drama at Seneca College. Corinne participated in the 2014 Halifax Summer Opera Festival where she performed the role of Hebe in Orpheus in the Underworld, and the 2015 Halifax Summer Opera Festival as Mae Jones in Street Scene. Corinne has been taking private vocal lessons with Jessica Lane and Peter Bass.
Soprano Emilie James is a classical singer from Toronto, Ontario. The Magic Flute is Emilie’s first operatic role. Emilie has been taking private vocal lessons with Jessica Lane and Peter Bass.
Emma Battel is soprano from Kingston, Ontario. This fall she will begin her third year of the vocal performance program at Western University where she studies under Patricia Green.
Prior to university, Emma was a 7-year chorister of Cantabile Choirs, sang annually in the Kiwanis Festival and immersed herself in performing through piano, flute and musical theatre. Since then, she has played many roles such as Brenda in Catch Me If You Can, Vivienne in Legally Blonde, and Ariel in The Little Mermaid. Emma also enjoys plays and appeared in a compelling two-person piece: Come Away, Come Away, advancing to the provincial level of the Sears Ontario Drama Festival in 2017. Subsequently, Emma has prepared two annual spring recitals in collaboration with her Western colleague Ellita Gagner.
This summer’s production of Alcina is Emma’s opera debut and she is excited to be bringing the character of Oberto to life on stage with the Halifax Summer Opera Festival.
Nova Scotia born Soprano, Meghan Jamieson, was raised in a musical family, making the decision to pursue a career in music and performance an easy decision at a very young age. Jamieson returns home for her first Pamina in this years Halifax Summer Opera Festival.
Other performances include Maritime Concert Opera debut singing the role of Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly and later the role of Amor in Orfeo ed Euridice, the DGM Music Inc. production of Rent and several Dalhousie Opera Workshops including Mahagonny Songspiel, where she sang the role of Jessie and Cinderella, where she brought the character of Miranda to life. Her performance as Cathleen in Riders to the Sea at the Halifax Summer Opera Workshop was reviewed in the magazine Opera Canada, where she was described as “an exciting and beautiful young singer with a wide vocal range and much acting ability.” In the summer of 2016 Meghan played the role of the First Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. She debuted at the Glenn Gould School in her role as Parthénis in Offenbach’s La belle Hélène, her title debut in El Gato con Botas playing the role of the Cat and as Alcina in Alcina where she received a review in the Globe and Mail which stated “…when Jamieson dialed it back a notch, in the heartbreaking aria which ended the first half of Alcina… it was as though for a second you could see into her future as an artist, and a glorious future it was.”
Meghan has completed her Bachelor of Music in Performance at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, close to her hometown, under the tutelage of Lucy Hayes-Davis and her Artist’s Diploma at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto, Ontario studying with Monica Whicher. She has recently begun studying with the incredible Laura Tucker in Toronto, Ontario.
Billie lives in Brooklyn, on the beautiful South Shore with her Mom and Dad, Ali and Ian, and her older brother, Oscar. In the fall she starts grade four at Dr. John C. Wickwire Academy in Liverpool.
Early on, Billie sparked a love for the arts performing at the Queens County Music Festival on the historic Astor Theatre stage. Billie studies voice with Kim Umphrey and piano with Gregory Waters. She loves to paint, write and dance. Through the winter, Billie plays hockey for the Queens County Cougars and enjoys skiing at Martock with her girls.
This is Billie’s first production. She has truly enjoyed every minute of her Halifax Summer Opera Festival experience and hopes to play with you all again some day soon.