Joanne Ellen Kolomyjec

Department of Performance (Schulich School of Music)

Education

BMus University of Toronto, Performance

ODip University of Toronto

Biography

Artistry of the highest order and inspired portrayals have secured soprano Joanne Kolomyjec an enviable reputation in the world of opera. In recent years her highly acclaimed performances of Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, the title roles in Tosca and Jenufa, and Marguerite in Faust, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Magda Sorel in The Consul have thrilled audiences and critics alike in Canada, USA and Great Britain.

A graduate with distinction of the University of Toronto’s Opera School and of it’s Bachelor of Music in Performance, Ms. Kolomyjec went on to be a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Competition (1983). She has been hailed as a stylish and elegant Mozartean, and has portrayed the Countess and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, as well as Donna Elvira and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Fiordiligi in Cosi fan Tutti. Other prominent roles include Violetta in La Traviata, Mimi in La Boheme, Agathe in Der Freischutz, Micaela in Carmen, Madame Lidoine and Blanche in Les Dialogues des Carmelites, Lia in L’Enfant Prodigue, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus and Anna Glawari in The Merry Widow, Alice Ford in Verdi's masterpiece Falstaff, and her first venture into Wagner with Freia in Das Rheingold. Ms. Kolomyjec has sung with all the major opera companies in Canada, and in the US with Santa Fe Opera, Florentine Opera, Portland Opera, Utah Opera, Arizona Opera.

Ms. Kolomyjec has also appeared regularly as a guest artist with major symphony orchestras across Canada and the USA. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in a concert performance of Strauss’ Daphne with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Other performances have included Mahler’s Symphonies nos. 2, 4 and 8, Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Chausson’s Poeme de L’Amour et de la Mer, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Egmont (Overture and Incidental Music), the Mozart Requiem, Bruckner’s Te Deum, Vaughn-Williams’ Sea Symphony, the Strauss Four Last Songs, Gorecki's Symphony No. 3, Fauré’s Requiem, Zemlinsky’s Lyrische Symphony, the Poulenc Gloria , Stravinsky’s Les Noces and the Shostokovich Symphony No. 14. As well, her extensive work singing del Tredici’s Alice in Wonderland cycle and selected works from the above with the National Ballet of Canada brought her to Pacific Opera in Orange County, California, San Diego Opera and the English National Opera.

Ms. Kolomyjec has also excelled as a recitalist, performing with tenor Richard Margison in a recital tour. Her most recent Canadian tour featuring a program of Russian songs with renowned pianist Janina Fialkowska, also released as a critically acclaimed CD entitled "None But The Lonely Heart". Other recordings include 'Song to the Moon' with Mario Bernardi and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and 'A Night in Vienna' with the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony and Raffi Armenian. An exponent of contemporary music as well, Ms. Kolomyjec has recorded Shostakovich’s cycle of chamber songs, Romanzen Suite, and songs by the Canadian composers Oscar Morawetz, Sonnets of the Portuguese, and an orchestral cycle entitled Cantiones Mysticae by Godfrey Ridout.

She has been on faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland and at the University of Ottawa in Ontario. As well Ms. Kolomyjec has presented many master classes at music faculties across Canada and been a jurist on panels for a number of competitions, including Jeunesse Musicale and the Canadian Music Competition, as well as for Canada Council grants.

Schulich School of Music faculty since 2002.