Barbara Fris

Declared "one of Toronto’s most artistic, creative and inspiring women” by the Luminato Festival, Canadian soprano Barbara Fris has had a luminous career captivating her audiences on the international opera, concert and recital stages. Her personal charisma and vocal beauty continue to endear her to audiences.

Early Years: Fris was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and began her musical studies at the Nova Scotia Teacher's College (Truro), where she obtained an Associate of Education degree and Licentiate as an Early Childhood Specialist (1977). She later graduated from Dalhousie University, Faculty of Music (1980) with a Bachelor of Music in Performance (Honours) and the University of Toronto Opera Division (1983), where she obtained a Diploma in Opera Performance (Honours) as a scholarship student of the noted Dutch baritone, Bernard Diamant and with the support of the Nova Scotia Talent Trust and Canada Council. Ms. Fris completed further post-graduate work at the Accademia dei Rozzi, (Siena Italy) under Maestro Walter Baracchi, former principal coach and conductor at Teatro alla Scala di Milano. Subsequent musical studies led her to New York City where she studied privately with Rita Patané of the Manhattan and Julliard Schools of Music in Patané’s Carnegie Hall studio.

Career highlights: Mimi in La Bohéme marked the singer’s opera début at the Courtney Summer Music Festival in 1982. Continuing to develop as an opera singer, her professional career and main-stage opera début was launched in 1984 with her portrayal of Clorinda (La Cenerentola) with the Calgary Opera. Fris first attracted national attention when she won the International Bel Canto Foundation Voice Competition (Chicago, Illinois) in 1988. The following year, she was a winner at the 3rd Annual International Luciano Pavarotti Voice Competition, resulting in engagements for U.S. audiences in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York City. Her Italian début as Amelia Boccanegra (Simon Boccanegra) at the Teatro dei Rozzi, Siena, Italy and re-engagements at the Luino Italia Summer Music Festival as Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) followed. In 1990, Canadian composer Patricia Blomfield Holt chose Ms. Fris to sing the world-premiere of "A Song of Darkness and Light". That same year, she recorded the sacred concertos of Dmytro Bortniansky for Naxos and performed them in Roy Thomson Hall (Toronto). Since her memorable beginnings, she has mastered a large repertoire from the classics of opera and oratorio to the art songs of French, German, British and American composers, and a great treasury of contemporary popular music, making her one of Canada’s most versatile lyrico-spinto sopranos.

Praised by the Edmonton Journal for her singing “… with sensuous warmth, great reserves of power and emotional expressiveness”, Ms. Fris’ career has embraced opera, operetta, musical theatre, lieder and art song for more than 25 years. Along the way, Ms. Fris has appeared in productions throughout Canada with the Canadian Opera Company, Calgary Opera, Edmonton Opera, Opera Theatre of Alberta, and Manitoba Opera. Her lyric soprano heroines include Mozart’s Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), and the Countess Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro); Richard Strauss’ Arabella; Verdi’s Amelia Boccanegra (Simon Boccanegra), Desdemona (Otello), Elizabetta (Don Carlos), Violetta (La Traviata); Puccini’s Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly), Liù (Turandot), Mimi and Musetta (La Bohème), Angelica (Suor Angelica); Menotti’s The Mother (Amahl and the Night Visitors) and Gounod’s Marguerite (Faust). Roles she has also played include Micaëla (Carmen), Norina (Don Pasquale), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Despina (Così fan tutte), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Marenka (The Bartered Bride) and Nedda (Pagliacci). She is also known for her portrayals of Angelina (Trial by Jury), Mabel (Pirates of Penzance), the title role in Guiditta and Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow.

On the concert stage, her celebrated stage presence and vocal beauty have joined with orchestral ensembles across Canada in a wide array of oratorio and concert repertoire. Deeply committed to the art of recital, she brings a vast and dynamic scope of repertoire coupled with a profound depth of artistry to her listening audiences. Ms. Fris has been heard on some of the world’s finest recital stages in Calgary, Chicago, Edmonton, Halifax, Luino (Italy), Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, Siena (Italy), Toronto and Winnipeg, among other cities. The CBC has broadcast Miss Fris’ performances in concerts, with festivals and regional orchestras across Canada, nationally in radio and television. Her other television credits also include appearances on CTV, CITY and Global networks.

Over the course of her career, Barbara has been honoured to participate in a number of very special events including the gala openings of: Casey House Hospice (Toronto) where she sang the First Lady in ‘The Magic Flute’ at Macmillan Theatre, Toronto; the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo (Halifax, Nova Scotia); and Science North (Sudbury) where she gave a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. As Guest Artist at the ‘International Year of the Senior Citizen’ event sponsored by the City of Toronto, her outdoor concert attracted a capacity crowd at Nathan Philips Square where listeners heard her critically acclaimed Mimi from La Bohème.

2007 saw her performing SOLD-OUT Toronto recitals at the new P.C. Ho Concert Hall, Chinese Cultural Centre, Victoria College Chapel, The Great Hall (where she was showcased as part of the gala re-opening week celebrations of St. Paul’s Bloor Street, Canada’s largest Anglican Church) and a benefit concert for the Regent Park School of Music which provides affordable, after-school music programs for inner-city youth. She also appeared in recital in Elora, Ontario where she sang French composer Claude Debussy’s ‘Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire’ and his ‘Ariettes oubliées’.

Throughout January and February of 2008, Miss Fris sang in Puerto Rico, West Indies, and the Dominican Republic. Upcoming engagements include invitations to appear in Toronto with the Music-On-The-Hill Concert Series and Heliconian Hall (Yorkville) and at the prestigious Lakeside Music Series (Georgina) with noted Canadian conductor William Shookhoff, known for his work with mirvish.com in the inaugural Canadian production of Les Miserables, and the Canadian Tour and Toronto productions of Phantom of the Opera.

In between performances, Miss Fris makes her home in Toronto, Canada where she teaches voice as part of her commitment to helping young Canadian singers, and where she is a much sought after vocal clinician at masterclasses, as an adjudicator, and a performance coach. You can find her at www.barbarafris.com.

Awards and recognition: She was awarded the Grand Prize at the 1988 International Bel Canto Voice Competition in Chicago and has been a prizewinner at other competitions including the Luciano Pavarotti Competition in Philadelphia, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (Great Lakes District) in Toronto and the MacAllister Voice Competition in Indianapolis. She is also a recipient of several prestigious Canada Council and Nova Scotia Talent Trust Awards and the Arnold Walter and Canadian Opera Company Women's Guild Scholarships.

Selected discography: Mondnacht. Private label, 2005. Live performance My Heart Speaks for You: Mozart heroines in his 250th year. Private label, 2006. Live performance

Sources: Barbara Fris Biography at her official website www.barbarafris.com