Wendy Nielsen

Biography

Following a long and distinguished career as an opera and concert singer, Wendy Nielsen is now an Associate Professor in Voice and Opera at the University of Toronto. In addition to her duties there, she is the Head Vocal Consultant for the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio Program. Her own career was launched as a member of this training program. Ms. Nielsen made her Metropolitan Opera Debut as Fiordiligi in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte in 1996. Subsequently, she sang numerous roles there including Countess in Nozze di Figaro, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Micaela in Carmen.Later in her career she undertook the roles of Tosca, Ariadne , Vitellia in Clemenza di Tito and Samuel Barber's Vanessa among others. She has performed world wide with opera companies and orchestras working with such conductors as James Levine, Kurt Masur, James Conlon, Mario Bernardi, Charles Dutoit, Richard Bradshaw, and Ivan Fischer. She has been the Artistic Director of the St Andrews Summer Opera Workshop since 1994 and has fostered the program into becoming one of the top of its kind in the country. She has been an arts advocate and has served on numerous national boards including opera.ca and Debut Atlantic where she was the chair for several years. She began her formal studies at Mount Allison University and went on to obtain a BMus (Lethbridge), MMus (UBC) as well as honorary doctorates from UNB, Lethbridge and Mount Allison. She has been further honoured by the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal and the Order of New Brunswick.