Biography
Canadian soprano Michelle Minke is rapidly gaining international recognition for her versatility in opera, oratorio and art song interpretation.
Most recently Michelle was seen as Pousette in Massenet’s Manon for Calgary Opera, as soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Calgary Civic Symphony and as Lisa in Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades for Toronto’s Opera by Request.
Other recent performances include her debut with Calgary Opera as Film Person Three and Anna (cover) in the world premiere of Frobisher, performing the role of Anna on Calgary Opera’s tour of the Canadian Arctic; Musetta in La Boheme for British Youth Opera; Armida in Rinaldo for Royal Academy Opera.
Skilled in oratorio and concert performance, Michelle has performed the soprano solos in Bach’s Cantata BWV 105 under Helmuth Rilling, Brahms’ German Requiem with First Alliance Choir and Orchestra, and the Celtic Mass for the Sea by Scott MacMillan with Calgary’s Festival Chorus and Orchestra.
Ms. Minke has been featured in the Calgary Mountainview International Festival of Song, the Anghiari Festival in Italy, The Spitalfields Festival in London, England, the New Brunswick International Music Festival and Toronto’s International Bach Festival.
Advanced studies have been pursued at The Solti Tekanawa Accademia, where she studied with Mirella Freni, The Center for Opera Studies in Italy, and Opera Nuova.
Michelle is an alumnus of Calgary Opera’s Emerging Artist Program, and is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the Opera School at the Royal Academy of Music in London, England.
She is a recipient of the Richard Bradshaw Fellowship in Opera, the Eleanor and Gerald Copeland Graduate Fellowship, the Calgary Opera Viktor Roskey Award and Brian Hanson Award, the Canada Millenium Scholarship and is generously supported by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.
Michelle currently resides in her home city of Calgary, AB where she contributes to the artistic community as the founding artistic director of Cowtown Opera Company and the Calgary Song Symposium as well as being an associate voice teacher at Ambrose University College and Mount Royal University.
Upcoming engagements include the role of Nella in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with Calgary Opera, Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo with Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco in Guadalajara, Mexico and Elisabetta in Verdi’s Don Carlo with Opera by Request in Toronto, Ontario.
