Biography
Praised for her "beautiful ringing tone" (Ludwig van Toronto), soprano, Kathryn Rose Johnston (she/her) is an up-and-coming soprano on the Canadian opera scene. Kathryn was recently selected as a finalist in both the National Auditions for the Atelier Lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal and the 2023 National Capital Opera Society Competition and was just named a First Prize Winner in the American International Vocal Competition in Cleveland, Ohio. She is thrilled to have participated for the first time in the Laffont Competition with the Metropolitan Opera in the North Carolina District in January 2024. She was a Young Artist with Confluence Concerts collaborating with musicians of diverse backgrounds in their first ever Side-by-Side Young Artist program (2024). Kathryn prepares for her first season of performances as a member of the Toronto Heliconian Club beginning in the Fall and continues as a member and co-producerof the Fonitika Vocal Ensemble, an a cappella vocal quartet. Keep updated on upcoming performances here.
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As a lover of new works, Kathryn was so excited to be a part of work-shopping Canadian composer Dean Burry’s new opera Il giudizio di Pigmalione singing the role of Galatea. She was also thrilled to premiere the new edition of Songs from the Aviary by Canadian composer E.K.R. Hammell in 2023. The same year, she co-created a concert based on Bach's Coffee Cantata with a reimagined storyline and original English recitative where she sang Liesgen and co-wrote the recit translations. It was reprised twice in the summer of 2023. She was also honoured to sing Ariadne in the live premiere of Norbert Palej's The Art of Love at COSA Canada's Summer Vocal Intensive in June 2023. In June of 2024, Kathryn premiered Princess Shirin in The Echoes of Bi-Sotoon, a newly composed series of opera scenes in Farsi written by seven BIPOC composers around the world with the Cultureland Opera Collective.
"...the voice of Kathryn Rose Johnston melted the hearts of many."
- Kingston Snapd
In past seasons, she sang Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance and Clorinda in La Cenerentola with COSA Canada, Giannetta in L'elisir d'amore with the North York Concert Orchestra and has performed with Shoestring Opera as Allegra in a school tour of their Magic Flute since 2022. The summer of 2023 she sang Josephine in HMS Pinafore and Musetta in La bohème at the inaugural season of the Saugeen Opera Festival in Durham, Ontario. She recently returned to her hometown to sing Bastienne in Mozart's first opera Bastien und Bastienne with TGIF Opera. With the University of British Columbia Opera, Kathryn performed Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro under the baton of Gordon Gerrard and First Wood Sprite in Rusalka with conductor Norbert Baxa. Kathryn has long been a frequent performer with COSA Canada singing such roles as Musetta in La bohème, Servilia in La clemenza di Tito and Valencienne in The Merry Widow. COSA Canada also produces many Gilbert and Sullivan operettas in which Kathryn has flexed her comedic muscles as Rose Maybud in Ruddigore, the Plaintiff (Angelina) in Trial by Jury, and when they traveled to Lakefield, Ontario and her hometown of Kingston, Ontario in the fall of 2019, Josephine in HMS Pinafore. Notably in concert she has sang as the soprano soloist in Mozart's Requiem (Toronto Youth Choir) and Handel's Messiah (Kingston Choral Society 2022, Timothy Eaton Memorial Church 2018), Bach's Magnificat (Kingston Road Villiage Orchestra) and was invited to sing in the University of Toronto’s prestigious John R Stratton Masterclass in 2019 led by baritone, Eric Owens.
Kathryn holds a Master of Music in Opera from the University of British Columbia having studied with Nancy Hermiston and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Toronto where she studied with Dr. Darryl Edwards. She has attended the Halifax Summer Opera Festival in 2018 where she appeared as the title role in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, and the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy in Sulmona, Italy in 2019 where she participated in masterclasses with Maestro Giuseppe Finzi and Maestro Francesco Quattrocchi.
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Kathryn is currently based in Toronto, Ontario performing across the province and teaching her voice and piano students at Bravo Academy for the Performing Arts. To study with Kathryn at Bravo, click here or head to the contact page to ask about virtual lesson.