Adanya dunn
Canadian-Bulgarian mezzo-soprano Adanya Dunn (she/her) made her American debut as Hermia in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream conducted by Harry Bicket and directed by Netia Jones at Santa Fe Opera in 2021.
During the 2022 season, Adanya performed in various concerts with the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Barbara Hannigan. She was a competitor in the 2022 Concours musical international de Montréal where she won the Bita Cattelan Philanthropic Engagement Award for her work with Red Lights Arts & Culture in Amsterdam. Her 2022/23 engagements include debuts with Manitoba Opera as Tisbe in La cenerentola and the Canadian Opera Company premiere of Pomegranate. Adanya is currently a member of Edmonton Opera’s Emerging Artitst Residency Program, where she will be featured on stage as Mercedes in Bizet’s Carmen during their 2023/24 season.
Adanya is a recipient of the 2022 Vancouver Opera Guild Career Development Grant, a 2021 Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award and a 2020 Hnatyshyn Foundation Developing Artist Grant. She was a Michigan District Winner of the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, and a three-time Canada Council for the Arts grant recipient. Adanya is an alumna of the University of Toronto, Bard College Conservatory, and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.
A versatile performer, her 2019/20 season included highlights from Mozart’s Così fan tutte as Dorabella with the Bergen Symphony Orkest, Sesto in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito with the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Berio’s Sequenza III at Belgium’s Festival 20/21 with the New European Ensemble, and various concerts at Amsterdam’s Dutch National Opera and Het Concertgebouw. Through consistent collaboration with composers, librettists, and collectives, Adanya has premiered over 200 works.
In December 2021, Adanya debuted with Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in the Jonge Grote Zangers series in an in-person and livestreamed recital, where she also premiered one of her original compositions for voice and piano.
In August 2020, Adanya founded Red Light Arts & Culture in Amsterdam, a not-for-profit foundation that connects local entrepreneurs, professional musicians and artists, and site-specific locations and organizations, promoting and adding to the rich cultural diversity of the Red Light District. For this project, she won a 2021 Music Academy of the West’s Alumni Enterprise Award.
In addition to opera singing, Adanya composes classical and electronic music, writes poetry, paints watercolour, and practices pole dance, burlesque, contact dance, and dance improvisation. She is a 500hr yoga teacher and is currently completing a multi-year Alexander Technique based Yoga Teacher Training certification.
January 2024
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““Adanya Dunn as Hermia, the object of his affection (and dis-affection and then affection again) is a cool beauty with a warm mezzo. Her lush, pleasantly dusky vocalizing easily traversed the role’s mood swings from petulant determination to whimpering defeat.”
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