Jonelle Sills

Soprano Jonelle Sills was named one of York University’s 2022 Top 30 Alumni Under 30 and, in 2020, was one of CBC Music’s 30 hot classical musicians under 30. Her 2023/2024 season sees Jonelle make two role debuts - Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Edmonton Opera and Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen with the Vancouver Opera - and a house debut with the Canadian Opera Company for Mimi in Puccini’s La bohème.

Jonelle’s 2023 began with Guelph Symphony Orchestra for “New Years Day in Vienna.” Miss Sills returned to Vancouver Opera to make her main stage debut as Helena in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and then joined the star-studded, Canadian cast of Sondheim’s A Little Night Music at Koerner Hall (2023). Recent highlights include her returns to the National Arts Centre Orchestra under the batons of Alexander Shelley, Dinuk Wijeratne, and Cosette Justo Valdés; joining the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir for Brahms’ Requiem, and her role debut of Tatyana in Eugene Onegin with Highlands Opera Studio.

Past highlights include her Canadian tour as Mimì in La Bohème with Against the Grain Theatre, as a recital soloist with Ottawa Chamberfest, as well as her residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity for their Opera in the 21st Century program. In Banff, she premiered the role of Esther in Poala Prestini and Royce Vavreck’s Silent Light, directed and designed by Thaddeus Strassberger. In April of 2019 she made her company debut with Toronto’s Against The Grain Theatre in Vivier’s Kopernikus, which earned her a 2019 Dora Award as a member of the ensemble.

Other highlights include Rosalinde in J. Strauss’ Die Fledermaus with The Glenn Gould School, Musetta in La Bohème in the Muskoka Opera Festival, Micaëla in Carmen with Summer Opera Lyric Theatre, Cecchina in La Cecchina with The Glenn Gould School. As Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia (MYOpera), Jonelle was praised for, “she handles the huge vocal range expertly and takes us on a beautiful dramatic arc throughout the show” (Schompera, Greg Finney).

Currently based in Toronto, Ms. Sills has completed the Artist Diploma Program (ADP) at The Glenn Gould School at The Royal Conservatory of Music in 2018, after her studies at York University. Jonelle has also performed in master classes and coachings with notable artist such as Gerald Finley, Liz Upchurch, Adrianne Pieczonka, Tim Noble, Martin Katz, Catherine Robbin, Dawn Upshaw, and Joan Dornemann.

January 2024

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“Sills is the kind of talent that rarely comes along, replete with power in her top from both head and chest but rich in the subtler lower end too... I found her Mimì mesmerizing as both an actor and a singer, producing swells and different colour-volumes with a naturalness of hue and tone, blended with an ease we don’t often get to see. My hope is that audiences cheer her for being the rising star she is, one in need of a home in the bigger houses as her voice continues to only grow more and develop further. Jonelle Sills is a thrill.”

— Stephan Bonfield, Ludwig van Toronto

As Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, 2022.

Though I’ve seen La Bohème innumerable times, this intimacy (and the wonderful performance of Jonelle Sills†) made the death of Mimi more devastating than in any production in recent memory. Musically, the principal revelation of the evening was Jonelle Sills as Mimì. She has a lovely smooth soprano and such a glowing stage presence that when Mimì dies it feels as if the guiding light of the world of the opera has gone out. [La Boheme with Against the Grain, 2019, Christopher Hoile for Stage Door]

"Sills, however, needed no slack whatsoever; from the first rapturous duet, Schumann’s “In der Nacht”, she came out in Olympian form, with an especially thrilling, free, spinny top range. She sounded even more glorious live than she had in the livestream—there’s an electric, dimensional energy to her voice and performance that is impossible to glean through a laptop screen. [In recital with Chamberfest, 2021, Natasha Gauthier for Opera Canada]

But the most stunning and evocative moments of the night came from soprano Jonelle Sills, whose scenes in both the car and the rain were commanding and moved me to tears. Sills played both a life destroyed and a life restored all to absolute perfection while maintaining total control over her naturally expressive, lyrical instrument. Her performances of Esther’s collapse under the horrible duress of realizing that her world with her husband and within her whole community life as a whole was over, and her subsequent transformation in the aftermath, held the audience’s attention throughout. Direction and timing had to be perfect in these very difficult scenes and the immediacy of Sills’ acting and singing voice was inescapable. Sills’ performance made the night for me. [Stephan Bonfield, Calgary Herald]