| Wallis Giunta |
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Introduction “Her voice is strong, supple and tends to a pleasing lightness of timbre. It is even throughout her range and, to waste few more words, utterly beautiful.” Richard Todd – Ottawa Citizen BiographyHailed by critics as a “talented and artistically mature” performer with a “voice of satin purity” that is “strong, supple and…utterly beautiful”, Wallis Giunta has begun a vibrant and diversified musical career. The striking young mezzo-soprano headlined the World Premiere of Schafer’s Children’s Crusade for the Luminato Festival in June of 2009 and was then off to Colorado’s Aspen Music Festival. After a summer at Ravinia’s Steans Institute, she enters her second year as a member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio in the fall of 2010. Her COC season includes performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music where she will be featured in Robert LePage’s production of Stavinsky’s Le Rossignol and Other Short Fables and in Toronto she will be Zweite Dame in Zauberflöte and the English Lady in Britten’s Death in Venice. For 2009-2010, her Canadian Opera Company assignments included roles in Idomeneo, and Carmen. Other recent and future engagements include Cherubino in Opera Atelier’s Le nozze di Figaro, in concert with the Regina Symphony (Messiah), Royal Conservatory Orchestra (Shéhérazade conducted by Johannes Debus), the Toronto Classical Singers/Talisker Players (Mozart’s Mass in C), and recitals with Off Centre Music Salon and Mooredale Concerts. Of special note was her appearance on September 25th, 2009 in the Grand Opening Gala at the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall conducted by Jean-Phillipe Tremblay. She created the title role in Pandora’s Locker, a new opera for young audiences by Canadian composer, Dean Burry, presented at The Four Seasons Centre and The Royal Conservatory’s Mazzoleni Hall. Performance credits include Hermia in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Banff Centre, Dorabella in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte (The Royal Conservatory of Music/Bernardi), Cretan Woman in Mozart’s Idomeneo with Opera Atelier, Ernesto in Haydn’s Il Mondo Della Luna with Opera in Concert, Clarina in Rossini’s La Cambiale di Matrimonio, Il Fuso in the Canadian premiere of Respighi’s La Bella Dormente nel Bosco, and Sally in Barber’s A Hand of Bridge. Ms Giunta has been recognized by prizes, awards and grants from a number of national and international competitions and institutions including Encouragement Awards from the George London Competition and the Metropolitan National Council Auditions; a Career Development Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ottawa Choral Society’s New Discovery Auditions. A finalist in the 2009 Neue Stimmen Competition, the Ottawa native is the 2009 winner of The Royal Conservatory Orchestra Concerto Competition & Tom Thomas Award, and has also won the Lilly Kertes Rolin International Vocal Prize. As a Sidgwick Scholar of The Orpheus Choir of Toronto, Wallis was Alto soloist for the Toronto premieres of Jonathan Willcocks’ Lux Perpetua, and Derek Holman’s Requiem, as well as singing Othniel in Handel’s Joshua in the 2007/2008 season. She can also be heard across Canada on the concert stage, most recently in Messiah with Chorus Niagara and The Talisker Players, and made her Regina Symphony Orchestra/Regina Philharmonic Chorus debuts in Beethoven’s Mass in C and Bach’s Magnificat. In 2008 she had the privilege of performing at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto, singing R. Murray Schafer’s Minnelieder with The Notus Wind Ensemble. Miss Giunta is a critically acclaimed recitalist, performing multiple times for The Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, The Banff Centre, The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto, and The Ottawa Musical Arts Club. She has been featured live on Toronto’s Classical 96.3 FM and has been broadcast on CBC Radio One. Ms. Giunta recently completed an Artist Diploma at The Glenn Gould School, studying with Jean MacPhail and Steven Philcox. August 2010
For further information, please visit www.wallis.giunta.ca. Full RepertoireOpera
Concert/Oratorio
Engaged By
Reviews"Vocally outstanding"
“This scene also showed off the impressive talents of the young mezzo-soprano Wallis Giunta…who is plainly on her way to bigger things.” “Her voice is strong, supple and tends to a pleasing lightness of timbre. It is even throughout her range and, to waste few words, utterly beautiful.” “In the demanding title role, mezzo Wallis Giunta etched the troubled teen authentically and with confidence.” (Pandora’s Locker by Dean Burry) “Blessed with glamorous good looks, a gleaming high mezzo and good dramatic instincts, Giunta’s Dorabella was an unalloyed pleasure.” “Mezzo Wallis Giunta showed artistic and vocal maturity beyond her years.” “…the rising star of the vocal community…” (World premiere of R. Murray Schafer’s Children’s Crusade at the Luminato Festival in Toronto) |