Canadian-Bulgarian mezzo-soprano Adanya Dunn (she/her) was named by the CBC as one of Canada’s “Top 30 Hot Classical Musicians Under 30” and was featured in The Globe & Mail as one of six Canadian women who are “turning opera on its head and making the future bright for the art form”.

Recent career highlights include 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; her European operatic debut as Sesto in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito with the Warsaw Chamber Opera as part of the 34th Annual Mozart Festival; and her company debut with City Opera Vancouver in the Canadian premiere of the contemporary chamber opera, Sophia’s Forest, in the role of Anna (Sophia’s mother), composed by Lembit Beecher and written by Hannah Moscovitch, and the world premiere of Marshall’s Pomegranate with the Canadian Opera Company.

This season, she looks forward to returning to Warsaw to reprise the role of Sesto in Tito, to Tapestry Opera for their annual LibLab, and joining the Kingston Symphony for Handel’s Messiah.

For the 2023-2024 Season, Adanya was a Resident Artist with Edmonton Opera, performing in Bizet’s Carmen as Mercedes, and covering in Wagner’s Das Rheingold. Previously, she was a 2022-2023 member of Barbara Hannigan’s Equilibrium Young Artists. During the season, she performed in concerts with the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Barbara Hannigan: in Ravel’s Trois poèmes de Mallarmé, and in Mozart’s Requiem both in Paris and in Aix-en-Provence as part of the Festival de Pâques. Other recent engagements included appearances with Manitoba Opera as Tisbe in La cenerentola, Bergen Symphony Orkest for Mozart’s Così fan tutte as Dorabella, Belgium’s Festival 20/21 with the New European Ensemble for Berio’s Sequenza III. Through consistent collaboration with composers, librettists, and collectives, Adanya has premiered over 200 works.  

In 2022, Adanya was the winner of the Bita Cattelan Philanthropic Engagement Award from the Concours international de Montreal and the winner of Vancouver Opera Guild‘s Career Development Grant. Previous awards include: winner of the 2021 Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award, the 2020/21 recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation Developing Artist Grant, Michigan Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions 2020, and a three-time grant recipient from the Canada Council for the Arts. 

Adanya is an alumna of Dawn Upshaw’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, Marilyn Horne’s Music Academy of West, the Rebanks Family Fellowship & International Residency at the Glenn Gould School, and the University of Toronto.

Born and raised in Toronto, she was a resident performer and producer with the interdisciplinary arts collective FAWN Chamber Creative and was the Co-Founder of the innovative chamber music series The Happenstancers. In Berlin, she is part of the disruptive electronic-voice duo #operEMIX. Adanya has performed with companies such as Against the Grain Theatre, Soundstreams, the Luminato Festival, Tapestry Opera, and the Canadian Music Centre. Through consistent collaboration with composers, librettists, and collectives, Adanya has premiered over 200 works.

In August 2020, Adanya founded Red Light Arts & Culture (RLAC) in Amsterdam, a not-for-profit foundation that connects local entrepreneurs, professional musicians and artists, and site-specific locations, promoting and adding to the rich cultural diversity of the Red Light District. For this project, she was a 2021 Music Academy of the West’s Alumni Enterprise Awards.

June 2025

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