Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as “a singer of enormous imagination and versatility”, Allyson McHardy has been celebrated for her rich, expressive voice and compelling artistry. She has performed with many of the world’s leading opera companies, symphony orchestras, and early music ensembles, including recent engagements with Sweden’s Drottningholms Slottsteater, Chicago’s Music of the Baroque, and l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. In the upcoming season, Allyson joins the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Grand Philharmonic Choir, the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, for repertoire including works by Handel, Dvorak, Mahler, and Bach.

Highlights of recent seasons include joining the Victoria Symphony for Lieberson’s Neruda Songs, debuting Verdi’s Requiem with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, reprising the work at Arkansas’ Artosphere Festival, several engagements for Handel’s Messiah (Indianapolis Symphony, Early Music Vancouver, Victoria Symphony), and a program of Bach cantatas with Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under the baton of Rafael Payare. On the opera stage, she returned to Pacific Opera Victoria for her role debut as Fricka in Wagner’s Die Walküre, Opera Atelier for Handel’s The Resurrection, and Opéra de Montréal for the lead role of Rose Valland in the world premiere of Bilodeau’s Le beauté du monde.

An Ontario native, Allyson has carefully curated a career that balances opera and concert repertoire, and that moves easily from Donizetti to Handel; from Heggie to Mahler. Among notable productions, she appeared in the title role of Peter Hall’s Glyndebourne production of Rossini’s Cenerentola, the Prix Opus winning productions of Heggie’s Dead Man Walking (Sister Helen, Opéra de Montréal) and Wagner’s Der Fliegende Hollander (Mary, Opéra du Québec), and in the celebrated Robert Carsen production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night's Dream in Beijing, Aix-en-Provence, and Philadelphia. Allyson also appeared as Julie Riel in Harry Somers’ Louis Riel, a Canadian Opera Company production, subsequently seen in Ottawa (National Arts Centre) and Québec City (Opéra de Québec), as part of Canada's sesquicentennial celebrations. Further opera highlights include appearances in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia in St. Gallen, Switzerland, Roberto Devereux for the Canadian Opera Company, Amadis De Gaule at the Opéra Comique, Handel’s Alcina with Opera Atelier, Madama Butterfly with OdeM and Vancouver Opera, and Handel’s Hercules with Toronto’s Tafelmusik.

On the concert stage, she has appeared across Canada with the Toronto Symphony, l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Vancouver Symphony, Les Violons du Roy, Victoria Symphony, Early Music Vancouver, and the National Art Centre Orchestra; and internationally with the Boston Symphony, Minnesota Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Grant Park Festival of Chicago, Indianapolis Symphony, St Louis Symphony, The Florida Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Kansas City Symphony. Adam Fischer, Seiji Ozawa, Jeremy Rohrer, Kent Nagano, Emmanuelle Haim, Bernard Labadie, Trevor Pinnock, Ludovic Morlot, Kristian Kluxen, Carlos Kalmar, and Corrado Rovaris are among the conductors with whom she has collaborated for performances of works such as Lieberson’s Neruda Songs,  Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie, Bach’s Matthäus Passion, Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole, Ligeti’s Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2.

June 2025
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