The 2025 winner of the Elizabeth Connell Prize International Singing Competition and a 2024 Sullivan Award Winner, soprano Lauren Margison is marking her mark as an emerging artist to watch. Recent and upcoming highlights include her American debut with the Memphis Symphony and Opera for Verdi’s Requiem under the baton of Robert Moody, and her return to Opéra de Montréal’s mainstage to much acclaim as Mimi in Puccini’s La bohème

Recent engagements on the concert stage include Verdi’s Requiem with the Billings Symphony, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 for Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the PRISMA Festival, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Vox Luminosa, and the world premiere of Adler’s Four Attributes of the Soul with Orchestra Toronto. In recital, she was highlighted as the headline performance of the International Congress of Voice Teachers at Toronto’s Koerner Hall.

In the 2023/2024 season, Lauren revisited the roles of Nedda in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and Anna in Puccini’s Le villi, and debuted the role of Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello, all with Staatstheater Mainz. Lauren’s additional operatic engagements have included Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen (Pacific Opera Victoria, Brott Music Festival), Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (Highlands Opera Studio), Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte (Highlands Opera Sutdio),The Csardas Princess with Toronto Operetta Theatre, and both the titular roles of Gluck’s Alceste and Barber’s Vanessa with VoiceBox: Opera in Concert.

An alumna of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, she appeared as Mimi in their special presentation of Puccini’s La bohème on the mainstage of The Four Seasons Centre and was featured in Strauss’ Elektra. Prior to her time with the COC, Lauren was a member of Opéra de Montréal’s Atelier lyrique, where she appeared as Clorinda in La Cenerentola, and Missia in their production of La Veuve joyeuse.

Lauren was a laureate of Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques, and was the youngest finalist to appear in the prestigious and highly competitive Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Vocal Competition. A finalist and prizewinner in the 2017 George London Foundation Awards, Lauren went on to take first prize in the 2018 competition. She has garnered additional recognition in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, was a semi-finalist in the Concours International Musical de Montréal (2022), and won Edmonton Opera’s inaugural Rumbold Vocal Prize (2022). Additionally, Lauren was honoured to be named a Sylva Gelber Foundation winner in both 2022 and 2024.

A versatile soprano, she has performed extensively both in Canada and internationally, specializing in classical, jazz and pop repertoire. Some highlights include performances for Opera Ontario, the TD Toronto Jazz Festival, The Beaches Jazz Festival, the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, the Cincinnati Pops, Hannaford Street Silver Band, the noon hour concerts at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts – Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, Ottawa Choral Festival Gala, and the Venetian Ball under the baton of Marco Armiliato, (fundraiser for Villa Charities, Toronto) held on the main stage of the Four Seasons’ Centre for the Performing Arts.

March 2026

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