Maghan Stewart

2^nd Prize Winner
2005 Brian Law Opera Scholarship Competition

Biography prepared by Murray Kitts from information submitted by the artist with her application for the 7^th Brian Law Opera Scholarship Competition on 29 January 2005.

Maghan Stewart began her training at the University of Toronto, completing the Bachelor of Voice Performance in 2001 and going on to complete the Master of Voice Performance degree at the University of Ottawa in 2004. Besides her participation in the years 2001-2004 in the Opera Lyra Ottawa Young Artists Program, she has attended Oberlin College’s summer program at Cassalmaggiore, Italy, Banff Arts Festival called Opera as Theatre, and L’Académie internationale d’été de Nice under the direction of Dalton Baldwin.

At the University of Toronto she won the Lois Marshall, Greta Kraus and Douglas Bodle Scholarships and in Ottawa the Vivian Asfar and the Galaxie Rising Stars of the CBC Awards. In the past year she was a semi-finalist (out of 200 singers participating) in the Dutch International Voice Competition ‘s-Hertogenbosch 2004.

In addition to several concert and oratorio appearances Maghan has already been seen on the operatic stage in a number of important roles: Cherubino in 1998 and The Countess in the following year in Le nozze di Figaro (Mozart) in Casalmaggiore, Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Britten), and Nanetta in Falstaff (Verdi) with the Banff Arts Festival. With Opera Lyra Ottawa she sang The Slave in Salome (Strauss), Nananina in Zeus and the Pamplemousse (McCune) and most recently she appeared as Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto (Verdi).

With her recent experience in Holland behind her, she intends to enter more vocal competitions such as the Eckhardt-Gramatte in Manitoba and Les Jeunesses Musicales in Montreal. She has been personally invited to audition for the Düsseldorf Opera Studio.