User:Maestrawebdesign/sandbox/Michael Colvin

Michael Colvin

Irish-born Canadian Michael Colvin is a lyric tenor particularly known for his interpretations of Britten roles such as Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia, Bob Boles in Peter Grimes, Flute in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Red Whiskers in Billy Budd, Mayor Upfold in Albert Herring. His operatic career has taken him to major opera companies throughout Canada, Europe and the UK including Canadian Opera Company, English National Opera, The Royal Opera House, Chicago Opera Theater, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera de Oviedo, Le Cercle de L’Harmonie (Paris) and Opera Lyra Ottawa.

Alongside his operatic performances, Colvin has had an active and varied concert career. He has performed both Beethoven's Ninth symphony and Handel's Messiah over 30 times each over the first 15 years of his careers, with orchestras across Canada and the US. Mozart's Requiem, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Haydn’s Creation and The Seasons, Elgar's Dream of Gerontius, Mendelssohn's Elijah, and Verdi's Requiem among many others comprise his oratorio repertoire.

Education and Early Career
Michael Colvin was born in Ballymena, Northern Ireland in 1969. His parents emigrated with him to Canada when he was only a month old. He grew up in Etobicoke, West Toronto, Canada and attended St. Michael's Choir School from grade 3 (age 8) up to grade 13 graduation in 1988. Upon graduation Colvin went to the University of Toronto, Faculty of Science, earning a Bachelor of Science in Immunology in 1992. While studying science, he continued singing as music director at --- Catholic Church, and co-founded (with fellow alum Mark McCallen) the Victoria Scholars, an award-winning male chorus comprised largely of Choir School alumni and senior students.

Toward the end of his Bachelor of Science degree, Colvin began private voice lessons with Patricia Kern of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music. Kern was instrumental in cultivating Colvin's solo classical singing, and he went on to audition successfully for the Vocal Performance program at U of T. He entered the Opera Diploma program in 1995, and by 1998 was ready to move on to the Canadian Opera Company's Young Artist Ensemble Studio under the leadership of Artistic Director Richard Bradshaw and vocal coach Elizabeth Upchurch.

In his first season with the Canadian Opera Company (1999), Bradshaw gave young Colvin the opportunity to make his mainstage professional debut as Count Almaviva in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, stepping in as understudy to perform all eight shows in the lead tenor role. He also performed the role of Male Chorus in Britten's Rape of Lucretia with the COC's Ensemble Studio the same year, establishing an affinity for Britten tenor roles that continues to this day. Later that year he signed with Dean Artists Management to begin his freelance solo career.

Recordings

 * 2000 	Don Giovanni: Leporello's Revenge (Soundtrack) featuring Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Bullfrog Films)
 * 2000   Don Giovanni Unmasked (Video) (CBC)
 * 2000 	Purcell: The Tempest, Kevin Mallon, conductor
 * 2000   Harry Somers: Serinette (CMC Centrediscs/Centredisques)
 * 2001 	A Classical Kids Christmas (The Children's Group Inc.) JUNO AWARD 2002 - Best Children's Album
 * 2001   Singing Somers theatre (CMC Centrediscs/Centredisques)
 * 2006   A midwinter night's dream - Somers (CMC Centrediscs/Centredisques)
 * 2010   Ukrianian art song project - Mykola Vitaliĭovych Lysenko (Musica Leopolis)
 * 2010   Ukrianian art song project - Yakov Stepovoy (Musica Leopolis)