Canadian soprano Allison Cecilia Arends has made her mark as a versatile singer whose “voice is stunningly beautiful and [is used] with intelligence and great sensitivity” (Hnatyshyn Foundation).
Active as an interpreter of opera, new music, and concert repertoire, she is noted for her “lyrical upper tones” and “empathetic acting” (Opera Canada). Allison is a graduate of Calgary Opera’s Emerging Artist Program, where she performed Despina (Cosi fan tutte), Mary (cover in The Inventor), and the Wealthy Woman (The Inventor), the University of Toronto, where she performed Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Ginevra (Ariodante), Lucia (The Rape of Lucretia), Ida (Die Fledermaus), and the Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte), and the University of Victoria, where she performed Madame Herz (Der Schauspieldirektor). She has also sung Musetta (La Bohème), Lucy (The Telephone), and Adele (Die Fledermaus) with the Highlands Opera Studio, Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare) at the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy and with the Aradia Ensemble, the Angel, King’s Mistress, and Witch (The Children’s Crusade) with Soundstreams, Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), and Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus) with Opera York, Violetta (La Traviata) with the Southern Ontario Lyric Opera, the Milton Symphony, and the Cambridge Symphony, Gilda (Rigoletto) with the Southern Ontario Lyric Opera, Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi) with the Cathedral Bluffs Orchestra, Leïla (Les Pêcheurs de Perles) and Lakmé (Lakmé) with Opera By Request, and joined Tapestry New Opera for their LibLabs and Opera Briefs.
She has sung in recital with the Aldeburgh Connection, Colours of Music Festival, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Campbell House Recital Series, Winnipeg Women’s Musical Club, Saskatoon Opera, Regina Musical Club, Latvian Cultural Society of Toronto, Baker-Tran Centre, Russell Hill Centre, Neapolitan Connection, Arts and Letters Club, Heliconian Club, Bobolink Entertainment, and Green Door Cabaret. Among her many concert performances are Haydn’s Creation with Chorus Niagara, Handel’s Solomon with the Pax Christi Chorale, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Toronto Concert Orchestra, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater with the Toronto Philharmonia, Verdi’s Requiem with the Toronto Classical Singers, Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Calgary Civic Symphony and Regina Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with the Amadeus Choir, Regina Symphony Orchestra, and Peterborough Symphony, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Masterworks of Oakville, Brahms’ Requiem with the Tallis Choir, Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G minor with the Churches-on-the-Hill choirs, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang and Rheinberger’s Star of Bethlehem with the Toronto Sinfonietta, and Bach’s Magnificat, Beethoven’s Mass in C, Dvorak’s Te Deum, Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, and Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Requiem with the Regina Philharmonic Chorus. She has also appeared in a series of Viennese concerts with the Toronto Concert Orchestra and was the guest soloist in a performance of Strauss’ beloved Vier Letzte Lieder with the Calgary Civic Symphony and the Etobicoke Philharmonic Orchestra. She has performed at Casa Loma’s Symphony in the Gardens in Duelling Divas, Gilbert and Sullivan Tribute, Viennese, and Divine Divas performances, and sang the world premiere of Maple Kingfisher, a concerto for coloratura soprano, with the Toronto East-West Symphony.
Internationally, she toured China in a series of Viennese New Year’s concerts with the Brahms Symphonie Orchester, and has appeared in Jamaica on numerous occassions for gala performances and as a guest instructor for the St. Andrew Parish Foundation and Edna Manley College for the Arts. Allison has sung at the Bachakademie in Germany, the Britten Pears Program in England, the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy, the International Vocal Arts Institute in Israel, and the Franz Schubert-Institut in Austria. She has received scholarships and prizes from the Clifford Poole Vocal Competition, Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques, Spazio Musica International Competition, Gordon C. Wallis Vocal Competition, Hnatyshyn Foundation, B.C. Arts Council, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Aldeburgh Foundation, Johann Strauss Foundation, ARIAS, and the Universities of Toronto and Victoria. She was chosen to compete as a semifinalist in the Joy In Singing Competition in New York and was a second place winner in the Barrie Alexander International Voice Competition.
