About Barbara Fris

Mimi in La Bohéme marked the singer’s opera début at the Courtney Summer Music Festival (1982). Her professional career and main-stage opera début was launched in 1984
with her portrayal of Clorinda (La Cenerentola) with the Calgary Opera. Fris first attracted national attention when she won the International Bel Canto Foundation Voice
Competition (Chicago, Illinois) in 1988. In that same year, she was also a Canadian winner and international finalist in the 3rd Annual International Luciano Pavarotti Voice
Competition, resulting in engagements for U.S. audiences in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York City. Her Italian début as Amelia (Simon Boccanegra) at the Teatro dei Rozzi,
Siena, Italy and re-engagements at the Luino Italia Summer Music Festival as Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) followed. In 1990, Canadian composer Patricia Blomfield Holt chose Ms.
Fris to sing the world-premiere of "A Song of Darkness and Light". Since then, she has gone on to become one of Canada's most versatile lyrico-spinto sopranos, always
captivating audiences with her evocative portrayals of opera heroines, her concert performances and recitals. Her personal charisma and voice continue to endear her to
audiences.

Fris has appeared on many of the major opera stages throughout Canada, including the Canadian Opera Company, Calgary Opera, Edmonton Opera, Opera Theatre of Alberta,
and Manitoba Opera. Roles she has also played include Liù in Turandot, Norina in Don Pasquale, Zerlina and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Fiordiligi
in Così fan tutte, Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, Angelica in Suor Angelica, Violetta in La Traviata, Marguerite in Faust, the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro, Marenka in
The Bartered Bride, The Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors and Mimi and Musetta in La bohème. Her vast opera repertoire also includes Nedda in Pagliacci, Donna Anna
in Don Giovanni, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Despina in Così fan tutte, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Micaëla in Carmen, Antonia in Les contes d'Hoffmann, and
Desdemona in Otello. Fris was also known for her portrayals of Angelina in Trial by Jury, Mabel in Pirates of Penzance, the title role in Guiditta and Hanna Glawari in The
Merry Widow, always to critical and audience acclaim.

Well known in Canada, Ms. Fris has performed with orchestras across Canada in a wide array of oratorio and concert repertoire and frequently in recital on concert stages in
Calgary, Chicago, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, Siena, Luino, Toronto and Winnipeg among other cities. The CBC has broadcast Ms Fris’ performances
in concerts, with festivals and regional orchestras across Canada, nationally in radio and television. Her other television credits include appearances on CTV, CITY and Global
networks in their nationally broadcast news features.

She was awarded the Grand Prize at the 1988 International Bel Canto Voice Competition in Chicago and has been a prizewinner at other competitions including the Luciano
Pavarotti Competition in Philadelphia, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (Great Lakes District) in Toronto and the MacAllister Voice Competition in
Indianapolis. She is also a recipient of several prestigious Canada Council and Nova Scotia Talent Trust Awards and the Arnold Walter and Canadian Opera Company Women's
Guild Scholarships.

Deeply committed to the art of recital, Barbara Fris brings a vast and dynamic scope of repertoire coupled with a profound depth of artistry to her listening audiences.
Highlights of the 2006-07 season include her sold-out Toronto recitals at Heliconian Hall and Victoria College Chapel, her renditions of Debussy's Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire
for audiences in Elora, Ontario and a benefit appearance for "The Regent Park School of Music" which provides affordable, after-school music programs for inner-city youth.

Over the course of her distinguished performing career, Ms. Fris has been honoured to participate in a number of very special events including the gala opening of Science
North (Sudbury) where she gave a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II, Canada Day and Bicentennial celebrations in East York, and the opening ceremonies of
Casey House Hospice in Toronto and the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo in Halifax -- her hometown. Ms. Fris has also appeared in many concerts benefiting the
Canadian and American Red Cross organizations, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (an independent international medical humanitarian organization that
delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural or man-made disasters, or exclusion from health care in more than 70 countries), Adsum
House for Women and Children (a charitable, community based organization located in Halifax, Nova Scotia that supports women and children who are homeless or at risk of
becoming so), and many, many other charitable organizations.

Notable performances of the recent past have included her sold-out all-Mozart recital in Toronto, 'My Heart Speaks for You', celebrating 250 years of Mozart heroines and
her highly successful, fundraising concert in aid of 'Project Nehemiah' at St. Paul's Bloor Street Anglican Church, where she is an active parishioner and sidesperson.

A successful performing artist for more than 25 years, Barbara Fris’ first solo commercial recording will be released in 2008 on iTunes, featuring a sumptuous program of works
by Debussy, Strauss and Wagner.

In between performances, Barbara Fris makes her home in Toronto, Canada where she teaches voice and nurtures upcoming, talented singers. She is demand as a vocal
clinician, performance coach and for her Masterclasses.

Sep 2007

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