About Barbara Fris

Clorinda (La Cenerentola) with the Calgary Opera. Fris first attracted national attention in 1988 when she was chosen as a Canadian winner at
the 3rd Annual International Luciano Pavarotti Voice Competition (Philadelphia Opera). The following year she won the International Bel Canto
Foundation Voice Competition (Chicago, Illinois), resulting in engagements for U.S.audiences in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York City.

Her Italian début as Amelia Boccanegra (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". That same year, she recorded the sacred concertos of Dmytro Bortniansky for Naxos and performed
them in Roy Thomson Hall (Toronto). Since then, she has become one of Canada’s most versatile and sought-after lyrico-spinto sopranos.

Praised by the Edmonton Journal for her singing “… with sensuous warmth, great reserves of power and emotional expressiveness”, Ms. Fris’
career has embraced opera, operetta, musical theatre, lieder and art song for more than 25 years. Along the way, Ms. Fris has appeared in
productions throughout Canada with the Canadian Opera Company, Calgary Opera, Edmonton Opera, Opera Theatre of Alberta, and Manitoba
Opera. Her lyric soprano heroines include Mozart’s Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), and the
Countess Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro); Richard Strauss’ Arabella; Verdi’s Amelia Boccanegra (Simon Boccanegra), Desdemona (Otello),
Elizabetta (Don Carlos), Violetta (La Traviata); Puccini’s Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly), Liù (Turandot), Mimi and Musetta (La Bohème), Angelica
(Suor Angelica); Menotti’s The Mother (Amahl and the Night Visitors) and Gounod’s Marguerite (Faust). Roles she has also played include
Micaëla (Carmen), Norina (Don Pasquale), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Despina (Così fan tutte), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Zerlina (Don
Giovanni), Marenka (The Bartered Bride) and Nedda (Pagliacci). She is also known for her portrayals of Angelina (Trial by Jury), Mabel (Pirates of
Penzance), the title role in Guiditta and Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow, always to critical and audience acclaim.

The Chronicle Herald (Halifax) has written, “Barbara Fris is a songstress that marries her expressive and silvery lyricism with exemplary diction
and compelling acting.” “She possesses a gorgeous vocal instrument with illuminating beauty of tone and a voice full of vocal colours well
matched to intensely subjective moods …evocative and breath-taking!” (Halifax Mailstar). “Miss Fris brings to the stage personal charisma, an
unflagging musical imagination and genuine passion.” (Globe & Mail).

On the concert stage, her celebrated stage presence and vocal beauty have joined with orchestral ensembles across Canada in a wide array of
oratorio and concert repertoire. Deeply committed to the art of recital, she brings a vast and dynamic scope of repertoire coupled with a profound
depth of artistry to her listening audiences. Ms. Fris has been heard on some of the world’s finest recital stages in Calgary, Chicago, Edmonton,
Halifax, Luino (Italy), Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, Siena (Italy), Toronto and Winnipeg, among other cities. The CBC has broadcast Miss 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.

Barbara Fris was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and began her musical studies at the Nova Scotia Teacher's College (Truro), where she obtained
an Associate of Education degree and Licentiate as an Early Childhood Music specialist (1977). She later graduated from Dalhousie University,
Faculty of Music (1980) with a Bachelor of Music in Performance (Honours) and the University of Toronto Opera Division (1983), where she
obtained a Diploma in Opera Performance (Honours) as a scholarship student of the noted Dutch baritone, Bernard Diamant and with the
support of the Nova Scotia Talent Trust and Canada Council. Miss Fris completed further post-graduate work at the Accademia dei Rozzi, (Siena
Italy) under Maestro Walter Baracchi, former principal coach and conductor at Teatro alla Scala di Milano. Subsequent musical studies led
her to New York City where she studied privately with Rita Patané of the Manhattan and Juilliard Schools of Music in Patané’s Carnegie Hall
studio. Since her memorable beginnings, she has mastered a large repertoire from the classics of opera and oratorio to the art songs of French,
German, British and American composers, and a great treasury of contemporary popular music

She was awarded the Grand Prize at the 1989 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.

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. 2007
saw her performing SOLD-OUT Toronto recitals at the new P.C. Ho Concert Hall, Chinese Cultural Centre, Victoria College Chapel, The Great
Hall (where she was showcased as part of the gala re-opening week celebrations of St. Paul’s Bloor Street, Canada’s largest Anglican Church)
and a benefit concert for the Regent Park School of Music which provides affordable, after-school music programs for inner-city youth. She also
appeared in recital in Elora, Ontario where her programme included French composer Claude Debussy’s ‘Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire’ and his
‘Ariettes oubliées’.

Throughout January and February of 2008, Miss Fris sang in Puerto Rico, West Indies, and the Dominican Republic. Highlights in 2008 also
included her recital tour of Southern Ontario with the Music-On-The-Hill Concert Series (Toronto), Halton Hills Cultural Centre Music Series
(Georgetown), Heliconian Hall (Toronto), and the Lakeside Music Series (Georgina) with noted Canadian conductor William Shookhoff, known for
his work with mirvish.com in the inaugural Canadian production of Les Miserables, and the Canadian Tour and Toronto productions of Phantom
of the Opera.

On June 21, 2009, Miss Fris has been invited to sing at the McMichael Art Gallery (Kleinberg) where her recital programme will include Richard
Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs), Wagner’s Mathilde Wesendonk Lieder and favourite opera arias from Korngold, and Puccini. Her
2009-2010 engagements also will bring her to the Halton Hills Cultural Centre Music Series (Georgetown) for a third time where she will sing R.
Strauss' Four Last Songs. She also will sing at the “Tribute Concert” for Mary Gardiner, Canadian Composer and Educator, as part of the newly
launched subscription series at historic Heliconian Hall (Yorkville) on October 23, 2009 (www.heliconianclub.org).

After 25 years at the forefront of her musical life and professional operatic debut, Ms Fris continues to devote her experience and expertise to
organizing and appearing at further concerts and galas to raise funds for various charitable organizations including the Canadian and American
Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, Adsum House for Women & Children (Halifax) and the Toronto Heliconian Club
for Women.

In between performances, Miss Fris makes her home in Toronto, Canada where she teaches voice as part of her commitment to helping young
Canadian singers, and where she is in demand as a vocal clinician at master classes, as an adjudicator, and a performance coach. You can find
her at www.barbarafris.com.

March 2008

Subscribe to our newsletter for all sorts of news!
Just enter your name and email address.