Allison Arends

Lecturer
Voice
Voice Division
Music Performance Studies Department

Office: MB 245
Phone: (519) 661-2111 x84325
Email: aarends@uwo.ca

Biography

Canadian soprano Allison Cecilia Arends is a versatile performer and educator whose career encompasses opera, concert repertoire, new music, and vocal pedagogy. Her singing has been described as “stunningly beautiful” and used “with intelligence and great sensitivity” by the Hnatyshyn Foundation, while Opera Canada has praised her “lyrical upper tones” and “empathetic acting”.

Allison has performed throughout Canada, the United States, Germany, Austria, Italy, England, Israel, and China. Her operatic roles include Violetta in La Traviata, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, Rosalinda and Adele in Die Fledermaus, Gilda in Rigoletto, the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare, Ginevra in Ariodante, Adina in L’elisir d’amore, Musetta in La Bohème, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Lucy in The Telephone, Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia, the title role in Lakmé, and Leïla in Les Pêcheurs de Perles. She has also created roles in new Canadian compositions with Tapestry New Opera and Soundstreams, and collaborated with composers on new works.

With an early background in choral singing, Allison has a particular affinity for concert and oratorio repertoire. She has performed major oratorio works by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, Brahms, Dvořák, Mendelssohn, and Vaughan Williams, as well as solo works including Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder, Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate, and Bach’s Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen. She has been engaged by organisations throughout Canada, including Aldeburgh Connection, Toronto Summer Music, Toronto Concert Orchestra, Toronto Classical Singers, Pax Christi Chorale, Amadeus Choir, Masterworks of Oakville, Peterborough Symphony, Niagara Symphony, Winnipeg Women’s Musical Club, Saskatoon Opera, Regina Musical Club, Regina Symphony Orchestra, Victoria Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Civic Symphony, and Calgary Opera.

Allison is a graduate of Calgary Opera’s Emerging Artist Program, and holds a Master of Music from the University of Toronto Opera School and a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Victoria. Her principal mentors have included W. Stephen Smith, Mary Morrison, Timothy Noble, Wendy Nielsen, Alexandra Browning, Selena James, and Diana Woolrich. As a student, she undertook further studies at the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme in England, Banff Centre for the Arts, Franz Schubert-Institut in Austria, International Vocal Arts Institute in Israel, and Centre for Opera Studies in Italy, as well as language studies at the Spanish Centre, Goethe-Institut, and Alliance Française in Toronto.

Allison has received numerous awards and honours from the Clifford Poole Voice Competition, Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques, the Joy in Singing Art Song Competition, Barry Alexander International Voice Competition, Spazio Musica International Competition, Gordon C. Wallis Vocal Competition, Hnatyshyn Foundation Governor General’s Award, B.C. Arts Council, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Johann Strauss Foundation, Aldeburgh Foundation, Wagner Society, ARIAS, and the Universities of Toronto and Victoria.

Allison is a voice instructor at Western University and maintains a large and active private studio in Toronto. She is a voice examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music and regularly adjudicates music festivals from coast to coast. Having formerly taught for St. Michael’s Choir School, Timothy Eaton Memorial’s Choir School, and as a teacher and clinician for Vox Choirs, Toronto Concert Choir, and Cantabile Chamber Singers, Allison has conducted choral, vocal, and educational workshops and masterclasses for the Edna Manley Music College in Jamaica, University of Mississippi, British Columbia Provincial Music Festival, Regina Conservatory of Music, Ryerson Oakham House Choir, Opera Atelier, and the Royal Canadian College of Organists, among others.

Her teaching experience encompasses classical voice, musical theatre, and contemporary commercial music, with students ranging from children and youth to adults and seniors, including trans and changing voices, and singers retraining following vocal injury. Her students have been engaged by Disney, Netflix, Mirvish, and Stratford, and have been accepted into major post-secondary institutions and training programmes in Canada and internationally. Her teaching emphasises technical understanding, curiosity, individual artistry, and sustainable singing, within a supportive and collaborative studio environment.