In recent seasons, McGillivray has been seen on opera and concert stages from coast to coast, specializing in comic roles such as Dr. Bartolo in Barber of Seville, Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola, Schaunard in La Bohème, Falke in Die Fledermaus, Stubb in Moby Dick and Orff’s Carmina Burana. He also excels in interpreting more dramatic fare such as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and concert performances of Handel’s Messiah, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Haydn’s Creation and Mendelssohn’s Elijah. He has performed lead roles with the Canadian Opera Company as well as opera companies in Dallas, Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Manitoba, Hamilton, Ottawa and Quebec City. Additionally he spent the 2010-11 season on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in New York in productions of La Bohème and Strauss’ Capriccio. His current season involves performances as Don Pizarro in Beethoven's Fidelio with Pacific Opera Victoria, Frank Maurrant in Street Scene as a guest artist with the University of Toronto Opera, the Father for Edmonton Opera’s Hansel and Gretel and Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola with Vancouver Opera. McGillivray first leapt to international attention in 2005 by winning top prizes both at the Montreal International Musical Competition and at the Queen Sonja Competition in Oslo, Norway. He was previously the winner of the 2003 CBC/Radio-Canada Young Performers Competition and is an alumnus of the Canadian Opera Company's Ensemble Studio program.