Adanya
Dunn
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Stagetime
Schedule
Upcoming Engagements
Description
Handel’s Messiah is one of the most beloved pieces in all of music history, performed year after year to audiences the world over. This December, the Kingston Symphony takes on Handel’s magnum opus alongside the Isabel Voices. Our intention, having not performed the Messiah for quite some time, is to return to this great tradition with fresh eyes, delivering a performance you won’t forget.
Adanya Dunn
Mezzo-Soprano
Dates
Recent Highlights
Description
Sophia's Forest - Music by Lembit Beecher, Libretto by Hannah Moscovitch
role: Anna (Sophia's mother)
*Canadian Premiere*
Conductor: Gordon Gerrard
Director: Julie McIsaac
When Sophia’s mother dies, Sophia confronts half-forgotten traumas from her childhood. Sophia and her sister Emma grew up in a war torn country. The two young girls cope with and escape their grim circumstances – the adult world of war, death and displacement – through the lens of fairy tales. As the fighting draws nearer, the family is forced to flee their home and make a dangerous journey into a forest. Sophia’s child’s-view version of their flight includes mystical horrors. As Sophia tries to protect her sister Emma from the evil in the forest, she makes a fatal mistake that forever changes the course of their lives.
Adanya Dunn
Performer
Dates
Description
Join us Saturday, July 5th, for an immersive afternoon of sound and movement at Rutger Brandt Gallery. Flutist Albert Manders, mezzo-soprano Adanya Dunn, and dancer Maria Pisou, come together in a unique performance blending voice, instruments, and dance.
These 20-minute improvisations are inspired by the closing day of Radenko Milak’s solo exhibition of black and white watercolours and offer an unforgettable experience in an intimate gallery setting of the Rutger Brandt Gallery.
Performance vignettes at:
14:30 | 15:30 | 16:15 | 16:45
FREE entry
Part of the Wallen Festival. This event is programmed by Red Light Arts and Culture.
Adanya Dunn
Singer-Dancer
Dates
Description
LibLab 30th Anniversary Edition
Tapestry Opera
Adanya joins Tapestry Opera’s 30th Anniversary LibLab as one of five featured performers in this celebrated opera creation lab. Held at the new Nancy & Ed Jackman Performance Centre, LibLab pairs four composers with four librettists for an intensive 10-day development period in July, guided by composer James Rolfe and director Michael Hidetoshi Mori.
Adanya collaborates alongside soprano Reilly Nelson, tenor Keith Klassen, baritone Jorell Williams, and pianists Jennifer Tung and Hyejin Kwon to bring brand-new short operas to life. Select works will be further developed and performed in a public showcase in October.
Adanya Dunn
Performer
Dates
Description
Premiere - new production
A note from the director, Anna Sroka-Hryń:
"My interpretation of La Clemenza di Tito is a psychologically and metaphysically deepened story about humanity — about the complexity and fragility of human nature. Tito is not just an emperor, but a man, fallible and self-reflective. At the heart of the opera is the trio Vitellia–Sesto–Tito, with Sesto at the center of the conflict. Their relationships are ambiguous, set against the backdrop of a violent and ruthless Roman world. But is it really ancient? The power of Shakespearean tragedy, Dostoyevsky’s literature, or great operatic works lies in their timelessness. Despite modern advancements — airplanes, the internet, space travel, AI — human nature has not changed. Desires and passions remain the same. Only the setting has changed, and manipulation has become more subtle and sophisticated.
The libretto becomes a starting point for reflection on our emotional and psychological condition in today’s world. Through this dissection, we may draw closer to that fragile, sensitive place within us that defies definition."
Adanya Dunn
Sesto
Dates
Description
Tapestry Briefs: Under Where? is a collection of ten hot-off-the-press opera shorts that take audiences on an immersive, tragic, absurd, and beautiful journey. This intimate production features the work of eight dynamic Canadian creators—composers Rebecca Gray, Saman Shahi, Roydon Tse, Keith Klassen, and Prokhor Protasoff, with librettists Rachel Gray, Sarah Henstra, Keith Klassen, and Christene Adina Browne.
Adanya Dunn
Performer
Dates
Description
Saskia Ontbijt (Breakfast)
The Oude Kerk
During the breakfast, there will be musical performances curated from RLAC. A brand-new music trio formed by three young musicians - Trio Nadasan: Shana Brown (violinist), Aina Font (saxophonist), and Red Light Arts & Culture co-founder Adanya Dunn (mezzo-soprano), performs original compositions inspired by global folk melodies, dynamically interacting with their surroundings. Rooted in improvisation, they move freely through the space with their instruments, offering an immersive experience.
In the summer of 1642, Rembrandt buried his wife and muse, Saskia Uylenburgh, in the Oude Kerk. Every year on March 9th, precisely at nine minutes past eight-thirty in the morning, a sunbeam illuminates her grave. This special moment is annually commemorated with a breakfast, music, and a lecture.
Adanya Dunn
Performer
Dates
Description
Das Rheingold – by Wagner | Adaptation by Jonathan Dove and Graham Vick, Orchestrated by Jonathan Dove
Edmonton Opera
role: Floßhilde (cover)
Conductor: Simon Rivard
Director: Peter Hinton-Davis
The ultimate battle for power. The first opera in Wagner’s epic ‘The Ring Cycle’, performed for the very first time in Edmonton. Just in time for our 60th anniversary season, we bring you the fantastic world of Das Rheingold in a brand-new production; a magical universe filled with gods, dwarves, and giants. Discover awe in the breathtaking music and compelling mystical drama that weave a tale that will be an unforgettable operatic experience.
Adanya Dunn
Floßhilde
Dates
Madison Montambault
Wellgunde
Dates
Tags
Description
POMEGRANATE - a world premiere
The Canadian Opera Company
role: Sulie/Suzie
Composer: Kye Marshall
Librettist: Amanda Hale
Conductor: Rosemary Thomson
Director: Jennifer Tarver
Price Family Chorus Master: Sandra Horst
Cassia/Cass: Danielle Buonaiuto
Suli/Suzie: Adanya Dunn
Livia/Mother Maria: Catherine Daniel
Marcus/Uncle Salvatore: Peter Barrett
Priestess/Jules: Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野
With the COC Orchestra and Chorus
Co-production with Vancouver Opera
Two young women, Suzie and Cass struggle to repair their love in the face of homophobia and an impossible ultimatum, fragments of memory endure, revealing a transcendent love for the ages. The timeline takes place in Ancient Pompeii 79 AD, and in 1981 Toronto, at a lesbian bar in the aftermath of the infamous Bathhouse Raids.
Adanya Dunn
Performer
Dates
Simona Genga
Livia/Maria
Dates
Tags
Description
Carmen - by G. Bizet
Edmonton Opera
role: Mercedes
Conductor: Simon Rivard
Director: Maria Lamont (Anna Theodosakis, revival dir.)
Fiery passion and drama are ever present in this timeless spectacle of love and loss. This intense masterpiece, the most famous opera of all, brings us the captivating orchestral pieces brought to life by our marvellous Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and a stellar cast of internationally acclaimed singers.
Adanya Dunn
Mercédès
Dates
Description
La Cenerentola - by G. Rossini
Manitoba Opera
role: Tisbe
Conductor: Tyrone Patterson
Director: Rob Herriot
In this variation of the beloved fairy tale Cinderella, La Cenerentola tells the story of a young woman who is forced to act as a servant to her pompous and mean social-climbing stepfather and ungrateful stepsisters (Tisbe & Clorinda).
Adanya Dunn
Tisbe
Dates
Biography
Canadian-Bulgarian mezzo-soprano Adanya Dunn (she/her) made her American debut as Hermia in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Santa Fe Opera in 2021 as an Apprentice Artist, conducted by Harry Bicket and directed by Netia Jones.
In 2025, Adanya makes her European operatic debut as Sesto in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito with the Warsaw Chamber Opera as part of the 34th Annual Mozart Festival in May, and then reprises the role in September. She also makes her company debut with City Opera Vancouver in the Canadian premiere of the contemporary chamber opera, Sophia’s Forest, in the role of Anna (Sophia’s mother), composed by Lembit Beecher and written by Hannah Moscovitch.
For the 2023-2024 Season, Adanya was a Resident Artist with Edmonton Opera. Adanya was a 2022-2023 member of Hannigan’s Equilibrium Young Artists. During the season, she performed in concerts with the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Barbara Hannigan: in Ravel’s Trois poèmes de Mallarmé and in Mozart’s Requiem both in Paris and in Aix-en-Provence as part of the Festival de Pâques.
From June 2-4, 2023, Adanya made her Canadian Opera Company debut as Suzie in a world premiere opera Pomegranate composed by Kye Marshall with a libretto by Amanda Hale, and is conducted by Rosemary Thomson and directed by Jennifer Tarver. The story centers queer narratives, as two young women, Suzie and Cass struggle to repair their love in the face of homophobia and an impossible ultimatum, fragments of memory endure, revealing a transcendent love for the ages. The timeline takes place in Ancient Pompeii 79 AD, and in 1981 Toronto, at a lesbian bar in the aftermath of the infamous Bathhouse Raids.
In 2022, Adanya was the winner of the Bita Cattelan Philanthropic Engagement Award from the Concours international de Montreal and the winner of Vancouver Opera Guild‘s Career Development Grant. Previous awards include: winner of the 2021 Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award, the 2020/21 recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation Developing Artist Grant, Michigan Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions 2020, and a three-time grant recipient from the Canada Council for the Arts.
During the 2020/21 season, Adanya debuted at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in December 2020 in the Jonge Grote Zangers series in an in-person and livestreamed recital from the Grote Zaal with baritone Rolfe Dauz and pianist Nathalie Doucet, and performed a concert tour in the Netherlands with Irish pianist Seán Morgan-Rooney in their POPARTSONG Duo, showcasing popular and art music styles through original compositions and arrangements.
A versatile performer, her 2019/20 season included highlights from Mozart’s Così fan tutte as Dorabella with the Bergen Symphony Orkest, Sesto in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito with the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Berio’s Sequenza III at Belgium’s Festival 20/21 with the New European Ensemble, and various concerts in Amsterdam’s Dutch National Opera and Het Concertgebouw.
Adanya is an alumna of Dawn Upshaw’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, Marilyn Horne’s Music Academy of West, the Rebanks Family Fellowship & International Residency at the Glenn Gould School, and the University of Toronto. Adanya was named by the CBC as one of Canada’s “Top 30 Hot Classical Musicians Under 30” and was featured in The Globe & Mail as one of six Canadian women who are “turning opera on its head and making the future bright for the art form”. Adanya studies with Don Marrazzo.
Born and raised in Toronto, she was a resident performer and producer with the interdisciplinary arts collective FAWN Chamber Creative and was the Co-Founder of the innovative chamber music series The Happenstancers. In Berlin, she is part of the disruptive electronic-voice duo #operEMIX. Adanya has performed with companies such as Against the Grain Theatre, Soundstreams, the Luminato Festival, Tapestry Opera, and the Canadian Music Centre. Through consistent collaboration with composers, librettists, and collectives, Adanya has premiered over 200 works.
In August 2020, Adanya founded Red Light Arts & Culture (RLAC) in Amsterdam, a not-for-profit foundation that connects local entrepreneurs, professional musicians and artists, and site-specific locations, promoting and adding to the rich cultural diversity of the Red Light District. For this project, she was a 2021 Music Academy of the West’s Alumni Enterprise Awards.
She is represented by Dean Artists Management.
In addition to performing, Adanya mentors young musicians and maintains an active vocal teaching and coaching studio. Adanya composes classical and electronic music, writes poetry, paints watercolour, and practices/performs pole dance, burlesque, contact dance, and dance improvisation. She is a 500hr yoga teacher and is completing a multi-year Alexander Technique-based Yoga Teacher Training certification.
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