On an unseasonably warm day in February, I met the mezzo-soprano and founder of Musique 3 Femmes (M3F) Kristin Hoff for a late afternoon coffee by Montreal’s Place des Arts. She arrived at what she described as “the edge of late,” rushing from a venue she’d been scouting for an upcoming rehearsal period and slotting me in before a talk she’d be giving later in the day.

“The ceilings are too low for the project,” she told me, exasperated from incorrect technical information and musing on whether or not she’d be able to cancel her venue reservation. “We’re dealing with tall puppets.”

The mezzo-soprano was talking about Musique 3 Femmes’ latest project; Alejandra Odgers’ Nanatasis, a massive co-production between M3F, Sixtrum, the Festival International du Casteliers and Le Vivier’s La Semaine du Neuf. Nanatasis is a winner of M3F’s biennial new creations prize, with direction and set design by Troy Hourie with assistance from his students at the University of Guelph.

Hoff is no stranger to these sorts of logistical challenges.

“This is my life as a producer,” she tells me, a role she has taken on since forming Musique 3 Femmes in 2018.

We are meeting to discuss Hoff’s recent win of the Mécénat Musica Prix Goyer for Collaborative Emerging Artists. The $125,000 award is the largest of its kind in Canada, $50,000 of which is given directly to the artist, and another $50,000 to the artist’s cultural organization. The rest is allotted for career development as well as a musical commission for the recipient. Hoff is one of two winners of this year’s Prix Goyer, alongside Canadian pianist and co-artistic director of Montreal’s HausMusique, Meagan Milatz.

When I ask Hoff what it means to her to be lauded as a collaborative artist, she admits that the inclusion of the word “collaborative” in the Prix Goyer is the only way she feels comfortable receiving such an honour.

“My work [with M3F] has always been about taking care of artists,” she describes. “I really want experiences to be rich for everyone. That is a guiding light in what I do.”

Hoff’s propensity to care for artists stems from her own work as an artist. She is as much a performer as she is a producer and facilitator. As a singer, Hoff has performed operatic roles such as Tebaldo in Don Carlo and the title role in Carmen. She has sung at the Tanglewood Festival, with the Boston Pops, and in contemporary works including Elliot Carter’s Syringa with the Met Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall under the baton of James Levine, no less. On March 16th, she’ll perform Ana Sokolović’s fiendishly difficult Love Songs from memory for Le Vivier’s La Semaine du Neuf festival in Montreal.

Musique 3 Femmes, Hoff’s company that she co-founded in 2018 with Suzanne Rigden and Jennifer Szeto, aims to give voice to female and non-binary opera creators. When I ask Hoff how she decided to straddle both the performer’s and the producer’s side of the proverbial table, she answers that M3F grew out of a desire to perform art that was more artist-centred.

“[Rigden] and I were performing to fundraise for some women’s shelters,” she describes of the company’s origins. “We wanted to help women in different ways.”

When the pianist Jennifer Szeto came on board, the three of them collaborated to create a more sustainable model for their organization. They quickly partnered with the Mécénat Musica, a Quebec-based cultural philanthropy program, as well as the Azrieli Foundation. Soon, they were able to begin commissioning and developing new operas by female-identifying creators.They’ve since received countless support from the Canada Council for the Arts, individual donors, and the Montreal and Quebec arts councils. In the past seven years, M3F has commissioned eleven operas and presented over sixty-five concerts and opera workshops.

“The immensity of the production side of things was learned over time,” Hoff reveals. “I had no idea what I was getting into at the beginning.”

And M3F isn’t the only non-profit musical organization of which Hoff is at the helm. She is also Executive Director of the concert series Mini-Concerts Santé of Ensemble ArtChoral, a pandemic-born organization that provides outdoor concerts to underserved areas. Since its founding in 2020, Mini-Concerts Santé has provided 17,100 free concerts in Quebec and other provinces.

Towards the end of our chat, the conversation turns back to Hoff’s Mécénat Musica prize and what Hoff plans to do with the money. The $50,000 allotted for the artist’s cultural organization will go towards supporting M3F’s new creations endowment, she tells me. I joke that the $50,000 awarded to the individual artist might be a good opportunity for Hoff to pay herself a salary or perhaps face the rising costs of groceries in Canada.

“Renovations,” she quips, building off my joke.

“I did allow myself a little artistic pampering,” she eventually admits, describing how she’d invested in redesigning her website and doing some new video recordings. “I’m always pampering other artists.”

Sounds like a little pampering couldn’t be more deserved. We look forward to seeing what Kristin Hoff and M3F dream up next.