Originally from Ottawa, Ontario, “young rising star, soprano Ellen McAteer,” (CBC Radio) is the two-time recipient of the Richard Bradshaw Graduate Fellowship in Opera and has been awarded a Schulich Scholarship, the Gaelyne Gabora Memorial Prize and the E. M. Wirth Scholarship.

Ellen performs frequently in both opera and concert. Her performed operatic roles are diverse, including Athalia in Handel’s Athalia, Miss Jessel in Britten’s Turn of the Screw, Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Lauretta in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. In concert, Ellen has recently performed C. P. E. Bach’s Magnificat (Bethlehem Bach Festival), Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem (IMSQ Festival), Haydn’s The Creation (Bethlehem Bach Festival), Bach’s Coffee Cantata (Music and Beyond Festival), Britten’s Les illuminations de Rimbaud (University of Toronto), Bach’s Magnificat (Tilford Bach Festival), Handel’s Messiah (Grace Church on-the-Hill), Orff’s Carmina Burana (McGill University) and Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion (Church of Saint Andrew and Saint Paul). Upcoming performances Lola in James Rolfe’s new opera CRUSH and another performance of Haydn’s The Creation (Peterborough Singers).

A versatile performer, Ellen has taken part in several unusual performance opportunities. Her voice has been heard on acoustic folk-band October Gold’s first CD release, “Into the Silence,” she debuted and recorded the symphonic poem “A Dream within a Dream” by McGill composition student Kit Soden and was featured at Place des Arts in Montreal as part of a multi-disciplinary outdoor art exhibit entitled “The Artistic Disciplines”.

Ellen holds a M.Mus Voice Performance from the University of Toronto, B.Mus Voice Performance from McGill University where she graduated with Excellence in Voice and has furthered her studies at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, Orford Arts Centre and Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Ellen’s teachers and coaches include Nancy Argenta, Joanne Kolomyjec, Michael McMahon, Wendy Nielsen, Steven Philcox, Sanford Sylvan, Daniel Taylor and Liz Upchurch.