Soprano Erin Bardua has been praised for her “brilliant-toned voice, agile and strong, yet warm and relaxed” with “delightful coloratura and confident command of the stage.”

Erin made her professional operatic debut as Anna in Pacific Opera Victoria’s production of Verdi’s Nabucco. After moving to Toronto, she went on to sing Cathleen in Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea with Opera Anonymous, and appeared in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, singing two of the three heroines (Antonia and Giulietta). She performed Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with the Arcady Baroque Ensemble (an opera in which she has also sung the role of the First Lady). Erin’s Mozart roles also include Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, a role she performed in Halifax. Her other operatic repertoire includes Nannetta in Verdi’s Falstaff, Anna in Nicolai’s Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Micaela in Bizet’s Carmen, and Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème.

A lover of contemporary music, Erin created a leading role in the new opera Eyes on the Mountain while studying at the Victoria Conservatory of Music’s Opera Studio. In Toronto, she participated in the development process of Andrew Ager’s opera Frankenstein, singing the role of Elizabeth, the doctor’s fiancée.

Ms. Bardua has also treated audiences to operatic gems at recent gala events, including Heart & Music (benefiting ovarian cancer research) and A Little Opera for Little Babies (supporting the Linden Fund for neo-natal intensive care).

An accomplished theatre artist, Erin has performed roles in numerous musicals and operettas, including Josephine in HMS Pinafore, Giannetta in The Gondoliers, Mrs. Segstrom in A Little Night Music, and Julie in Carousel. Further broadening their theatrical horizons, Erin and a group of other adventurous opera singers began clown training in 2003 with mentor Sue Morrison. Since then, Erin has continued her training and participated in the co-creation of a clown opera, The Figaro Project, which premiered in 2007.

Ms. Bardua is a seasoned concert soloist who has sung Handel’s perennial favourite, Messiah, with numerous choirs and orchestras, including the Pax Christi Chorale, the Toronto Sinfonietta, the Oshawa-Durham Orchestra and Chorus, and the Arcady Baroque Ensemble. Other oratorio engagements include Beethoven’s Mass in C Major with the Toronto Sinfonietta and the Northumberland Orchestra, Vaughan Williams’ Hodie with the Pax Christi Chorale, Haydn’s Creation, Handel’s Esther and Judas Maccabaeus, Mozart’s Requiem, Rutter’s Requiem, M.A. Charpentier’s Te Deum, Bach’s Magnificat, and Vivaldi’s Gloria, Nulla in mundo pax sincera, and In furore justissimae irae. As the soprano soloist at Toronto’s busy Bloor Street United Church, Erin has sung Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore, Saint-Säens’ Christmas Oratorio, and Bach cantatas BWV10 and BWV147 with orchestra and chorus. She has become a fixture at the New Hamburg Live! Arts Festival, performing opera and Broadway favourites at the inaugural gala concert in 2009, and Gilbert & Sullivan highlights in 2010.

Ms. Bardua teaches voice and adjudicates festivals. She recently completed a Masters in Vocal Performance at the University of Toronto, where she studied with Jean MacPhail. She is represented by Nancy Knowles at Knowles Artists Management.