Voice Area Masterclasses
The Department of Music Voice Area welcomes the following artists for their 2026-2027 Masterclass Series.
Fall 2026
Anna Theodosakis
Master Class | October 25, 2026
1 - 3 p.m. | FAB 2-7
Stage director and choreographer Anna Theodosakis is a rising figure on the operatic scene, collaborating with companies across Canada including the Canadian Opera Company, Opéra de Montréal, Calgary Opera, Manitoba Opera, Edmonton Opera, Saskatoon Opera, Against the Grain Theatre, the Banff Centre, and more. Anna has also worked with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and San Francisco Opera's Merola Program. Since 2017, Anna has appeared as a frequent collaborator with the Canadian Opera Company, earning a nomination for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Direction for her work as revival director on The Magic Flute. She is a COC Ensemble Studio faculty member and Teaching Artist. Passionate about working with emerging artists she currently teaches acting and dance for the University of Toronto’s Opera Division. She has been an invited guest stage director and lecturer with ten different universities. annatheodosakis.com
Judith Forst
Master Class | November 18, 2026
4 - 6 p.m. | FAB 1-29
Canadian mezzo-soprano Judith Forst came into prominence when she won the Cross-Canada Canadian Broadcasting Talent Contest in 1967; then in 1968 won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, becoming the first singer ever to be awarded a full-time Met contract on the basis of her performance in the Met auditions.
She has since sung with most major opera companies throughout North America and Europe, including 250 performances in forty-nine years with the Metropolitan Opera. She has performed frequently with the San Francisco Opera Company, the Chicago Lyric Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, Dallas Opera, Houston Lyric Opera, New York City Opera and the Vancouver Opera Association. European engagements have included performances in Italy, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. She made her debut at Italy’s La Scala in 2006 singing KABANICHKA in Janacek’s Kata Kabanova.
Ms Forst is the recipient of an honourary Doctorate of Letters from the University of British Columbia, the first performing artist alumna to be so honoured. The University of Victoria has conferred upon Ms Forst an Honourary Doctorate of Music. She is a member of the Order of Canada and of the Order of British Columbia, and is a recipient of Canada’s prestigious RUBY AWARD marking her distinguished worldwide career in opera.
Winter 2027
Elizabeth Raycroft
Master Class | January 9, 2027
10 a.m. - 12 p.m. | FAB 2-7
Elizabeth Raycroft, soprano, trained at the University of Alberta (BMus,), at the University of Houston (MMus, Opera) and at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna. She has performed roles with the Edmonton Opera in their productions ofJenufa (Karolka), HMS Pinafore (Hebe) and The Marriage of Figaro. She has worked with many renowned conductors (Richard Bradshaw, Elmer Eisler, Uri Mayer), directors (Kelly Robinson, Katherine Twaddle) and coaches (Walter Berry, Dame Gwyneth Jones, Robin Phillips).
A regular oratorio soloist, Ms. Raycroft has performed in Handel’s Messiah with the Red Deer Symphony, Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the Augustana University Choirs and Haydn’s Mass with the Edmonton Opera Chorus. She is an avid performer of new music and has had many new works created for her, performing the World Premier of Joseph Lai‘s Four Songs, Opus 15 at the Canada 150 Concert in Muttart Hall.
For three years, Ms. Raycroft performed the role of Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors with the edmonton coOPERAtive. In 2014, she performed in Toy Gun Theatre’s Fringe mega-hit Propylene Glycol, Maltodextrin, Retinol Palmitate and Other Words I don’t Understand Like Love, which also toured throughout Alberta in June and July 2015. She also performed at the Walterdale Theatre in the role of Signora Nacarelli in their 2019 production of The Light in the Piazza and the past three summers at the
Edmonton International Fringe Festivals in Pop Goes the Opera’s productions of Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Il Tabarro and Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury.
She is a regular recital performer and performed many times at the Faculty Recitals at The King’s University. She has also worked with many local choirs and was a member of Pro Coro Canada for over 15 years.
Ms. Raycroft joined the faculty at The King’s University in 2001. She taught voice, diction and vocal pedagogy. She retired in 2023. She was also on faculty at MacEwan University’s Alberta College Conservatory of Music. Ms. Raycroft regularly shares her expertise and knowledge in masterclasses, workshops and through adjudicating festivals throughout Western Canada.
Her students consistently excel at local festivals and have participated in Provincial Festival. Many of her students have won the Northern Alberta Concerto Competition, performing with the Edmonton Youth Orchestra in the Winspear Centre. Her students perform in musical theatre and opera productions, in lead roles as well as chorus members and in comprimario roles. Former students have performed with Edmonton Opera, Calgary Opera, Opera Pacific and the Danish National Opera.
Ms. Raycroft is very involved in the musical community in Alberta. She has been on the boards for the Alberta Registered Music Teachers’ Association (ARMTA) Provincial, ARMTA Edmonton and Opera NUOVA, and is past-president of the National Association of Teachers of Singing North Central Alberta Chapter.
Alain Coulombe
Master Class | January 25, 2027
7:30 - 9:30 p.m. | FAB 1-29
French-Canadian bass, Alain Coulombe, is one of the most prominent singers of his generation, noted as one of the Globe and Mail’s Canadian Opera Singers to Watch in 2022. For 35 years, he has been a mainstay on all major Canadian stages, in opera and concert, while garnering international acclaim from both critics and audiences alike.
Last season, Coulombe returned to l’Opéra de Montréal as Le Spectre du Roi Hamlet in Thomas’ Hamlet, to the Canadian Opera Company as l’Assistant de Descartes in La Reine Garçon and Johann in Werther, as well as making a role debut as Simone in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with the Calgary Opera. He also presented a recital of Reynaldo Hahn’s Mélodies with pianist Johannes Debus at BIGLAKE Festival.
His 2023-24 season featured two world premieres: Messe Solennelle pour une pleine lune d’été by Christian Thomas at le Festival d’opéra de Québec and La Reine Garçon by Michel Marc Bouchard and Julien Bilodeau at l’Opéra de Montréal. He also returned to his signature role of Zuniga in Bizet’s Carmen with l’Orchestre Philarmonique et Choeur des Mélomanes and Vancouver Opera.
Highlights from recent opera seasons include Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival, Der Doktor in Wozzeck at Il Teatro alla Scala, Geronte di Ravoir in Manon Lescaut at De Nationale Opera, Amsterdam, Oroveso in Norma at the Calgary Opera, Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette at l’Opéra de Montréal, as well as Timur in the Vancouver Opera production of Turandot.
Recent concert performances include the world premiere of Paul Frehner’s L.E.X. with Soundstreams, Verdi’s Requiem with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem at the Festival Music And Beyond, Schumann’s Der Rose Pilgerfahrt Op.112 at Le Festival de Musique de Lanaudière and Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ with the National Orchestra of Spain.
On DVD, he is Phinée in the EuroArts production of Lully’s Persée and Masetto in the film Don Giovanni Unmasked by Rhombus Media. On disc, he is Clark Gable in Robin de Raaff’s Waiting for Miss Monroe for Challenge Classics, Sam Jarvis Senior in Harry Somers’ Serinette, and the bass soloist in Somers’ The Death of Enkidu and Chura Churum for Centrediscs Records.
Alain is invited regularly as voice consultant and lecturer by prestigious institutions such as the University of Toronto Voice Studies, the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, l’Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, the Calgary Opera McPhee Artist Development Program, the Glenn Gould School of Music, the Rebanks Family Fellowship Program and le Conservatoire de Musique du Québec.
In 2023, bass Alain Coulombe was a nominee for the Ontario Arts Council’s prestigious Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award for the importance and longevity of his singing career in Canada and abroad.
Julie Harris
Master Class | February 22, 2027
7:30 - 9:30 p.m. | FAB 1-29
Julie Harris (she/her) holds a Master of Music degree from the University of Calgary and an Artist Diploma from the University of Toronto. She also spent a year studying early music at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Julie has appeared with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Toronto Consort, Opera Atelier, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Alberta Baroque (Edmonton) and La Cetra (Vancouver). Upon returning to Calgary in 1999, she founded the Early Music Voices Concert Series. Julie teaches voice at the University of Calgary, and directs a Vocal Ensemble with a focus on early music. She also teaches at Mount Royal University, maintains a private voice studio, and enjoys coaching various local community choirs and high schools.