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Yves Abel, conductor
The Franco-Canadian, Toronto-born conductor has been principal conductor at San Diego Opera since 2020 where this season he will lead Leoncovallo’s Pagliacci (Oct. 31-Nov. 2) and Rossini’s Barber of Seville (Feb. 13-15). From Feb. 21-March 3 he’ll conduct Carmen at Vienna State Opera, while Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust takes him to Opernhaus Zürich (May 10-17). He will be at London’s Royal Ballet and Opera for Donizetti’s La fille du régiment from July 7-24. www.yvesabel.com
Ambur Braid, soprano
The soprano’s 2025-26 season begins in Italy on Sept. 5 for Canadian composer Samy Moussa’s Ahania’s Lament with Orchestra Sinfonico di Milano. Braid will sing what is now becoming a signature role, Salome, at Staatsoper Hamburg on Oct. 5. She reprises her role in Tobias Kratzer’s production of Rudi Stephan’s Der Ersten Menschen at Oper Frankfurt (Nov. 16-Dec. 12). Next, she debuts the titular role in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in a new Barrie Kosky production at Komische Oper Berlin (Jan. 31-March 14). Braid works with Kratzer again as Bianca in a new production of Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy at Oper Hamburg (April 12-May 22). www.amburbraid.com
Robert Carsen, opera director
The internationally-renowned opera director’s productions will be staged throughout Europe this season. A select list includes Ariodante at Opéra national de Paris (Sept. 16-Oct. 12), Tosca at Opernhaus Zürich with Sonya Yoncheva, Jonas Kaufmann and Bryn Terfel (Sept. 28-Oct. 19), Così fan tutte at Teatro alla Scala with fellow Canadian Gerald Finley as Don Alfonso (Nov. 5-26), La traviata at Teatro La Fenice (Feb. 8-17), Dialogues des Carmélites at Teatro Regio di Torino with Canadian baritone Jean-François Lapointe as the Marquis de la Force (March 31-April 12), Arabella at Opernhaus Zürich (April 14-28) and Idomeneo at Royal Danish Opera (May 9-June 6).
Timothy Chooi, violinist
Photo: Den Sweeney
Victoria-born violinist Timothy Chooi now teaches at the University of Ottawa, but enjoys a busy international touring career. He’ll be in Veytaux, Switzerland, for a recital on Sept. 4, with further September recitals in Kobe, Yamagata and Tokyo, Japan. February finds Chooi on tour with the Prague Radio Symphony in Munich, Innsbruck, Linz, Paris, Prague, Antwerp and Eindhoven, Netherlands. In March, he tours Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Wiener Concert-Verein to Vienna, Grenoble and Aix-en-Provence. June takes Chooi to Magdeburg, Germany, to play Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy. www.timothychooi.com
Emily D’Angelo, mezzo-soprano
Photo: Mark Pillai
One of Canada’s singers with the busiest international concert and opera schedule this season, the mezzo-soprano sings a recital in Riga, Latvia, on Sept. 6, and then Mahler symphonies in two Spanish cities: the Resurrection in Seville (Sept. 11 & 12) and the Symphony #3 in Granada (Oct. 17 & 18). A new production of Handel’s Ariodante takes D’Angelo to the Royal Ballet and Opera from Dec. 9-21. Next, she’s at the Vienna State Opera from March 9-27 for a new production of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito. She sings Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius with the London Symphony Orchestra on April 19 and 21. D’Angelo goes to Baden-Baden for Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier on May 17. www.emilydangelo.com
Sarah Dufresne, soprano
The young Canadian soprano had a busy late-summer season, inclu-
ding several overseas engagements. She was in Munich late July as Semele in Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae. One of Dufresne’s champions has been legendary conductor Sir Antonio Pappano under whose baton she sang in August at the BBC Proms in a concert of Puccini and Strauss, and as Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica at the Edinburgh Festival. December takes Dufresne to Tiroler Festspiele Erl in Austria as Lisa in La sonnambula. Later in the season, she sings the Woodbird in Siegfried at London’s Royal Ballet and Opera (March 17-April 6) and is Frasquita in Carmen at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala (June 8-27). www.sarahdufresne.com
Bruce Liu, pianist
Pianist Bruce Liu’s 2025-26 season takes him throughout Asia, Europe and the U.S. He’ll play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester under Vladimir Jurowski in Tokyo (Sept. 26) and Kawasaki, Japan (Sept. 27). Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 5 takes him to Texas with Fabio Luisi and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (Oct. 9-12). The Mozart concerto returns, this time with Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden under Daniele Gatti for concerts in China in Beijing (Nov. 2), Shanghai (Nov. 5) and Guangzhou (Nov. 9). November also finds Liu in Germany for recitals in Berlin (Nov. 24) and Krün (Nov. 27 & 29). In the new year, he gives a recital at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Italy on March 28. www.bruce-liu.com
Louis Lortie, pianist
The Montreal-born pianist has a busy season ahead, beginning in Italy this fall. At the Livorno Music Festival and Music Academy he’ll lead master classes on Aug. 29 and Sept. 4 and then play Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Orchestra Conservatorio Mascagni (Sept. 6). On Sept. 7 he’ll give a Chopin recital in Aosta and then give Beethoven master classes at the Kempff Academy in Positano (Sept. 8 & 15). Next come several French engagements with the Orchestre National de Bretagne under another Canadian, Nicolas Ellis, in Rennes (Sept. 18 & 19) and Flers (Sept. 20). Lortie plays with the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth Ensemble on Nov. 8 and then gives a recital in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Nov. 11. He finishes the year with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in Shanghai (Dec. 21) and Guangzhou on Christmas Day. www.louislortie.com
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