Johane Ansell, Soprano

Originally from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan soprano Johane Ansell is quickly establishing herself as a versatile performer of both opera and concert repertoire. For the 2011 – 2012 season Johane will be the soprano soloist in Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri, with Kitchener-Waterloo’s Grand Philharmonic Choir, and she will be joining the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra as the soprano soloist in their presentation of Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem. Other concert highlights include the Beethoven Mass in C, the contemporary oratorio No Mortal Business by composer Allan Bevan, and a Christmas concert with Adrianne Pieczonka in Koerner Hall with the Orpheus Choir of Toronto. Johane is thrilled to be performing the role of Pamina with the Maritime Concert Opera in their production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte in the spring of 2012 and is very much looking forward to returning to the Aradia Baroque Ensemble for their upcoming season. 

This year Ms. Ansell was invited to join the Highlands Opera Studio Young Artist Program in Haliburton, Ontario where she performed the role of Mrs Gobineau in Menotti’s opera The Medium as well as covered the role of Nanetta in Verdi’s Falstaff. She travelled to Aldeburgh, England, with the generous support of the Canadian Aldeburgh Association, to be a soloist in the Bach St. John Passion with renowned tenor Mark Padmore and performed Gabriel and Eva in Haydn’s Die Schöpfung with the Choeur Polyphonique de Charlevoix, in Québec. As a Sidgwick Scholar with the Orpheus Choir of Toronto she was a feature soloist in the premieres of Ēriks Ešenvalds’ oratorio Passion and Resurrection, Howard Goodall’s Eternal Light: a Requiem, and Imant Raminsh’s oratorio Quaternity: A Cantata for Seasons, all under the direction of Robert Cooper. Recently Ms. Ansell appeared in recital with Stephen Ralls and Bruce Ubukata as part of the Aldeburgh Connection’s Discovery Series in Toronto and was a finalist in the Classical Music Consort Handel Competition, winning the Audience Favorite award. 

Other opera credits include Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring) Laurie (The Tender Land), Clorinda (Cenerentola), Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare), and Alcina (Alcina) . In concert, Ms. Ansell has appeared as the soloist in Mozart’s Requiem, Vesperae Solennes, Vivaldi’s Magnificat, the Fauré Requiem, Bruckner Te Deum, Haydn’s Creation, Charpentier’s Messe à Huit Voix and Messe des Morts, Esther in Handel’s oratorio Esther, and Barmherzigkeit in Mozart’s oratorio Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots.