Erin Bardua, soprano, is a frequent soloist, voice teacher, and stage director. Her artistic practice encompasses new compositions, early music, and the work of historically excluded and underrepresented creators, in a range of styles from Western classical to commercial.
When teaching, adjudicating, or directing, Erin’s primary goal is to help artists use their voice as singers, communicators, and humans with autonomy and agency in their creative work. Her approach is student-led and evidence-based, emphasizing consent, inclusion, and accessibility in rehearsal and performance. She loves finding the story within the story, the one performers are most excited to tell and audiences are most eager to experience.
She co-founded Essential Opera with Maureen Batt in 2010. The collective has produced several short opera films, and released two EPs on the Leaf Music label (including JUNO and ECMA nominated Etiquette by Monica Pearce). Other films include Mirror mirror by Anna Pidgorna, also available as an EP; and December by Monica Pearce, a queer holiday romance. Essential Opera is currently developing In Her Hands: The Tragedy of Lady Macbeth with composer Fiona Ryan.
Bardua has been on faculty at Mount Allison University, Halifax Summer Opera Festival, COSA Summer Vocal Intensive, and Victoria Baroque Intensive. She is a frequent vocal adjudicator for festivals and competitions, and a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
In concert, Ms. Bardua has performed with the Talisker Players, Nota Bene Baroque, Pax Christi Chorale, Toronto Sinfonietta, Oshawa-Durham Chorus, Arcady Baroque Ensemble, St. James Cathedral Choir, Capella Intima, London Pro Musica, the Menno Singers, Victoria Baroque, Salt Spring Island Baroque, Early Music Society of the Islands, and Sackville Early Music Festival. Her repertoire includes Handel’s Messiah, Esther and Judas Maccabaeus, Zelenka’s Missa Omnium Sanctorum, Haydn’s Creation, Mozart’s Requiem and Vesperae solennes de confessore, Bach’s Magnificat and Passions, Vaughan Williams’ Hodie, and Vivaldi’s Gloria.
Onstage, her operatic roles have included Alcina (Handel), numerous Mozart such as Pamina (The Magic Flute), Countess (The Marriage of Figaro) and Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Antonia and Giulietta (The Tales of Hoffmann), and Nannetta (Falstaff). Erin has also workshopped or premiered leading roles in several new operas, including Frankenstein by Andrew Ager, Regina by Elisha Denburg, and Heather: Cindy + Mindy = BFFs 4EVER by Christopher Thornborrow.
