| Patrick Young | Ashiq Aziz | Sara-Anne Churchill |
| Thomas Macleay | Rosie Coad | John Bacon | David Roth |

Patrick Young Director

Patrick Young is a theatre artist who creates evocative, visual spectacles for the stage. Born in Toronto, he studied Literature at Columbia University in New York and has lived and worked in the United States and South Africa. In the US, he has assisted directors regionally and Off-Broadway. His own work, which has been described positively by TimeOut New York as an “aggressively weird goulash,” is both multi-media and multi-disciplinary, often combining live music, dance, video, images and text. Past projects include Champ: A Space Opera created with the Brooklyn-based band Champollion and choreographed by Mark Morris dancer John Heginbotham, which was presented at the New York International Fringe Festival. Also, Love|Suicide, a short piece adapted from a 17th century Japanese bunraku play, which was presented at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York. Patrick is very interested in opera as a performance medium. He is delighted to be working with Ashiq Aziz and the Classical Music Consort and to be directing Acis and Galatea in his hometown.

Ashiq Aziz Conductor, Music Director

Ashiq Aziz, founder and artistic director of the Classical Music Consort in Toronto, and the Royal College of Music Bach Consort in London, has concentrated his efforts in producing thought-provoking historically-informed performances of music from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

FULL BIO HERE >>

Sara-Anne Churchill Assistant to Music Director

A recipient of the Montreal Baroque Prize for audaciousness and musicality (2007), Sara-Anne Churchill currently studies harpsichord with Charlotte Nediger and Olivier Fortin and is enrolled in the Doctorate of Musical Arts in Harpsichord Performance at the University of Toronto. One of the first graduates of the new Advanced Certificate in Performance-Baroque Option, jointly offered by the University of Toronto and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Sara-Anne was featured in a solo harpsichord concerto with Tafelmusik last March. She has also presented concerts at the Southeast Historical Keyboard Society Conclave, the London Early Music Festival, the Toronto Early Music Center’s Musically Speaking series, and the Concerts at Cronyn series. She has participated in several workshops, including the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute and the Accademia d’Amore, a baroque opera workshop based in Seattle, as well as master classes with Skip Sempé, Richard Egarr, Carole Cerasi, Luc Beauséjour, and Geneviève Soly. It was while completing a Bachelor of Arts in Music at the University of Western Ontario that Sara developed an intense interest in early music and historical keyboards and studied harpsichord with Sandra Mangsen. Her interest in early instruments and performance practice led Sara to enrol in the Masters of Arts in Musicology at UWO, which she completed in June 2006.  Her thesis research consisted of a translation and commentary of a French baroque harpsichord continuo treatise. An article based on her thesis was recently published in Performance Practice Review. Sara-Anne’s current research focuses on instrumental transcriptions of Handel opera arias.

Thomas Macleay Acis

Thomas Macleay studied music and drama at the University of Alberta, McGill, the CNIPAL in Marseille and the Banff Centre. He is currently a member of Montreal Opera’s Atelier lyrique.  

Thomas recently performed Guy Flores in L’auberge du cheval blanc with Société d’Art Lyrique du Royaume and Pelléas in Variations sur Pelléas with the Atelier Lyrique. Last summer he sang Michael in Frobisher at the Banff Centre and Azaëlin L’enfant prodigue with IVAI Canada. He has appeared in many Montreal Opera productions including Norma, Aïda,  Turn of the Screw, Il Tabarro, Il Mondo della Luna, L’heureespagnole and Lakmé. He recently made his Edmonton Opera debut as Remendado in Carmen. He also sang the Young Sailor in Tristan und Isolde with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under Kent Nagano. Other conductors with whom he has collaborated include Jean-Marie Zeitouni, Bernard Labadie, Paul Nadler, Alexander Platt, Patric Davin, Dominique Trottein, François-Xavier Bilger, and Evelino Pido. His concert repertoire includes Messiah, Elijah, Haydn’s The Seasons and Mozart’s Requiem. Upcoming performances include, Fanciulla del West with Montreal Opera, and La Traviata with Edmonton Opera. 

Rosie Coad Galatea

Rosie Coad is in her fourth year as a scholar at the Royal College of Music, currently studying with Ashley Stafford. She has performed in several masterclasses, working with Sarah Walker, Jane Manning, James Oxley,  Stephen Varcoe, Peter Harvey, Marc Bordeaux and Michael Chance. As well as performing choral works with London Voices, Rosie’s solo work includes the Monteverdi Christmas Vespers and Vespro della Beata Virgine and Handel’s Dixit Dominus. Her operatic roles include Marie Antoinette (Roger Waters’ Ca Ira), Fausta (Scarlatti’s Marco Attilio Regolo) and the title role in Hasse’s Siroe. In 2006, Rosie won the Discretionary Thelma King Award in Bath. Rosie’s recital performances often include contemporary works, most recently Thomas Ades’ Life Story for The Contemporary Consort. Rosie’s future plans include a performance of Berg’s Sieben Fruhe Lieder for the Chelsea Schubert festival.

John Bacon Damon

Originally from Vancouver, John now resides in London, England where he is in high demand as a concert and recital soloist. His performances have taken him to France, Germany, Italy and throughout the United Kingdom. Recent highlights include Handel’s Israel in Egypt, Haydn’s Creation, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and a several recitals in and around London. No stranger to Opera, Mr. Bacon has performed a number of roles ranging from traditional to modern. His most recent roles include Horace in La Colombe, Gardefeu in La Vie Parisienne, Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Tito in La Clemenza di Tito by Mozart. Thanks to the generous support of the Worshipful Company of Saddlers and the Canadian COB Foundation, he is a pupil of Prof. Rudolf Piernay and has just completed the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. While at the Guildhall, John won the English Song Competition, was one of ten singers chosen to perform the complete songs Faure with Graham Johnson, and was fortunate to work with Martin Katz, Malcolm Martineau, Iain Burnside and Eugene Asti. John also carries a degree from the University of British Columbia and has appeared on CBC radio including a recital for CBC Radio Two as one of the winners of the Debut Series for Young Performers. Future engagements include Acis and Galatea, Don Giovanni, Bach’s B minor Mass and the complete Canticles by Britten. 

David Roth Polyphemus

David Roth has just completed his fourth year of voice performance at the University of Toronto in the studio of Patricia Kern. David has an extensive background in performance of both solo and chamber repertoire and has performed in Canada, the United States and Great Britain.