Giuseppe Pietraroia, conductor

Canadian conductor Giuseppe Pietraroia has earned a national reputation for his versatility, musicality, and leadership across both orchestral and operatic stages. Based in British Columbia, he is the Principal Conductor of Pacific Opera Victoria, where he has held leadership roles since 2003. He previously served as Associate Conductor with both Pacific Opera and the Victoria Symphony, and was Music Director of the Victoria Choral Society from 2005 to 2012.

With a career spanning over two decades, Pietraroia has conducted a wide range of repertoire, from main series, pops, and contemporary programs to full opera productions and education concerts. He has appeared as a guest conductor with leading Canadian ensembles including the Toronto Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Orchestre Métropolitain, and most recently, the Regina Symphony Orchestra.

A champion of collaboration and artistic growth, Pietraroia has been deeply involved in programming, auditions, and community outreach initiatives. He has also contributed to music education through teaching roles at the University of Victoria, McGill University, and Plattsburgh State University of New York.

He holds a Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting from McGill University and is the recipient of the Jean-Marie Beaudet Award in Conducting from the Canada Council for the Arts and a Félix Award for Classical Album of the Year with Marie-Josée Lord and l’Orchestre Métropolitain.

Yulia Van Doren, soprano

Yulia Van Doren has thoughtfully cultivated a career as one of the foremost concert singers of her generation and has been a guest artist at a majority of the premiere North American orchestras and festivals.

Performance highlights include the world premiere of Shostakovich’s Orango with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, directed by Peter Sellars and released on Deutsche Grammophon; the modern revival of Monsigny’s Le roi et le fermier at Opera de Versailles, the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center; Alessandro Scarlatti’s Tigrane at Opera de Nice; Handel’s Acis and Galatea in Macau with Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and at the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam; eclectic 20th-century repertoire as the featured soprano of the 2013 Ojai Music Festival; several world premieres at Carnegie Hall; and nationally-televised performances at the Cartagena International Music Festival with soprano Dawn Upshaw. Since 2007 she has sung many national and international performances with the Mark Morris Dance Company.

Ms. Van Doren’s graduate degree was supported by a PD Soros Fellowship, postgraduate study in Paris by a Beebe Fellowship, and she is an Astral Artist laureate. Yulia is also the founder of a holistic wellness brand, and author of three award-winning international bestsellers, with over a quarter-million copies sold in eight translations.

Nicholas Burns, countertenor

From Vancouver, Canada, countertenor Nicholas Burns has been described as possessing a “thrilling voice” that “caresses the ear with its velvet” and past performances have been described as a “revelation” (Olyrix, le Devoir, Opera Canada). Recent performances include those with Les Arts Florissant, L’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Tafelmusik, and the Early Music Vancouver. He has also appeared with the American Bach Soloists, BachFest Leipzig, JSB Ensemble Stuttgart, Early Music Vancouver, Arion Baroque Orchestra, Opera San Miguel de Allende, The Theatre of Early Music, Vancouver Opera, I Musici, and L’Harmonie des saisons. Upcoming performances include engagements with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Opera Sofia, Arion Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik, and the Montréal Bach Festival.

In 2023 Nicholas was a winner of the New York Oratorio Society competition at Carnegie Hall, Les Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques, the Vancouver International Music Competition, and Edmonton Opera’s Rumbold Vocal Prize.

Nicholas has performed Cesare in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Bertarido in Rodelinda, Polinesso in Ariodante, and Lichas in Hercules. He also gave the world premiere of the opera L’Orangeraie by French composer Zad Moultaka.

Thomas Hobbs, tenor

Thomas Hobbs is one of the most interesting and significant Bach tenors and is in high demand with leading baroque and early music ensembles across the world. Highlights of Hobbs’ 2024/25 season include Bach St Matthew Passion for RIAS Kammerchor and the South Netherlands Philharmonic, concerts with ensembles including Le Banquet Celeste, Gli Angeli Geneve and Les Arts Florissants, performing works including Bach Cantatas and Handel Messiah and Resurrezione. Recent key engagements have included two tours across Europe with the Netherlands Bach Society as the tenor soloist in Bach Magnificat and as the Evangelist in Bach St Matthew Passion. Hobbs’ ever-expanding discography includes Bach Trinitas with Le Banquet Céleste, Mass in B Minor with both CVG and Dunedin Consort, Bach Motets, Leipzig cantatas and Christmas Oratorio with CVG, Christmas Oratorio with Dunedin Consort, Bach Weimar Cantatas with Alia Mens, Handel Acis et Galatea and Esther with Dunedin Consort and Beethoven Mass in C with Stuttgart Kammerchor. His recordings of Handel Chandos Anthems with Stephen Layton and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Mozart Requiem with John Butt and the Dunedin Consort have been universally praised, with the latter receiving the 2014 Gramophone Award for best Choral recording.

Jonathan Woody, bass-baritone

Jonathan Woody is a versatile and dynamic musician who maintains an active schedule as a performer and composer in New York and across North America. Cited by the Washington Post for singing “with resonance and clarity,” Woody is in demand as a bass-baritone soloist, appearing regularly with historically informed orchestras including Boston Early Music Festival, Apollo’s Fire, Pacific MusicWorks, Bach Collegium San Diego, Trinity Baroque Orchestra and New York Baroque Incorporated. In the 2021-2022 season, he served as Artistic Advisor for the Portland Baroque Orchestra, curating a program of 17th-century German music for voices and orchestra.

An accomplished chamber musician, Woody often performs as a member of the GRAMMY®-nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street. He has also recently performed in collaboration with Kaleidoscope Ensemble, Les Délices, Seraphic Fire, Byron Schenkman and Friends, and TENET Vocal Artists.

As a sought-after new music proponent, Jonathan has participated in premiere performances of several leading composers’ works, including Ted Hearne’s The Source (2014), Ellen Reid’s p r i s m (2019 Pulitzer Prize-winner), Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves (NYC premiere, 2018), and Du Yun’s Angel’s Bone (2017 Pulitzer Prize-winner).

Victoria Children’s Choir

Founded in 2001 by Madeleine Humer, The Victoria Children’s Choir is a leader in choral music on Canada’s West Coast.  Under the direction of Artistic Director, David Stratkauskas and an outstanding team, our choristers are exposed to the highest standards of music education, encompassing vocal technique, musicianship and performance opportunities, for a full immersion in the transformative world of choral music.

In a unique and supportive environment, 150 choristers aged 7–20 from throughout Greater Victoria study and perform an array of contemporary and classical repertoire from around the world.  The choir tours internationally, and has long enjoyed collaborative relationships with renowned musicians, including the Victoria Symphony, Pacific Opera Victoria, Victoria Jazz Society, and Victoria Baroque.

Christ Church Cathedral Young Choristers

For 150 years, Christ Church Cathedral has been a centre of sacred choral and instrumental music, ranking among Victoria’s most important musical institutions. The Young Chorister Program, founded in 2017 through a partnership between Christ Church Cathedral and The Cathedral School, is the only school-based, fully immersive Anglican Cathedral Chorister program of its kind in Canada.

The Young Choristers regularly sing with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra and the Victoria Symphony in addition to their regular round of weekly services. The singers, all of whom receive a scholarship to attend the Cathedral School, rehearse four mornings a week during school term. Choristers begin their journey in grade 4 and develop through the program until graduation in grade 8. This immersive program is made possible through the generosity of NRS Fund and the St Cecilia Fund at the Victoria Foundation, the Christ Church Cathedral Music Endowment Fund (Victoria Foundation), and the support of many individual donors.

In 2023, they were honoured to sing in Westminster Abbey, London and St George’s Chapel, Windsor. They are currently looking forward to a tour to San Francisco (summer 2025) and further international tours.

Vox Humana Chamber Choir and Friends

Vox Humana (Latin for human voice) was founded by organist and choral conductor Sarah MacDonald, now a Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Director of Music of the choir there. Starting as a project choir in the 1990s, Vox Humana has developed under the subsequent leadership of Garth MacPhee, Wendy McMillan, Brian Wismath, and David Stratkauskas, who was appointed Artistic Director in February 2022.

Vox Humana has gone from a relatively small group of no more than sixteen voices singing a cappella repertoire to a group of approximately twenty-four singers that frequently collaborates with soloists, small instrumental ensembles, other choirs, and orchestras; since 2004 they have been frequent guests of the Victoria Symphony. New music has taken a central place in Vox’s repertoire, with frequent commissions and an emphasis on Canadian composers, as well as works not yet heard in Canada.

Currently, Vox produces several programmes per season; two of these have become popular annual traditions. Vox in the Stars takes place in the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Saanich, BC. The other is a dramatic reading of Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales, in a concert of seasonal music, along with new carols and arrangements from local composers.