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Adanya Dunn

Adanya Dunn

2021 Alumni Enterprise Award winner
mezzo-soprano ('14, '15)

Project: InsideOut: Pop-Up Concerts & Walking Concert Tour (Red Light Arts & Culture)
Inside and outdoor, socially distanced concerts, following a range of COVID protocols in Amsterdam’s Red Light District.

Canadian-Bulgarian mezzo-soprano Adanya Dunn (she/her) is the 2020-21 recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation Developing Artist Grant and a District Winner of the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She is also a three-time grant recipient from the Canada Council for the Arts. Adanya was named by the CBC as one of Canada’s “Top 30 Hot Classical Musicians Under 30” and was featured in The Globe & Mail as one of six Canadian women who are “turning opera on its head and making the future bright for the art form.” Currently based in Amsterdam, Adanya studies with Don Marrazzo and coaches with Nathalie Doucet.

A versatile performer, her 2019-20 season highlights included Mozart’s Così fan tutte as Dorabella with the Bergen Symphony Orkest, Sesto in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito with the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Berio’s Sequenza III at Belgium’s Festival 20/21 with the New European Ensemble, and various concerts in Amsterdam’s Dutch National Opera and Het Concertgebouw.

In the upcoming 2020-21 season, Adanya debuts at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in December 2020 in the Jonge Grote Zangers series in an in-person and livestreamed recital from the Grote Zaal with baritone Rolfe Dauz and pianist Nathalie Doucet. Adanya also performs an opening recital in the Grote Zangers series and performs a concert tour in the Netherlands with Irish pianist Seán Morgan-Rooney in their POPARTSONG Duo, showcasing popular and art music styles through original compositions and arrangements.

Adanya is an alumna of Dawn Upshaw’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, the Music Academy of West, the Rebanks Family Fellowship & International Residency at the Glenn Gould School, the University of Toronto, and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

Born and raised in Toronto, she was a resident performer with the interdisciplinary arts collective FAWN Chamber Creative and was the Co-Founder of the innovative chamber music series The Happenstancers. Adanya has performed with companies such as Against the Grain Theatre, Soundstreams, the Luminato Festival, Tapestry Opera, and the Canadian Music Centre. Through consistent collaboration with composers, librettists, and collectives.

Adanya’s diverse musical interests has led her to pursue musical activities in various roles such as Co-Founder of Red Light Arts & Culture, the vocalist in the poly-genre electronic project #operEMIX, and Artistic Director of a new project Rosebud Opera: Queering the Opera Narrative.