Canadian soprano, Heather Newhouse, studied with Kevin McMillan at the University of Western Ontario, Canada where she completed a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance with honours and received the gold medal. In 2006, she completed a Master of Music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. In 2006, she moved to France to pursue further training at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse de Lyon where she studied with Brain Parsons. She has since continued to study voice with Cécile De Boever and Susan McCulloch.
In 2010, she participated in the summer academy at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. In 2012 she was awarded First Prize at the Concours international de chant baroque in Froville and Second Prize at the Concours international de Mâcon.
From 2011 to 2013 she was a member of the Opera Studio at the Opéra National de Lyon, working closely with Jean-Paul Fouchécourt. She performed there Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) and Governess (Britten's The turn of the screw), among others. Meanwhile, she has also performed in numerous productions: Die Zauberflöte (Pamina) with Stefano Montanari, Parsifal (Blumenmädchen) and The Turn of the Screw (Governess) with Kazushi Ono.
Following the opera studio, Heather pursues an international career, in operatic and concert repertoire. She has performed: Mozart's Der Schauspieldirektor (Mlle Silberklang) with Leonardo Garcia Alarcon and the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, Britten´s The Turn of the Screw (Governess) with the late Patrick Davin at the Opéra du Rhin. L´Europe galante (Céphise) by Campra with Les Nouveaux Caractères, directed by Sébastien d´Hérin at the Royal Opera in Versailles, Berio Folk-Songs with Patrick Davin at the Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse, Quatre Jeunes Filles by Edison Denisov with Daniel Kawka at the festival Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo. In Canada, she sang Mozart´s Requiem with l´Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal conducted by Hervé Niquet. She sang Monteverdi´s Vespro della Beata Vergine with Ensemble Aedes (Mathieu Romani) conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado at the Melk Abbey in Austria, Charpentier´s Litanies de la Vierge with Ensemble Correspondances, Sébastien Daucé. She returned to Montréal to sing with Arion Baroque, Mathieu Lussier, for a recital of French women Baroque composers and Rameau arias. She sang Grieg´s Peer Gynt (village girl) with Elena Schwarz at the Opéra de Lyon.
Heather works closely with two Baroque ensembles: Ausonia and Le Concert de l´Hostel Dieu. Ensemble Ausonia, musical director Frédérick Haas, has invited Heather for productions such as: Bach - Kapellmeister & Cantor, a concert of excerpts from Hippolyte et Aricie by Rameau, a co-production with Les Festivals de Wallonies Combattimiento - a concert that features Monteverdi´s great madrigal as well as Tomoe, a new composition by Claude Ledoux. This innovative production toured in Belgium with their most recent performance at Bozar theater in Bruxelles. Le Concert de l´Hostel Dieu, musical direction Franck-Emmanuel Comte, has collaborated with Heather for productions such as: Pergolesi´s Stabat Mater, a Mozart solo recital given at the prestigious Lyon Amphithéâtre, La Donna Barocca a recital programme dedicated to Italian women Baroque composers, and Folia premiered in 2018 for festival Nuits de Fourvière in Lyon. Folia is a dance creation by Mourad Merzouki, a fusion of Baroque music and hip-hop dance in which she sings neapolitan folksongs and Vivaldi areas with a very engaging staging for the singer. With already 100 shows performed, Folia has toured in many prestigous European theaters: Le 13ème Art in Paris, Zénith de Limoges - Festival 1001 notes, Theaterhaus Stuttgart - Coloris International Dance Festival, the Corum Opera in Montpellier, the Opéra Grand Avignon, Moscow International Theatre Festival, Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Vaison-la-Romaine amphitheater.
Recently, she has performed in the ongoing tour of Folia by Mourad Merzouki, notably at Saint Étienne Opera, in a duo recital with mezzo-soprano Anthea Pichanick and collaborative pianist Justine Eckhaut at the Montpellier Opera (Britten arrangements of Purcell songs and Folksongs), in Mahler´s 4th Symphony conducted by Eric Genest and has created a programme based on Bach cantatas together with the violonist Emmanuelle Dauvin.
September 2023
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