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Anna Boyes has been the winner of the London Music Scholarship Foundation; twice the recipient of the Mariana Paunova and Stefano Algieri Scholarship in Voice and Gaelyne Gabora Memorial Prize from McGill University; the Marianne Turner Memorial Scholarship from Durham Philharmonic Choir and a National Finalist in the Canadian Music Competition.  Her opera, operetta and oratorio credits include Mascha (The Chocolate Soldier) and Nita (Los Gavilanes) with Toronto Operetta Theatre; the title role of Alcina with Accademia Europea dell’Opera in Lucca Italy; Mabel (The Pirates of Penzance); Erste Dame (Die Zauberflote); Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare); Janthe (Der Vampyr); Lieschen (Coffee Cantata); and a soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah and in Bach’s Christ Lag Todesbanden. Anna holds a Masters of Music from Western University and a Bachelor of Music from McGill University. She was recently part of the Stratford Summer Music’s Vocal Academy and is excited to be part of Arcady’s Emerging Artist program this upcoming year.

Sasha Bult-Ito, pianist
Alaskan pianist Sasha Bult-Ito has appeared as soloist with orchestras in both the United States and Europe. She made her orchestral solo debut with the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra at age seven after winning the Fairbanks Symphony Concerto Competition. Most recently, Sasha performed in Koerner Hall as a finalist of the Glenn Gould School Concerto Competition. Recent performances include Dohnányi and Vasks Piano Quartets and Chausson Piano Trio at the Scotia Festival of Music, Beethoven Sonata Op. 81a at the Southeastern Piano Festival, Schumann Sonata in F-sharp minor at the John Perry Academy Summer Piano Festival, and Saint-Saëns Concerto No. 2 with the Brunensis Virtuosi Orchestra under the baton of Danwen Wei at MusicFest Perugia in Italy.  Apart from her love of the piano’s vast solo repertoire, Sasha has an immense interest in chamber music. The Ezra Duo, founded with violist Jacob Clewell, are first-prize winners of the Golden Classical Music Awards, Grand Prize Virtuoso, The Great Composers Competition: Art of Chamber MusicandThe Music of America, and IMKA Music Competitions, earning invitations to perform in New York, Vienna, and Sarajevo. The duo has performed in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York, Toronto’s Koerner and Mazzoleni Halls, the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto, and Sir James Dunn Theatre in Halifax. Most recently, they participated in the Città di Pinerolo e Torino – Città Metropolitana International Chamber Music Competition in Italy in March of 2018.  Sasha is currently studying under the direction of John Perry and David Louie at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where she is a full scholarship recipient.

Michaela Chiste, poet/soprano/dancer
Michaela Chiste is a young soprano hailing from Okotoks, Alberta. Originally trained as a stage actor, she spent most of her life studying and performing in the dramatic arts and musical theatre before crossing over to the world of classical singing in 2013. She studied vocal performance under the tutelage of John Tessier and completed her Bachelor of Music at the University of Alberta in 2017. She has performed as a concert soloist and recitalist both internationally and across Canada. As a choral soloist, she has served as a featured soprano soloist in works such as Benjamin Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb and A Ceremony of Carols, and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Her most notable work as a chamber musician is her premiering of The Dream, a cantata for soprano and pianoforte by Anders Muskins at the Alberta Mozart Festival in 2016.  Some of her career highlights so far include singing the roles of Frasquita (Carmen), Emmie (Albert Herring), Mimi (City Workers in Love), The Dormouse (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), Mimi (City Workers in Love), Jennie Hildebrand (Street Scene), Gustave (Pomme d’Api ), and The Boy (Der Jasager).

Violist Jacob Clewell stands in the vanguard of musicians of his generation. Gold Medalist of the 2017 Vancouver International Music Competition, his recent performances include solo and chamber appearances at the Scotia and Green Lake music festivals, as a fellow at Music by the Sea in Bamfield, BC, at the Festival Pablo Casals in Prades, France, and frequent recitals in Canada, England, and the United States. He has served as principal violist of the Royal Conservatory Orchestra under maestros Gabor Takacs-Nagy and Bramwell Tovey, and at the Eastern and Marrowstone music festivals under maestro Gerard Schwarz.  As a member of The Ezra Duo, together with pianist Sasha Bult-Ito, he has performed throughout Ontario, most notably in Toronto’s Koerner Hall. During the 2017-18 season they made their first appearance in New York City’s Carnegie Hall, and competed in the prestigious Pinerolo e Torino – Città Metropolitana competition in Italy. In May 2018 he made his first solo appearance in Chicago’s Symphony Center, appearing on the VIMC winners’ tour with works by Henri Vieuxtemps. Highlights for the 2018-19 season include solo recitals in Vancouver and Santa Fe, The Ezra Duo’s “Women in Music” tour to Georgia, Tennessee, New Mexico, and Ontario, and the premier of Paint : Music, a long-term collaboration with painter Karen Mosbacher.  Jacob holds degrees from the Cornish College of the Arts and Stony Brook University, and in May 2018 received his Artist Diploma from The Glenn Gould School. His principal teachers have been Mara Gearman, Nicholas Cords, Lawrence Dutton, and Steven Dann, with additional study in Europe with Yuko Inoue, Roger Chase, and Nobuko Imai.

Angela Gibbon is a full lyric soprano in the second year of her Master’s of Vocal Literature and Performance at Western, studying with Brian McIntosh. In June 2018, Angela performed the role of Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte with Long Reach Opera, directed by Anne-Marie Donovan. Angela was also a soloist in excerpts from Mozart’s Requiem with the Richmond Hill Philharmonic Orchestra in June. In July of 2018, Angela participated in the Saarburg Festival in Saarburg, Germany, where she sang the role of Gladys in an English adaptation of Edmund Eysler’s Blue Paradise. Angela performed the role of Micaëla in the Western University Opera Workshop’s production of Bizet’s Carmen in November 2017. Angela sang the role of Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni in July 2017 at the Accademia Europea Dell’Opera in Lucca, Italy. This year, Angela will be a member of the Contemporary Music Studio at Western, directed by John Hess and Dárine Ní Mheadhra. Angela is very much looking forward to working with Arcady this season in their Emerging Artist Program.

 Zachary Rioux, tenor
“Praised by Ludwig van Toronto as “A Show-Stopping Tenor” and “…reminiscent of a young Alfredo Kraus.” 21-year-old lyric tenor Zachary Rioux participated in the Brott Music Festival in July of 2018 performing the role of Tamino in their production of The Magic Flute under the baton of Maestro Boris Brott. He had debuted this role with Toronto City Opera in March of 2018 under the direction of Erik Thor, Jennifer Tung, and Ivan Jovanovic. Mr. Rioux is entering his final year of undergraduate studies at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music, studying with Joel Katz and Jennifer Tung. He spent June of 2017 at SongFest on scholarship, where he worked with Graham Johnson, Bill McGraw, Sanford Sylvan, and many other renowned teachers and coaches from across North America. In 2013, he participated in the Orford Arts Academy at the age of sixteen. His other operatic experience includes productions of Bizet’s Carmen with the Mississauga and York Symphony Orchestras, Handel’s Alcina and Strauss’ Die Fledermaus with the Glenn Gould School, and Mozart’s Lucio Silla and The Marriage of Figaro with Opera Atelier. Last season he performed as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, in their Last Night of the Proms concert, and again as a soloist for the York Symphony Orchestra’s A Night at the Opera concert – all under the baton of Maestro Denis Mastromonaco. In the summer of 2018, Zachary also performed a version of Bach’s Coffee Cantata – revised to the Cappuccino Cantata by Peter Tiefenbach at the Stratford Summer Music Festival and the Indian River Festival.”

Savanna Sokolnicki, soprano

Originally from Toronto, and now an adjunct professor at Belmont University in Nashville Tennessee, soprano Savanna Sokolnicki has many credits to her performing career, including most recently, the role of Mrs. Peachum in Threepenny Opera (Street Theatre Company) and her premier with the York Symphony Orchestra on their 2017 Holiday Concert Series. Other performances include the role of Carlotta in Phantom of the Opera (UK Opera Theatre), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni – Opera Orvieto), Juliette (Roméo et Juliette – UK Opera Theatre), Lily (The Secret Garden – Eastman Opera Theatre), Freulein Schneider (Cabaret – Eastman Opera Theatre), Olga (The Merry Widow – Eastman Opera Theatre). Savannah continues to perform across Canada and the United States, and is thrilled to be joining Arcady.