Soprano Sarah Kirsch & Chris Kayler
Through her journey as a performer, Sarah has sung a number of operatic roles including, Feu/Princesse/Rossignol in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges and Cecilia in the premiere of Randall Shinn's Sara McKinnon with CU Opera, Jokmeam in the premiere of Isaiah Bell's Oholibah and her lovers with Kingstreet Opera, Despina in Mozart's Così fan tutte with Winnipeg's Little Opera Company and Donna Francesca/The Moon in the premiere of Dean Burry's Angela and her sisters with the University of Manitoba's Opera Theatre School Tour.
As an avid recitalist and new music singer, Sarah has had the distinct pleasure of working with a number of living composers. She was honoured to premiere Mike Krzyzaniak's cycle Two Songs for Coloratura Soprano, Michael Matthews' chamber work Winter is when, and Richard Festinger's Spring Ice.
Since moving to Winnipeg, Sarah has appeared as a soloist with the Southern Manitoba Choral Society, Canzona, MusikBarock, and the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir. She was among the winners of the 2009 Orville J Derraugh memorial scholarship, earned first place in the Senior Voice class of MRMTA's 2011 scholarship competition, the Women's Musical Club of Winnipeg's 2011 annual open scholarship competition, and was invited to compete in the final rounds of the
2011 Eckhardt-Gramatté national new music competition. This coming season, she will be performing again as a soloist as part of the Professor Bach Project, with Canzona and MusikBarock, with the Winnipeg Singers, and as part of a world premiere of a new opera by Matthew Ricketts at the 2012 Cluster New Music Festival.
Sarah earned a Bachelor of Music with high honours from the University of Colorado at Boulder College of Music. Awarded the University of Manitoba Graduate Fellowship, she is currently working towards a Master of Music Performance with the Marcel A. Desautels Faculty of Music.
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Christopher Kayler recently graduated with a Master's of Music in Collaborative Piano Performance from the University of Manitoba. He also graduated with a Bachelor's of Music in solo piano from the U of M, and was awarded a Gold Medal for highest standing in Music. An experienced solo pianist, he won the U of M's competition for most outstanding undergraduate performer, and was a featured soloist with the U of M Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra. Chris has participated in several prestigious summer music programs, including Opera NUVOA in Edmonton and the Franz Schubert Institut in Baden bei Wien, Austria. His choral experience, both as singer and accompanist, has taken him across Canada and as far as Buenos Aires and Stockholm.
Chris has also played frequently with Red Moon Road, a popular folk-roots group, throughout Winnipeg and around Manitoba.
