Sophia’s Forest

Frances Armstrong – Rehearsal Pianist

Frances Armstrong, originally from Surrey, British Columbia, grew up in a musical family where she showed great promise in both her piano playing and singing from a young age. She had a particular affinity for collaborating with singers and string players, and began accompanying and playing in chamber ensembles when she was just thirteen years old. She holds a Master’s Degree in Collaborative Piano from the University of Toronto, where she studied with esteemed Canadian pianist Steven Philcox, and she also earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Piano Performance with Distinction from the University of Victoria. Frances has studied a broad range of repertoire with internationally renowned artists at summer intensive programs such as the Franz Schubert Institute, Toronto Summer Music, and the Music Academy of the West. She has also completed rigorous training as an apprentice coach at both l’Opéra de Montréal, and the Canadian Opera Company. Frances is in high demand as a collaborator and coach across Canada, having served as Head Coach at Edmonton Opera for two seasons, and she is invited back as a regular collaborator with City Opera Vancouver, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and Highlands Opera Studio. She is known for her intuitive and sensitive playing, and she enjoys a diverse career as a performer, coach, and repetiteur. When she is not busy with music, she can be found enjoying a quiet life by the Pacific Ocean on Gabriola Island, British Columbia.

Hannah Azam – Associate Lighting Designer (The Precursor Lab)

Hannah Azam is a lighting technician with a strong background in stage management. She is enrolled in SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts studying production and design. She also works in corporate lighting and festival power. When not in the theatre, Hannah enjoys spending time in nature and crafting. Grateful to be working with such a talented team, she hopes you enjoy the show.

Lembit Beecher – Composer

Estonian-American composer and animator Lembit Beecher writes “hauntingly lovely and deeply personal” music (San Francisco Chronicle) that stems from a fascination with the ways memories, histories, and stories permeate our contemporary lives. Threading together fragments of family lore, distantly experienced legends, imagery, and songs from Estonian folk culture, and explorations of place, migration, natural processes, and ecology, he has created an idiosyncratic and thoughtful musical language full of fragile lyricism, propulsive energy, and visceral emotions, which draws raves for its “astonishing musical invention” (Philadelphia Inquirer) and “exquisite touches” (San Francisco Chronicle).

www.lembitbeecher.com

Richard Berg – Sound designer

Richard is excited to be back for his second production with City Opera Vancouver, after last season’s Song From The Uproar. He currently splits his time between San Francisco, where he lives with his wife, Collette, and North Vancouver, where he has run URP Event Production (www.urp.ca) for the last thirty years. URP provides event production and creative services to theatre, festivals, and special events across the Lower Mainland; including Theatre Under The Stars and West Vancouver’s Harmony Arts Festival.

Olivia Blander – Cello

Originally from Ottawa, Olivia Blander completed her Masters of Music degree at Yale University in the studio of professor Aldo Parisot. She received her Bachelors degree from the Harid Conservatory (Boca Raton, Florida) where she studied with Canadian cellist Johanne Perron.

Olivia has appeared frequently as a soloist and chamber musician on CBC radio, including the nationally broadcast \”Debut Series\”. She has been a participant in several major summer festivals including classes at the Banff Centre for the Arts, and the fellowship program of the Tanglewood Music Centre.

After returning to Ottawa from the U.S. in 2000, Olivia enjoyed four months working with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, and joined the Vancouver Symphony in September 2001.

Adanya Dunn – Mezzo-soprano

Canadian-Bulgarian mezzo-soprano Adanya Dunn (she/her) made her American debut as Hermia in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream conducted by Harry Bicket and directed by Netia Jones at Santa Fe Opera in 2021. Adanya’s 2022/23 engagements included debuts with Manitoba Opera as Tisbe in La cenerentola and the Canadian Opera Company premiere of Pomegranate. Adanya was a member of Edmonton Opera’s inaugural Emerging Artists Residency Program, where she was featured on stage as Mercedes in Bizet’s Carmen. During preceding season, Adanya performed in various concerts with the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Barbara Hannigan. She was a competitor in the 2022 Concours musical international de Montréal where she won the Bita Cattelan Philanthropic Engagement Award for her work with Red Lights Arts & Culture in Amsterdam.

Adanya is a recipient of the 2022 Vancouver Opera Guild Career Development Grant, a 2021 Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award and a 2020 Hnatyshyn Foundation Developing Artist Grant. She was a Michigan District Winner of the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, and a three-time Canada Council for the Arts grant recipient. Adanya is an alumna of the University of Toronto, Bard College Conservatory, and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

Photo credit: Natasha-Ervilha

Audrey Gao – Emma

Having just completed her first year at the University of Toronto, Audrey Gao is a singer and actress who continues to pursue her passion for the stage—despite an unrelenting schedule of 9 a.m. lectures and late-night study sessions. In the 2023-2024 season, she appeared as a Knabe in Vancouver Opera’s production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. Audrey also spent eight years singing with the Vancouver Bach Children’s Chorus before moving to Toronto for school.

Karen Gerbrecht – Violin II

Karen began playing the violin at the age of three, influenced by four generations of musicians in her family. She studied at the Vancouver Academy of Music until leaving BC to pursue a post-secondary education at the North Carolina School of the Arts. Graduating first in her university class, Karen was awarded the single highest scholarship awarded by NCSA; the Sarah Graham Kenan Scholarship. After graduation, while performing as Associate Concertmaster of the Spoleto Festival Opera Orchestra (Spoleto, Italy) Karen was named Director of Chamber Music at Davidson College, (Davidson, NC) and remained in that post for two years until winning a position in the Vancouver Symphony, where she is Associate Principal Second.

After settling in Vancouver, Karen was appointed to the faculty of the Vancouver Academy of Music, and taught there from 1990 – 2002. As both a chamber musician and an orchestral player, Karen has performed throughout Europe, Canada, the US and Asia, and she continues to count traveling as one of her favorite pursuits. Since joining the VSO, Karen has been named a McBride Scholar at Bryn Mawr in Philadelphia and has twice attended the Banff Centre for the Arts as an Artist-in-Residence. In 2012, Karen is delighted to appear as a member of the Nomidi Trio, and is particularly honoured to be working and performing with Nomidi and the iconic Canadian dancer Margie Gillis.

Karen is very good at making her son laugh.

Mischa Gerbrecht – Percussion

A native of Vancouver, BC, Mischa Gerbrecht currently lives, works, and studies in New York City, NY. He is an accomplished pianist, chamber musician, classical percussionist, and arranger.

Mischa has performed across the USA and Canada as both percussionist and pianist. This year he’s featured as pianist for his second tour of BC with the Nikascha Trio. He’ll also be touring across major cities in Canada with the 65th Anniversary NYO tour performing as a percussionist in both the NYO Symphony Orchestra and the NYO chamber music series.

Mischa has served on the faculty of BC’s “West Coast Amateur Musicians” summer camp at Brentwood College, and he continues to mentor and teach younger musicians whenever he can. He counts among his own mentors the NY Philharmonic Principal Percussionist Christopher Lamb, marimba soloist She-E Wu, and tympanist Duncan Patton.

A 2025 highlight for Mischa was being named the recipient of the Elaine and Stephen Stamas New York Philharmonic Scholarship, based on the recommendation of NY Philharmonic players, for his work at the Manhattan School of Music.Mischa is a fifth generation musician. He is delighted to be back in Vancouver, performing with City Opera and string quartet musicians he has known all his life. He’d also like to thank and acknowledge Tito Prescott for creating bespoke metal instruments for him to play for this production of “Sophia’s Forest”.

Gordon Gerrard – Piano / Conductor

For Canadian conductor Gordon Gerrard, music serves as a kind of animating life force. He relishes the making of it. Takes pleasure in how it brings joy and comfort to audiences. Appreciates its potential to change how people perceive the non-musical aspects of their lives. 

The recently appointed Artistic Director of City Opera Vancouver, he’s guest-conducted major Canadian orchestras (Vancouver, Quebec, Toronto, Victoria, London, Kitchener-Waterloo) and opera companies (Calgary, Hamilton, Edmonton). He loves working with emerging artists – at Calgary Opera, the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, the Banff Centre, Opera Nuova (Edmonton), UBC Opera (Vancouver), Opera McGill (Montréal) and the Glenn Gould School (Toronto). And since 2016, he’s delved into orchestral classics, contemporary works and programming that explores social change and community engagement as the dynamic leader of the Regina Symphony Orchestra.

All rather unlikely for a kid who grew up on a farm just outside Brandon, MB. There was music in the house – Mom played the piano, Dad listened to old-time country music, Grandma led the choir at the little church in the nearest town. Gordon started piano lessons at seven and developed quickly. Before long he was setting his alarm for 6 am so he could practice before catching the school bus. There wasn’t much chance of hearing live classical music in rural Manitoba, but there were cassette tapes of popular works by the “great composers” and he burned through a Reader’s Digest Compilation of the greatest hits for piano. By high school he was obsessed with music and decided to pursue it professionally. At 17 Gordon left the farm for his undergrad at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. There he discovered the joy of collaborating with singers, which led to a fascination with opera and the world of conducting. “There’s this sort of dance that you do with the singers,” he says. “Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow, and almost never do you articulate who’s doing which at any given time. I love it.”

As an orchestral conductor, he’s indebted to his mentor, the late Bramwell Tovey. When Gordon began as assistant conductor with the Vancouver Symphony in 2012, he’d never conducted a single movement of a Beethoven symphony. Bramwell helped him hone his skills and showed him how to be a leader, on and off the podium. He’s thrilled to be taking the lead with City Opera Vancouver, a company with a reputation for developing brand new work. Gordon plans to expand that vision to include chamber operas from the baroque era to contemporary pieces and everything in between. “I’m excited to discover all the places we can go,” he says. “There’s an audience here with a thirst for exploring music and theatre that ventures outside the standard repertoire. “Music brings people together. I really do believe that as time goes on, what we need is more togetherness, more community. I consider it a privilege to be part of that magic.” 

Hailey Gil – Associate Production Designer (The Precursor Lab)

Hailey Gil (she/her) is a queer interdisciplinary artist based in Vancouver and South Korea. She enjoys creating live performances and collaborating with different people. Her current passion lies in lighting and set design, but her interest expands to anything fun and creative such as film, dance, installation and more. Her work revolves around diasporic perspective, relationships, and empathy.

Lisa Goebel – Intimacy Director

Lisa Goebel is an interdisciplinary artist working as an actor, choreographer, and intimacy director. Select credits include choreographer for Hamlet (Bard on the Beach), performer in Middletown (Sticks and Stones), and intimacy director for Die Fledermaus, Flight, and Madama Butterfly (Vancouver Opera). She completed her Intimacy Certification through Intimacy Directors and Coordinators and is a graduate of Studio 58. Upcoming intimacy director for Waitress (Arts Club), and choreographer/intimacy director for Dark Lady (Bard on the Beach).

Alaia Hamer – Costume Designer

Alaia is a Vancouver theatre designer originally from the Gulf Islands. Recent projects she has worked on include costume design for Measure for Measure (Bard on the Beach), Miracle on 34^th Street, Million Dollar Quartet, Sexy Laundry, The Cull, Beneath Springhill, The Birds and the Bees (Artsclub) The East Van Panto: Robin Hood, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid (Theatre Replacement), Songs from the Uproar (City Opera Vancouver), HMS Pinafore, Carmen Up Close and Personal (Vancouver Opera), Beautiful Man (PI Theatre), set design for Midsummer Night’s Dream (TWU), The Hobbit, Middletown, Case for Existence of God, God Said This (Pacific Theatre), Seventeen (Western Gold).

Emma Hammond – Stage Manager

Based on the west coast, Emma has been working in theatre and opera for 10 years. She has worked at a variety of companies including; Vancouver Opera, Pacific Opera, The Firehall, Ruby Slippers, Sticks and Stones, Theatre Under the Stars, Theatre Replacement, and the Cultch. Thanks go to Justin for his ongoing love and support.

Elena Howard-Scott – Soprano

Elena Howard-Scott is a versatile soprano and actress, noted as “someone to watch” (LudwigVan Toronto). The Winnipeg native is quickly becoming known as a committed performer on both opera and music theatre stages across Canada. The 2024/2025 season saw Elena as Sibella in Drayton Entertainment’s production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, performing with the Victoria Playhouse Petrolia, and returning to Koerner Hall as Rapunzel in Into the Woods as part of Koerner Hall’s Special Events series. Elena makes her Maison Symphonique debut with Orchestre FILMharmonique at the start of 2025.

This past season, Elena had the generous support of the Rebanks Family Fellowship and International Performance Residency Program at The Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto) and performed nearly a dozen solo recitals as a part of their programming. Enjoying a busy performance schedule, Howard-Scott recently made her role debut as Blanche de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites (The Glenn Gould School) under the baton of Nicolas Ellis and made appearances in recital with Soundstreams and the Hamilton Conservatory of the Arts. Elena spent the 2024 summer season studying at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, singing the role of Janine in Ruders’ The Handmaid’s Tale.

Luka Kawabata – Baritone

Nikkei-Canadian artist, Luka Kawabata 川端ルカ strives to push the boundaries of representation in opera through new works.  As a baritone and producer, he has quickly established himself as a rising artist in Canadian opera. He is passionate about diversifying the definition of performance and highlighting languages that are seldom heard in classical music. His ongoing series ‘The HAFU ハーフProject’ premiered its first live presentation as part of City Opera Vancouver’s season last year.

Luka is a recent graduate of the Yulanda M Faris Young Artist Program with Vancouver Opera, the Digital Emerging Artist Residency (Manitoba Opera), Pacific Opera Victoria’s Civic Engagement Residency and the Association for Opera in Canada’s RBC Fellowship. Collaborations include Edmonton Opera (La Bohème), Saskatoon Opera (Carmen), and Opera on the Avalon (February). In Vancouver, Luka has been fortunate to be featured in Vancouver Opera’s productions, including as Peter Quince (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Le Dancaïre (Carmen) and most recently as Prince Yamadori/The Imperial Commissioner (Madama Butterfly).

Julie McIsaac – Director

Julie McIsaac lives and on the unceded territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən Peoples, the Songhees and Xwsepsum (Esquimalt) Nations. A versatile director, dramaturg, performer and creator, she earned her Master’s in Theatre from the University of York (UK) and is also a graduate of Carleton University, the Canadian College of Performing Arts, and the artist residency program at Pacific Opera Victoria. She is a Leo, Jessie, Ovation and BroadwayWorld award winner, a founding member of the Honest Fishmongers (Critics’ Choice Innovation award nomination) and in 2019 was named Director/Dramaturg-in-Residence at the Canadian Opera Company, where she led the critically-acclaimed premiere of Ian Cusson and Colleen Murphy’s Fantasma. Directing highlights include The Last Five Years (Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre) the premiere of The Nightingale of a Thousand Songs (Canadian Children’s Opera Company), Beauty’s Beast (East Van Opera), The Exquisite Hour (Playhouse Fringe award), Pride and Prejudice (Chemainus) and the multiple award-winning Poly Queer Love Ballad by Sara Vickruck and Anais West. Julie served as associate director of Corey Payette’s Children of God from 2015-2019 and is an executive producer, actor, co-screenwriter and co-lyricist of the award-winning musical film Les Filles du Roi which is currently touring to film festivals worldwide.

www.juliemcisaac.com

Megan Lane – Associate Set Designer (The Precursor Lab)

Megan Lane is an interdisciplinary artist based in the Vancouver area with experience in theatre as a technician, a set designer, a performer, and as a puppet maker and puppeteer.  Outside of theatre, she is also interested in clothing design, textiles, furniture design, woodworking, visual art, and whatever other creative medium she can get her hands on.  Megan graduated from the Stagecraft and Event Technology program at Douglas College in 2019, and from SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts with a BFA in Theatre Production and Design in 2023.  Currently, she is exploring subjects such as design-led creation, devised theatre, tactility and object play, the intersection between design and performance, interdisciplinarity, and autobiographical stories.  Selected design/creation credits include “Division Infinity Saves the World” (Neworld Theatre), “Scheherazade” (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra), and “The Frontliners” (Fringe Festival).  She is currently developing a self-produced show alongside her partner, Steven Yang.

Megan is grateful to be living, learning, working, and creating on unceded sc̓əwaθenaɁɬ təməxʷ (Tsawwassen), S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō), Kwantlen, Stz’uminus, šxʷməθkʷəy̓əmaɁɬ təməxʷ (Musqueam), səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ  (Tsleil-Waututh), and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) territory.

Hannah Moscovitch – Librettist

Hannah Moscovitch is an acclaimed Canadian playwright, TV writer, and librettist whose work has been widely produced in Canada and around the world. Recent stage work includes Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes and Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story (co-created with Christian Barry and Ben Caplan). Hannah has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, Trillium Book Award, the Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award, the Scotsman Fringe First and the Herald Angel Awards at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize administered by Yale University. She has been nominated for the international Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Drama Desk Award, and Canada’s Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. She is a playwright-in-residence at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. She spends her time between Halifax and Los Angeles.

Photo credit: Alejandro Santiago

Wladimiro A. Woyno Rodriguez – Projection and Scenic Designer

Wladimiro A. Woyno Rodriguez is a designer and technologist passionate about live performance. He is an Assistant Professor in Production & Design at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts. Originally from Bogota, Colombia, he holds a M.F.A. in Design from Yale School of Drama and a B.F.A. in Theatre Design and production from The University of British Columbia. A devoted collaborator with the creative teams of several companies, he is often prototyping tools, processes, images, and environments that engage the sensory imagination. With a technical background in lighting, video, and staging, his work explores the adaptation of new technologies into the theatrical tradition. He is Interested in the development of rapid prototyping tools, scenography, theatrical spaces, media servers, documentation systems, and show control systems. He is an avid learner, constantly creating, inventing, and exploring.

His credits include: Since I Can Remember (The Wooster Group, USA); Kiss (Yale Repertory Theatre, USA); Parade (Nederlands Dans Theater, Netherlands); The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst (Ghost River Theatre, Canada);  This American Wife (Next Door @ NYTW, USA); Salome (M3 Productions, USA); If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka, Bulgaria! Revolt!, The Merchant of Venice (Yale School of Drama, USA); RE:UNION (Yale Cabaret, USA); Gallery+Lumia (Yale Art Gallery, USA);  Ziriguidum (Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, Canada); and Sometime Between Now and When the Sun Goes Supernova (Theatre Junction, Canada).

Isabelle Roland – Viola

Isabelle is a native of Canada, but was raised dividing her time between Paris and Vancouver. Isabelle received a Bachelor of Music from the University of Victoria studying with Jaroslav Karlovsky and obtained a Masters in Performance at the Cleveland Institute where she was a student of Heidi Castleman, Lynn Ramsey Irvine, and Robert Vernon.

From 1990-2001, Ms. Roland was Assistant Principal viola of the Victoria Symphony, where she appeared many times as a soloist including a performance under the baton of Sir Yehudi Menuhin. Isabelle was the founding member of the Savitri Quartet with whom she performed for CBC radio broadcasts, as well as a collaboration with mezzo soprano, Susan Platts. From 1996-1998, Ms. Roland served as Assistant Principal viola with the Colorado Festival in Boulder, Colorado.

Since settling permanently in Vancouver in 2002, Isabelle has appeared as a soloist with the Sinfonia of the North Shore and the West Coast Symphony. Currently, she is Principal viola with Sinfonia of the North Shore, a member of the Vancouver Opera, and performs regularly with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and the National Broadcasting Orchestra. Ms. Roland also enjoys a busy chamber music career performing with Trio Accord, Music In The Morning, West Coast Chamber Music, and is a member of the Tantalus String Quartet. In addition to her busy performing career, Isabelle joins her love of music and children teaching viola and violin at VAM, and by joyfully caring for her two young sons, Nicholas and Kai, with husband, Steve Mason.

Rebecca Whitling – Violin I

Rebecca Whitling has been a member of the first violin section of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra since 1995. Originally from Edmonton, her principal teachers were Ranald Shean, Mauricio Fuks, Paul Biss, and Sally Thomas. Rebecca is a graduate of McGill and Indiana Universities and an alumna of the New World Symphony. She has appeared as a chamber and orchestral musician at Tanglewood, Schleswig-Holstein, Colorado, Ojai, Cabrillo, Mountain View, and Blue Ridge Music Festivals.

Rebecca has performed as soloist with the Vancouver Philharmonic, the Semiahmoo Strings, the Prince George Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and the Hard Rubber Orchestra. With the aid of the BC Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Little Chamber Music Series, she has premiered works written for her by Giorgio Magnanensi, Ian McDougall, and Jocelyn Morlock.

As the Violinist and Co-Artistic Director of Standing Wave, one of Canada’s leading Contemporary Music Ensembles, Rebecca has commissioned and premiered works by many of Canada’s leading composers, has toured across Canada, and has recorded 3 CDs, including New Wave, for which the ensemble was named 2017 Artist/Ensemble of the Year Award at the Western Canada Music Awards.

Rebecca is the newly appointed Violin Instructor at Capilano University and is also on faculty at the VSO School of Music

Maddy Woodley – Assistant Stage Manager

Maddy Woodley is a Stage Manager and Lighting Designer currently in her third year of a Theatre Production and Design BFA at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts. She enjoys art that is queer influenced, pushes everyday boundaries, and collaborating with those that inspire her. Recently she has stage managed for United Player’s Its A Wonderful Life: On The Air. She also works as nationally recognized lighting designer Victoria Bell’s assistant – most recently on UNIVERSUS with works by Alexis Fletcher and Fernando Hernando Magadan.

Arya Yazgan – Child Sophia

Arya Yazgan (b. 2013) is a Turkish-Canadian performer currently in Grade 6. She began her artistic journey in Istanbul, where she took drama classes and sang in a children’s choir before immigrating to Vancouver with her family at age 5. Arya has performed in both her school and the Vancouver Bach Children’s Choirs, including solo appearances. She enjoys expressing herself through the arts—singing, painting, drawing, and crafts—and is a passionate figure skater. Fluent in English, Turkish, and French, Arya is thrilled to bring Young Sophia to life in Sophia’s Forest.

Photo by Anya Chibis