Philippe Sly

1^st Prize Winner
2009 Brian Law Opera Scholarship Competition

Biography submitted by the artist shortly before his guest recital at the 10^th Brian Law Opera Competition on 19 November 2011.

Bass-baritone Philippe Sly is a new member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio. A winner in the 2011 Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions, he has recently performed as Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia with the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program; Marcello in La Bohème and Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress at McGill University; Escamillo in Carmen at the Banff Centre; and Masetto in Don Giovanni at the University of Ottawa.

Upcoming engagements include the role of Pilatus in Bach’s St. John Passion with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and a concert of opera arias with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in Kuala Lumpur. Mr. Sly will appear with the COC this season, singing roles in The Tales of Hoffmann, A Florentine Tragedy/Gianni Schicchi and Semele, and understudying roles in Rigoletto and Tosca.

Recently he won the “Jeune soliste 2012 des Radios francophones publiques (RFP)” prize as the representative of Radio-Canada, which will give him valuable international exposure in France, Belgium and Switzerland.

Philippe holds a Bachelor of Voice Performance degree from McGill University.

Biography prepared by Renate Chartrand from information submitted by the artist with his application for the 9^th Brian Law Opera Scholarship Competition on 21 November 2009.

Bass-baritone Philippe Sly, 20, gained early experience with the Opera Lyra Ottawa Chorus, while playing lead roles at Ashbury College. In 2006 he sang Masetto in Don Giovanni with the Opera Workshop at the University of Ottawa. During three summers he attended the Young Artist, Opera as Theatre program at the Banff Centre, performing Escamillo in La Tragédie de Carmen and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte as well as singing in the chorus of Filumena and Frobisher, the recently world-premiered operas by John Estacio. Philippe is currently in his third year as a Bachelor of Music student at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, singing in productions of The Rape of Lucretia and Lully’s Thésée.