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A two-time Juno nominated artist, Miriam Khalil has established herself as one of Canada’s most versatile and expressive performers. Sought after for her interpretation of the works of Golijov, Puccini and Mozart.

This past season, Miriam appeared with Beth Morrison Projects in New York for the world premiere of Mary Kouyoumdjian’s opera Adoration, Symphony Nova Scotia for Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, returned to Pacific Opera Victoria to sing the role of Margarita Xirgu in Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar and to Edmonton Opera for her renowned interpretation of the composer’s song cycle Ayre.

Miriam also recently made her debuts with Vancouver Opera, Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony, Symphony of Northwest Arkansas, and Vancouver’s Music in the Morning, for repertoire including Leila in Bizet’s Pearl Fishers, Handel’s Messiah, Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Ravel’s Shéhérazade and more. Miriam also appeared in her hometown of Ottawa, Ontario for Mozart’s Don Giovanni, singing Donna Elvira with the National Arts Centre Orchestra under the baton of Alexander Shelley.

In 2019, Miriam produced and was nominated for a Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral, for her debut album Ayre: Live, a song cycle by Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. With this song cycle, she made her South American Debut, and premiered Ayre in Buenos Aires at the Kirchner Cultural Centre. She has sung Ayre to critical acclaim in Banff and Edmonton Alberta, Ottawa and Toronto, Ontario, Victoria British Columbia, and opened the prestigious Rockport Music Festival in the USA, making this Song Cycle her signature piece. She also opened the 21c Music Festival at Koerner Hall with this very piece in 2020.

She has sung on numerous opera stages across North America and the U.K., including a stint at the renowned Glyndebourne Festival Opera (GFO) in the United Kingdom. Notable roles include Mimì in La Bohème (Canadian Opera Company, Minnesota Opera, Opera Hamilton, Calgary Opera, Edmonton Opera, and Against the Grain Theatre (AtG)); Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni (Opera Tampa and AtG/The Banff Centre/Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, National Arts Center Orchestra); Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande (AtG); the Governess in The Turn of the Screw (AtG); Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare (GFO); Almirena in Rinaldo (GFO); Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro (Pacific Opera Victoria, Opera Lyra Ottawa, and AtG), Alcina (Fargo Moorhead Opera), Marzelline in Fidelio (Pacific Opera Victoria) and Mamah Cheney in Hagen’s Shining Brow (Urban Arias) among others.

Miriam made her much-anticipated major role debut with the Canadian Opera Company as Mimì in La Bohème in 2019, a role she revisited with Edmonton Opera in 2022. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Miriam pivoted masterfully to the digital stage and was involved in numerous innovative virtual projects.

With Pacific Opera Victoria, she participated in their ‘For All to Hear’ series, where she created, directed, produced and sang an online Arabic video recital, Songs My Parents Taught Me. She mentored their Apprentice Civic Engagement quartet (four young artists per year) to create, produce and direct their own virtual projects. She sang Elle in Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine in a unique Poulenc/Cocteau digital project with VOICEBOX: Opera in Concert to critical acclaim and sang in recital with Baritone Russel Braun and pianist Carolyn Maule, premiering a song cycle by Afarin Mansouri in the Mazzoleni Masters series at the Royal Conservatory, commissioned by Canadian Art Song Project. Miriam was also featured in Against the Grain Theatre’s digital production of Bound and picked up a directing credit on their film of Holst’s opera Sāvitri. Her recent seasons were also highlighted by Messiah/Complex, an internationally acclaimed, ATG/Toronto Symphony realization of Handel’s Messiah filmed against iconic Canadian landscapes sung in six languages by twelve soloists and 4 choirs. She was nominated for her second Juno with the recent release of the Messiah/Complex Album and won a Digital Excellence in Opera award with Opera America for ‘Best Noteworthy Project’. Miriam is a graduate of the prestigious Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, the Steans Institute for Young Artists (Ravinia) and the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme in England.

While in her last year of the COC Ensemble Studio, she advanced to the semi-finals of the Metropolitan Opera Council auditions and represented the Great Lakes Region on the Met stage, during which she was featured in the documentary film The Audition. She is a recipient of multiple awards and grants from the George London Foundation, the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition Scholarships.

She is a proud founding member of the Dora Mavor Moore Award-winning opera company Against the Grain Theatre (AtG). She also recently joined the Voice Faculty at the University of Alberta and is very excited to be working with the next generation of singing artists and creators.

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Performances

2024

Aug 2 @ 8pm

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music

Parade

More Info

2024

Aug 4 @ 7pm

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music

The Muse

More Info

2024

Sept 21 @ 8pm

WDR Sinfonie Orchester

Klangzauber

Tickets

2024

Oct 6 @ 7:30pm

Edmonton, Alberta

Dans le soir

Tickets

2024

Nov 8 @ 7:30pm

Edmonton, Alberta - Winspear Centre

Fauré’s Requiem

Tickets

2024

Dec 6 @ 7:30pm

Calgary Philharmonic and Calgary Philharmonic Chorus

A Choral Christmas

Tickets

2024

Dec 9 @ 7:30pm

Edmonton, Alberta

A Rocky Mountain High Christmas

Tickets

2024

Dec 20, 21 @ 7:30pm

Symphony Nova Scotia, Halifax

Handel’s Messiah

Tickets

2025

Feb 19, 20, 22, 23

LA Opera, Los Angeles

Adoration

Tickets

2025

Apr 9, 10, 11, 12

Edmonton Opera

Aquarius - Songs Under the Stars

Tickets
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Miriam wearing a flowery dress, running her fingers through her hair, and gazing up at the sky

past performances

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May 2024

3, 4

Halifax - Symphony Nova Scotia

Beethoven 9

Apr 2024

11, 12

Edmonton Opera

Osvaldo Golijov's song cycle Ayre

Feb 2024

21, 23, 25

Pacific Opera Victora

Osvaldo Golijov - Ainadamar

Jan 2024

12 - 14, 18 - 20

The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture

Adoration NY

more info

Dec 2023

2

Roy Thomson Hall

Christmas with the Salvation Army

Nov 2023

19

University of Ottawa, Tabaret Hall

Music at Tabaret: SONGS FROM A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS

Nov 2023

17

Freiman Hall

Masterclass University of Ottawa

Sept 2023

8

University of Alberta, Convocation Hall

Songs of Shéhérazade

more info

July 2023

5 - 23

Banff Centre

Adoration

more info

June 2023

15, 17

National Arts Centre

Don Giovanni

more info

May 2023

4, 5, 6

Edmonton Symphony Orchestra

An Ode To Joy: Beethoven’s 9th

Jan 2023

17, 20

Music in the Morning

Recitals with Pianist Julien LeBlanc

More Info

Jan 2023

7

Symphony of Northwest Arkansas

Mother and Child

More Info

Dec 2022

16, 17, 18

Edmonton Symphony Orchestra

A Very Merry Pops

Dec 2022

9, 10

Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra

Handel’s Messiah

Oct 2022

22, 27, 30

Vancouver Opera

Pearl Fishers by Georges Bizet

May 2022

7

Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra

Mahler 4

Mar 27 - Apr 24

2022

Against the Grain Theatre

Bound

April 2022

1

Winspear Centre

Michael Haydn: Requiem

March 2022

30

Jeanne & Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre

Michael Haydn: Requiem

Feb 2022

13

Edmonton Opera

Valentine's Gala

Feb 2022

5, 8, 11

Edmonton Opera

La Bohème

Dec 2021

22

Edmonton Opera

Home For Christmas

Dec 2021

8

Against the Grain Records

Messiah/Complex Album Release

June 23 - July 11

2021

Against the Grain Theatre

Sāvitri 

Mar 2021

Online Premier

Royal Conservatory of Music

To The Distant Beloved 

Feb 2021

Online Premier

Voicebox: Opera in Concert

La Voix Humaine

Dec 2020

Online Premier

Against the Grain Theatre

Messiah/Complex

Oct 2020

Online Premier

Pacific Opera Victoria

Songs My Parents Taught Me

Jan 2020

11

Against the Grain Theatre

Ayre - Song Cycle

more info

Dec 2019

3-20

Against the Grain Theatre

Figaro’s Wedding

more info

Nov 2019

8,13,15

Calgary Opera

La Bohème (Mimi)

more info

Aug 2019

2

Été Musical de Barachois Summer Music

Connexions culturelles

more info

June 2019

17, 21

Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra

Rocky Mountain High

more info

May 2019

5,11,17,22

Canadian Opera Company

La Bohème (Mimi)

more info

Jan 2019

1

Victoria Symphony

A Viennese New Year’s - Soprano Soloist

more info

Dec 2018

Against the Grain Records

Ayre Live CD Launch

more info

Nov 2018

19,20,21

Against the Grain Theatre

Bound

more info

Nov 2018

15

Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra

Rückert- Lieder

more info

Oct 2018

11,13,17,19,21

Pacific Opera Victoria

Fidelio (Marzelline)

more info

Oct 2018

25,26,28,29,31

Pacific Opera Victoria

Ayre - Song Cycle by Osvaldo Golijov

more info

News & Features

news

Miriam smiling on stage with a shawl around her shoulders

Opera Canada

February 22, 2024

Artist Of The Week: 29 Qs For Miriam Khalil

This week’s Artist of the Week is Canadian-Lebanese soprano, Miriam Khalil. Miriam is in Victoria starring as Margarita Xirgu in Golijov’s Ainadamar with Pacific Opera Victoria.

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Miriam seated and looking to her left, smiling.

Times Colonist

February 19, 2024

Tangled relationship at heart of POV's production of Ainadamar

There is much to be digested — and discussed — when it comes to the topic of Ainadamar, the new Pacific Opera Victoria production. Buckle your seatbelts, because this is one heck of an unconventional ride.

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Miriam smiling on stage with a shawl around her shoulders

La Sena Musical

Winter 2023/2024

Joel Ivany & Miriam Khalil Just Getting Started

Against the Grain Theatre (AtG) is a pillar of the Canadian opera scene. The award-winning company has been pushing boundaries and challenging audiences to experience opera in exciting, new ways since its founding in 2010 by director, librettist, educator, and administrator Joel Ivany, and his partner, soprano Miriam Khalil.

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Miriam smiling on stage with a shawl around her shoulders

Ottawa Citizen

June 23, 2021

Ottawa-raised soprano Miriam Khalil rediscovers obscure Holst opera in film directing debut

Meher Pavri and Andrew Haji star in Savitri, a new contemporary opera film produced by the Toronto-based theatre company, Against The Grain. It's directed by the company's co-founder and associate artistic director, Miriam Khalil, a Juno-winning operatic soprano who grew up in Ottawa.

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Miriam smiling on stage with a shawl around her shoulders

Opera Canada

June 25, 2021

ATG'S SĀVITRI: A FEAST FOR THE EYES AND EARS

This production marks the directorial debut of Canadian soprano Miriam Khali, with Simran Claire as associate director, and Simon Rivard as conductor along with soprano Meher Pavri as Sāvitri, tenor Andrew Haji as Satyavan, and bass-baritone Vartan Gabrielian as Yama.

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Miriam smiling on stage with a shawl around her shoulders

Edmonton Journal

September 2, 2021

Edmonton gains the celebrated gifts of soprano Miriam Khalil

Back in 2010, the young Canadian-Lebanese soprano Miriam Khalil made her Edmonton Opera debut singing the role of Musetta in Puccini's much-loved La bohème. She was then fresh out of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, and Bill Rankin, writing in Opera Canada, declared that “she stole the Café Momus Act”.

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Miriam smiling on stage with a shawl around her shoulders

CBC

December 4, 2021

This Is My Music with Tom Allen

Each week, This Is My Music is hosted by one of Canada's foremost international classical artists. The host selects a program of mainly classical music and presents it in a lively, engaging manner, enriched with personal anecdotes and insights.
Soprano Miriam Khalil presents her favourite recordings.

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Miriam smiling on stage with a shawl around her shoulders

COC.CA

March 31 2019

Mimi to Mimi: Our Leading Ladies in La Bohème

This spring, we welcome two fantastic casts for our production of Puccini's La Bohème who talk about about their approaches to the role, their opera journeys, and what's kept them going in this wonderful (but challenging!) art form.

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Miriam posing in a red trench coat.

SESAYA.COM

May 3 2019

Miriam Khalil talks COC’s La Bohème and the life of an artist

This Mother’s Day will be accompanied by a family first: I will take my daughter to her first opera at the Canadian Opera Company (COC). The opera is Puccini’s La Bohème, and she will see acclaimed Lebanese-Canadian soprano Miriam Khalil sing the role of Mimì (which she alternates with American soprano Angel Blue).

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image collage of Miriam in various studios as well as on stage

TWIN CITIES ARTS

April 23 2017

Soprano Miriam Khalil On Bohème And More (Minnesota Opera)

The economics and programming of opera during the so-called Golden Age of Opera – the mid-19th-century up to the start of the First World War – were very different than they are today. Most opera companies operated on a repertory model; if a new opera did not perform up to expectations, it could be cancelled outright and the following day’s performance substituted with a crowd favorite.

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Head shots of Nicole Campbell and Miriam Khalil

CLASSICAL MPR

May 8 2017

Perf Chat with Minnesota Opera's Nicole Cabell and Miriam Khalil

Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème opened this past weekend at Minnesota Opera, and it runs through May 21. There are two Mimis in this production — Nicole Cabell and Miriam Khalil — and Classical MPR's Julie Amacher recently sat down with them for a Perf Chat in the Maud Moon Weyerhauser Studio.

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Miriam on stage, pointing her finger at someone off camera and scolding them. She is wearing an embroidered dress.

CBC

May 1 2019

Indie opera is enticing newcomers, but is it enough to keep the genre relevant?

The founder of an indie opera troupe says people are lining up to attend her free concerts in pubs and bars around Toronto — but not everyone thinks the trend will save Canadian opera.

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Miriam singing onstage with sad emotion on her face

CBC

April 1 2019

Gryphon Trio, Miriam Khalil | Osvaldo Golijov: Ayre (selections, arr. Roberto Occhipinti)

Gryphon Trio and Miriam Khalil perform Osvaldo Golijov: Ayre (selections, arr. Roberto Occhipinti)

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Miriam rehearsing. There is a music stand in front of her from which she is reading, and she is holding a pencil in one hand.

COC.CA

March 1 2018

Notes: A Conversation with Soprano Miriam Khalil

In the leadup to tonight’s opening, we asked AtG Founding Member and Ensemble Studio graduate Miriam Khalil to share her thoughts on the challenging process of creating art that responds to contemporary realities of persecution, oppression, and asylum…

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A woman standing in profile, with brownish pinkish shawls flowing around her as if in the wind. This is the cover art of the album Ayre.

THE GLOBE & MAIL

November 9 2016

Music To Express Human Condition With Ayre

Against the Grain is one of Toronto’s – if not the country’s – most innovative opera/theatre companies, producing on a shoestring exciting evenings of musical theatre. They’re known for their reworking of Mozart operas to fit contemporary settings, but they’ve also experimented with many other ideas, both here and at their annual residency at the Banff Centre...

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Miriam posing in a red trench coat

OTTAWA CITIZEN

July 31 2015

A Sopranos Story Part One: Miriam Khalil

Before the move the young girl, with the music moving her, could go to church with her father and sing in the choir. Today, it would not happen. While she prays for friends who are left behind in the brutal war engulfing her birth country, her family, which is Lebanese, is not there. They are in Canada or in Lebanon.

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Miriam in a wedding scene. She is dressed as a bride and there is a man dressed as the groom behind her. She is raising her arm up as if in dance.

SCHMOPERA

December 3 2015

Mozart Ladies

In 2014, they put up #UncleJohn (based on Don Giovanni), featuring soprano Miriam Khalil as Donna Elvira; Khalil has since reprised Elvira in #UncleJohn for two subsequent productions, in at Toronto's The Theatre Centre and at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival...

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Miriam posing in a red trench coat

OTTAWA CITIZEN

April 18 2015

Music Review: Soprano Miriam Khalil sings lustrous mix of the familiar and the Arabic

Young Lebanese-Canadian lyric soprano Miriam Khalil has started to make a name for herself on Canadian opera and concert stages. The University of Ottawa alumna will be appearing at Chamberfest this summer, as Elvira in #UncleJohn...

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Miriam is wearing a blue dress and sitting on what appears to be sand dunes.

BUZZFEED.COM

June 25 2015

This is What O Canada Sounds Like in Arabic

“When you hear something that is being said in your mother tongue, it has more emotional impact, and makes you pay more attention,” Raja Khouri, president of the institute, told Metro News Toronto…

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press

latest word

“Her lullabies are heartbreaking in the work, her violent outbursts frightening, her recitation of Arab texts engaging, her range of emotional compass overwhelming.”

The Globe & Mail

recording

audio

Ayre Live

Miriam Khalil

/ Soprano

Osvaldo Golijov

/ Composer

cover album of Ayre. There is a woman surrounded by purple cloth, as if it is blowing in the wind all around her and wrapper her up.

“It is as if she was born to sing it, or, even better, born for each other, she and Ayre.”

- Osvaldo Golijov, composer


Juno Nominated - Classical Album of the Year (small ensemble)

AYRE LIVE has received a JUNO nomination for Classical Album of the Year, Vocal or Choral. AtG Records’ debut album is a critically acclaimed fusion of lush Arabic, Hebrew, Sardinian, and Sephardic folk melodies and texts. Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov’s Ayre is a brilliant example of 21st-century cultural counterpoint. This recording is the culmination of performances in Toronto for audiences at the breathtaking Ismaili Centre featuring Against the Grain Theatre founding member, soprano Miriam Khalil.

AYRE LIVE is now available for purchase and download on the following platforms. To learn more, check out the links below.

cover album of Ayre. There is a woman surrounded by purple cloth, as if it is blowing in the wind all around her and wrapper her up.

Messiah/Complex — Digital Album

Miriam Khalil

/ Soloist

George Frideric Handel

/ Composer

cover album of Messiah.

“A joyful screen adaptation of Handel's holiday staple”

- Globe and Mailr


Juno Nominated - Classical Album of the Year (large ensemble)

Against the Grain Theatre's interpretation of Handel's Messiah is a cross-Canada masterpiece: presented in seventy-eight minutes, performed in Arabic, Dene, English, French, Inuktitut, and Southern Tutchone, and accompanied by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. It features twelve soloists and four choirs representing every province and territory across the country.

Messiah/Complex has captured audiences from more than forty countries worldwide: receiving thousands of messages from international fans expressing gratitude for such a diverse and inspiring work, and sharing personal connections to Handel’s Messiah. The film has been praised by major international media outlets including, the New York Times, BBC Radio, and the Globe and Mail.

cover album of Ayre. There is a woman surrounded by purple cloth, as if it is blowing in the wind all around her and wrapper her up.

Handel With Care

cover album of Messiah.

The BOUND digital album is the soundtrack of the 2022 film. The creative score, composed by Kevin Lau with a libretto by Joel Ivany, features soprano Miriam Khalil, soprano Breanna Sinclairé, tenor Andrew Haji, and baritone Justin Welsh.

Lau takes inspiration from a medley of George Frideric Handel's enduring works, utilizing them to fashion an innovative sonic journey, anchored with assurance by the mighty sounds of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Nathan Brock.

Album cover for Against the Grain Theatre Bound

video

Visual

Still of Miriam singing on stage.

If God Be For Us, Handel's Messiah

press

latest word

“...dark, dangerous and alluring, her fiery sound ablaze with passion. A skilled, versatile artist, Khalil’s voice entrances, a kaleidoscope of tumbled emotion.”

Opera Going Toronto

Portrait

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Credits: Shayne Gray Photography

onstage

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As Mimì, and Joshua Guerrero as Rodolfo in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of LaBohème, 2019, photo by Michael Cooper

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Director Concerts Division

henry@deanartists.com

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