Born in Saskatchewan and raised in Ontario, PETER McGILLIVRAY is an emerging Canadian talent of both the concert and operatic stage. Two years ago he walked away with the Deuxième Grand Prix as well as the Chalmers award for Best Canadian Performance at the 2005 Montreal International Musical Competition broadcast live to a national radio audience in Canada. He then followed this success by winning another 2nd prize at the Queen Sonja Competition in Oslo, Norway and broadcast live over Scandinavian television. He previously gained similar national recognition at the 2003 CBC/Radio-Canada Young Performers Competition in Calgary when he took home 1st prize in the vocal category as well as audience prize.
As a recent member of the Ensemble Studio of the Canadian Opera Company, he made his professional debut as Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and as Schlendrian in a staged production of Bach’s Coffee Cantata in 2003. Performances in past seasons with the Canadian Opera Company include turns as Sid and as the Vicar in Britten’s Albert Herring, and as Schaunard in Puccini's La Bohème. He was seen as Demetrius in a critically acclaimed production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Tanglewood Festival in Massachusetts. Highlights of past seasons included a recital tour of the Maritime provinces with Debut Atlantic; recitals in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Saskatoon and Ottawa; as well as engagements with Calgary Philharmonic, Regina Symphony, and l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec.
Mr. McGillivray is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Opera Division where he was a student of soprano, Lynn Blaser and mezzo-soprano, Patricia Kern. He also holds an honours degree in Canadian History and Literature from the U of T’s University College. Having previously performed at the Ravinia, Aldeburgh and Aspen Music Festivals, he has been awarded substantial grants from both the Jaqueline Desmarais Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts. He has been a finalist and prizewinner at the Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition, at the Lotte Lenya Singing Competition, and at the Robert Schumann International Competition for Piano and Lied in the composer's birthplace of Zwickau, Germany.
www.petermcgillivray.com
