The Canadian Opera Company’s new “disruptor-in-residence” is ready to burn it all down — metaphorically speaking, of course — as part of the organization’s effort to make opera more diverse.
Soprano Teiya Kasahara, a genderqueer, non-binary Nikkei-Canadian, is a co-founder of Toronto-based Amplified Opera. That group, launched in 2019, aims to bring performers from “equity-seeking” groups to opera stages — and they’re bringing that message to the COC in Toronto.
Too often, the artform is dominated by white performers, says Kasahara, who uses the pronoun they.
“At a young age, I was very excited about this medium, about what it could hold for me as a singer and what physically would happen to my body when I’m singing and to feel that,” they told Day 6 host Brent Bambury.
