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The Canadian coloratura soprano, Magdalena How, spent her early childhood in Ontario before her family returned to the West Coast. She has loved music all her life, enthusiastically participating in community and school choirs and enjoying performing in musical theatre as a teenager, particularly when touring musicals to Lower Mainland elementary schools as part of the Arts Umbrella Pre-Professional Musical Theatre Troupe. At the age of 16, she began to study classical voice at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music and has loved it ever since! She studied at University McGill and attended the UBC Summer Vocal Workshop (2008, 2011-2017). She is currently pursuing her master's degree in Opera Performance at the University of British Columbia under the tutelage of Nancy Hermiston.
As part of her studies Magdalena How has been fortunate enough to portray a wide variety of operatic roles, including: Olympia in Les Contes d'Hoffmann (November 2019), Queen of the Night in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Zerlina in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni, Anna Sørensen in Puts' Silent Night, Elvira in L'Italiana in Algeri, and Clorinda in La Cenerentola with UBC Opera; and Miss Silverpeal in W.A. Mozart's The Impresario, Oberto in George Frideric Handel's Alcina, and Billie in Speed Dating Tonight! with Opera McGill.
In addition to opera, Magdalena How has performed extensively across the Lower Mainland, singing as a guest soloist with the Vancouver Welsh Men's Choir and Amabilis Singers as well as participating in numerous local concerts and other events. Recently, she toured to Europe with UBC Opera to sing in a series of concerts in Plzen, Czech Republic and Nurnberg, Germany. She is honoured to have received a number of awards, most notably: The University of BC Medal in Music (2019), the Edwina Heller Memorial Award in Opera (2018), the Vancouver Opera Guild Young Talent in Opera Grant (2018), the Phyllis and Bernard Shapiro Scholarship (2016), and the Helene Gombay Memorial Prize (2015).
Magdalena How has also worked as the Surtitles Operator for Vancouver Opera and UBC Opera. When she is not singing, she can frequently be found knitting, baking, or enjoying a fantasy novel. |
