Soprano Dawn Bailey is a versatile performer, recognized for her engaging performances in a wide variety of vocal styles. Dawn is equally at ease on the concert and operatic stages, moving fluidly from chamber music to opera, oratorio, and art song. Especially sought after for her imaginative interpretations of music from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, she has appeared with some of Canada’s leading early music ensembles, including Tafelmusik, the Toronto Consort, Les Violons du Roy, the Theatre of Early Music, Ensemble Caprice, and le Studio de musique ancienne de Montreal.
Dawn has premiered several new compositions by Canadian composers, notably singing the role of Elizabeth in Andrew Ager’s opera Frankenstein in Toronto in 2010. Other recent operatic roles include Venere in Cavalli’s Doriclea and Flore in Charpentier’s La Couronne de Fleurs. This year, Dawn is delighted to be touring the Salsa Baroque program with Ensemble Caprice in the greater Montreal area. She also looks forward to solo appearances this season with early music ensembles in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Halifax, and Calgary. Recent performances include Purcell’s King Arthur in the Vancouver Early Music Festival, Bach’s B Minor Mass in Halifax, and Haydn’s Stabat Mater in Ottawa.
In the summer of 2010, Dawn was invited as one of three finalists to the Festival International de Musique Baroque de Lamèque in New Brunswick. There she was awarded second place and also the Prix du Publique, the audience favorite. In May of 2011 she was selected as one of six finalists in the 2011 Handel Singing Competition as part of the Classical Music Consort’s annual Handel Festival in Toronto, and in September of 2011 she traveled to France to compete in the final round of the Froville International Baroque Singing Competition.
Dawn has undertaken studies in music at the University of Alberta, the University of Toronto, the Conservatoire de musique de Montreal, and McGill University. Her principal teachers and mentors include Suzie LeBlanc, Daniel Taylor, Aline Kutan, Monica Whicher, and Lorna MacDonald. A native of Edmonton, Alberta, Dawn currently resides in Montreal.
Besides her musical endeavors, Dawn is also passionate about vegetarian cuisine, gardening, and poetry. She is an avid practitioner of yoga and meditation, and since having obtained her yoga teaching certification in 2008, she teaches classes regularly in studios around Montreal, as well as offering private yoga instruction tailored especially toward singers.