Join us to experience the acclaimed soprano Sara Schabas, winner of the 2024 Wirth Vocal Prize, accompanied by the virtuosic pianist Alex Shafirov. This exceptional duo, who have won numerous awards, will perform a diverse program of lieder and opera arias in an unforgettable musical evening.

Sara Schabas, soprano
Alex Shafirov, piano

LOCATION / TIME

Arrival: 10:30 a.m. | Concert start: 11:00 a.m.

COST
Cost:  Free, no ticket required
Recital, coffee, juice, brioche included.

BIOGRAPHIES

Sara Schabas, soprano

Praised for her “beautifully clear, light lyric soprano” (Ludwig Van), Sara Schabas has performed as a soloist across North America and Europe. Nominated in 2020 for the Dora Award for Outstanding Performance by an Individual, Sara is the 2024 winner of the Wirth Vocal Prize and a recent alumna of Barbara Hannigan’s Equilibrium Young Artists. This season, she performs a recital tour of mainland China as well as residencies in Germany and France with the Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques. She returns to the Masterworks of Oakville as soprano soloist in Messiah, performs recitals in the Canadian Opera Company Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre with her frequent collaborator Alexey Shafirov and Temple Emanuel-el-Beth in Montreal, records the debut recording of James Rolfe’s O Greenest Branch as soprano soloist conducted by David Fallis, and sings as soprano soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the North York Concert Orchestra.

Sara sang Musetta in La bohème with the Orchestre Classique de Montréal and ICAV conducted by Victorien Vanoosten and staged by Francois Racine. She gave a recital in the Canadian Opera Company’s Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, including the Canadian premiere of Pulitzer-nominated composer Alex Weiser’s in a dark blue night, debuted with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and the Grand Philharmonic Choir as the soloist in James Whitbourn’s Annelies, and sang Eve to crticial acclaim in the Canadian premiere of Jonathan Dove’s The Walk from the Garden with the Little Opera Company of Winnipeg.

Sara  recently premiered the title role in Maxime Goulet’s The Flight of the Hummingbird with Pacific Opera Victoria and Vancouver Opera, returning the following season to sing as the Dormouse in POV’s filmed production of Elizabeth Raum’s The Garden of Alice. In 2019, she worked with Vienna’s Concentus Musicus after moving to Vienna as a grant winner with the Hnatyshyn Foundation and gave a recital in the Zürich Opera House’s Spiegelsaal in 2020 with Canadian pianist Marie-Ève Scarfone. She performed as Henri in Tapestry Opera’s Dora-nominated production of Bandits in the Valley and recorded her debut album with Red Shift Records of Amy Brandon’s The Bond, with funding from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Sara began her career singing Papagena (Die Zauberflöte) with the Dayton Opera in Ohio and Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) with the Aspen Opera Theater as well as Mahler’s Fourth Symphony under the baton of the late Maestro Lorin Maazel. Previous soloist engagements have included work with the Dayton Philharmonic, Oakville Chamber Symphony, the Missisauga Symphony, Thirteen Strings, the Rockford Symphony Orchestra and the Bach-Elgar Choir. Her operatic repertoire includes Susanna, Lauretta, Corinna (Il viaggio a Reims), Anne Truelove, Juliette, Pamina, Gretel, and numerous other roles. She has been a district winner at the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Canada’s Eckhardt-Grammaté Competition, the Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques, the IRCPA’s Singing Stars of Tomorrow, was recently nominated for the Dora Award for Outstanding Performance by an Individual for her performance of Anne Frank in Cecilia Livingston’s Singing Only Softly.  ​

Sara holds degrees from the University of Toronto (Hon. Voice Perf., Eng. Literature Minor) and Roosevelt University (M.Mus., Siragusa Endowed Scholarship) with additional studies at Vienna’s Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst. She is a certified yoga teacher and a founding board member of the charity Sharing Notes, which brings free musical performances to hospitals and prisons. She is currently pursuing doctoral studies at McGill University researching the Austrian-Canadian mezzo-soprano, Emmy Heim. She is the new editor of Art Song Canada e-magazine, writes for the classical music newsletter Ludwig Van among other publications and is fluent in English, German and French.

Alex Shafirov, piano

Born in Russia but raised in Israel, Alex Shafirov was accepted into the Master’s program ay McGill’s University Schulich School of Music where he graduated with a first prize with distinction. He is presently a doctoral student of Michael McMahon and Ilya Poletaev. He won both McGill’s 2024-2025 Classical Concerto Competition and the Mozart Competition in 2024. He has appeared widely in Europe and participated in both the Schubert Institute in Austria and the Lachine International Vocal Academy in 2024.

PROGRAM

PRESENTED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE LACHINE BOROUGH

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