Acclaimed for her "poise and great musical aplomb" (Opera Canada), Saskatchewan-born/Toronto-based soprano McKenzie Warriner has made her mark on repertoire spanning centuries. As a Rebanks Family Fellow at The Glenn Gould School for the 2024/2025 season, McKenzie is excited to perform her first Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte with GGS Opera. She will also make her debut with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in Messiah, and she will sing Luca Francesconi’s virtuosic 25-minute work for soprano, electronics, and orchestra Etymo with the GGS New Music Ensemble during the 2025 21C Festival at the Royal Conservatory of Music.
 

Opera

 

An alumna of Vancouver Opera’s Yulanda M. Faris Young Artist Program, McKenzie has sung roles across Canada, including Papagena in Die Zauberflöte (Vancouver Opera), Moira in The Handmaid’s Tale (Banff Centre: Workshop Presentation), Aurore in Le Portrait de Manon (Vancouver Opera), Madame Herz in Der Schauspieldirektor (Eastman Opera Theatre), and Gretel in Hansel and Gretel (University of Manitoba Opera in Schools). She has also covered a wide range of roles from Mozart to Bizet to Sondheim, and has performed concerts of opera scenes with Vancouver Opera, White Rock Concerts, and the Canadian Opera Company’s free concert series. On the competition stage, McKenzie is a winner of the Gordon Wallis Opera competition, and was a finalist for the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal National Auditions and the Toronto Mozart Competition.

New Music

Winner of the 2023 Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition, McKenzie is one of Canada's rising stars in the field of contemporary music. She has premiered over a dozen works by composers from across North America and the United Kingdom, with performances at the Aldeburgh Festival as a Britten Pears Young Artist, on tour across Canada with pianist Danielle Guina, and in concert with Slow Rise Music, the series McKenzie co-founded with her frequent collaborator Tristan Zaba (her husband).  Through Slow Rise Music, McKenzie and Tristan strive to push boundaries within traditional vocal genres while fostering collaboration across musical communities, placing a special emphasis on commissioning/performing music by emerging Canadian artists. In fall 2023, McKenzie and Tristan teamed up with pianist Paul Williamson to release an album of Tristan’s compositions for the Centrediscs label entitled Unfinished Business, which operaramblings described as “clearly contemporary, but not in a way that might frighten people off.”

 

Concert

​

McKenzie has recently made concert debuts with Edmonton Opera, Regina Symphony Orchestra, Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, and the Banff Centre in works ranging from the 18th century to the cutting-edge. Some of McKenzie’s past concert repertoire highlights include chamber works by Osvaldo Golijov, Handel's Messiah, Abigail Richardson-Schulte’s Alligator Pie, Rameau's solo cantata Le Berger fidèle, and Ana Sokolovic’s dawn always begins in the bones. In recital, McKenzie regularly performs as a duo with pianist Danielle Guina.

 

education

McKenzie completed her Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music studying with mezzo-soprano Kathryn Cowdrick, and her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance at the University of Manitoba under the tutelage of baritone Mel Braun. She also holds ARCT diplomas in both piano and vocal performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music, and has trained at Tafelmusik's Summer Baroque Intensive, The Banff Centre, Opera from Scratch, Source Song Festival, Opera NUOVA, Orford Musique, Against the Grain Theatre’s National Opera Intensive, and the Meredith Monk Vocal Ensemble’s Dancing Voice/Singing Body workshop.

Other Things
 

McKenzie loves running, knitting, and playing Dungeons & Dragons, and is a proud pet mother to Marcie the dog and Blake the snake. She also bakes really delicious cakes, but isn't very good at decorating them.