REBECCA
GRAY
Rebecca Gray is a soprano, composer and improviser passionate about performing and creating both classical and contemporary repertoire, always seeking to bring queerness and feminism to everything she does.
"Gray’s interpretation contained vocal acrobatics that left the audience in awe of her ethereal tone" -OPERA CANADA
Rebecca’s creativity, energy and perfect pitch are sought after in the creation of new work, and she has performed with Pacific Opera Victoria, Musique 3 femmes, Tapestry Opera, OperaQ, Esprit Orchestra, Highlands Opera, and Code D’accès. She also premiered the lead in Pomegranate (2019) with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. She is a member of FAWN chamber creative with whom she performs genre-bending vocal music, and has appeared as a finalist at the Eckhardt-Gramatté Contemporary Music Competition in Manitoba. With Pacific Opera Victoria she composed, performed and directed an original opera video. This video “Jess” was recently named a winner of Opera America’s Awards for Excellence in Digital Opera.
Equally at home in classic repertoire, Rebecca is a graduate of the University of Toronto Opera School, where she appeared as Donna Elvira in U of T’s Don Giovanni, and Diane in Orphée aux enfers. She performed popular arias with Toronto’s Counterpoints Orchestra and looks forward to a future performance of Strauss’s Four Last Songs.
Rebecca’s unique compositional voice is appreciated by audiences and musicians alike for its marriage of tunefulness and experimental music making. She loves finding the grandiose operatic moments in our sorry peasant lives, and her work blends earnestness, absurdism and dark humour. She received an Opera America Discovery Grant and Canada Council support to develop “BUS Opera”, an absurdist fantasy about millennial alienation on public transit, excerpts of which were premiered by New Music Concerts in Toronto. She has composed unique, narrative-driven choral work for Voces Boreales, Pro Coro, Soundstreams, and the Capital Chamber Choir. “Heaven was not Home,” a Wuthering Heights inspired choral work, was a 1st prize winner in the 2024 SOCAN awards for Young Composers. A winner of the Mécénat Musica Prix 3 Femmes, she collaborated with writer Rachel Gray to compose “Raccoon Opera – a fable of the housing crisis.” which involves an aimless tenant, a pervy Landlord and a ruthless raccoon. Excerpts of “Racoon Opera” were presented at Salle Bourgie in Montréal in 2024, (with Rebecca performing the titular role) at the Banff Centre, and at Highlands Opera.