ProArts @ Noon

The Talisman Energy Choir is a 40-voice recreational choir that was originally formed in the Spring of 2002, under the professional direction of Theresa Wasden, and accompanied by local artist Ron Proctor at the piano.

Currently performing in their fifteenth season and seventh year of operation, the Choir takes its role as company ambassador seriously, performing eight to ten times each season at various downtown and suburban venues. Read more:

Founded in 2000, the Maple Leaf Brass Quintet consists of local musicians with a passion and enthusiasm for excellence and fine musicianship. The Quintet is a versatile and distinctive ensemble performing music spanning five centuries. The quintet's repertoire is widely varied, comprising of baroque, classical, contemporary, Dixieland, marches, jazz and show tunes. Our diverse library of pieces also consists of original compositions and arrangements written by our own members. Read more:

Each season, Calgary Opera's Emerging Artist Development Program provides up to eight young singers with the opportunity to study and perform under a highly prestigious professional staff of teachers and performers.

The program is intended to benefit Canadian singers who have completed pre-professional training at an opera program. It will serve as a bridge between academic programs and the professional world of opera, offering the experience and practical skills necessary to succeed as a self-employed professional in a highly competitive international environment.

Interaction between the professional staff, visiting artists and the Emerging Artists is an integral professional training function of the program. Read more:

Barbara King, mezzo-soprano, was 7 years old when she first stepped onto a stage in front of 700 people at a Scottish Dancing Ball in Montreal, Quebec, and at that moment she knew that performing was in her future. Barbara fell in love with opera and singing because of her father, Alex King, a tenor who studied at the Metropolitan Opera Company from 1948 to 1951, and her mother, Grace King, a former concert pianist, and presently a professional Accompanist. Barbara's parents taught her proper technique and the importance of practice and dedication, which she not only applied to singing, but to Gymnastics. A few years after winning the 1990 Quebec Provincial Championship, she began singing again.

Barbara currently resides in Calgary, Alberta, Canada where she sang as Countess Ceprano in Calgary Opera's 2007 new production of Rigoletto. Other performances include La Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica, Romeo in I Capuleti Ed I Montecchi with the 2008 Amalfi Music Festival in Italy, Romeo in I Capuleti Ed I Montecchi with Opera by Request in Toronto and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with the Tuscia Opera Festival in Viterbo, Italy. Barbara also had the pleasure of singing with the Canadian Vocal Arts Institute in Montréal. Read more:

David Vanden Enden has been performing since he was 6 years old. He's always known he was meant to be on a stage singing for people and has always felt a deep desire to touch people with his voice. Most recently David won the 2007 David Foster Star Search Competition and has since performed with David Foster across the country. Read more: