Hear new arias and works by Indigenous composer Rob Hunter who is joined by Ethan Hill and friends. We intend to offer a select preview of Hunter’s newest expressions including from his opera Sakochitwa. Audiences will hear both Indigenous song and classical music influence, delighting ears of every penchant. Thank you for being in our audience. I hope you will find something meaningful and enjoy the repose of our noon hour music.-R.H.
Tim Gosley is a Canadian puppeteer who has worked on several Muppet productions. Gosley studied theater at the University of Alberta, earning a BFA in acting. He soon shifted to puppeteering, and in 1981, he was one of several Canadian artists who trained with Richard Hunt to work on Fraggle Rock, where he performed minor and background characters. In 1987, he landed his first major Muppet character, Basil the polar bear, who he would play for nine seasons on Sesame Park, the Canadian version of Sesame Street. Gosley’s other puppetry work includes his touring one-man show based on The Ugly Duckling. In television, he has performed on Blizzard Island, Iris the Happy Professor, and Caillou. He went on to write for several animated series, including Fix & Foxi. Tim & Rob have collaborated on many projects from TigaTalk! APTN kids show, to abstract shadow puppetry, light puppetry and outdoor performances with gamelan orchestra, civic workshop series creating giant puppets in a chapel and a play that toured, various experiments with Rob’s opera Good Story including musical visual jams with Ethan Hill and Steluta chamber folk orchestra, and many more in the future.
Ethan Hill is a creative and inquisitive mind. Showing an interest in music at an early age, Ethan studied piano and theory throughout his childhood. He later pursued music in post secondary, studying composition at the University of Victoria, where he also trained as a liturgical musician at St. John the Divine Anglican Church. In 2019, he relocated to Montreal to study the organ at McGill University, during which time he held an organ scholarship at Christ Church Cathedral.
His work in the church sparked his fascination with metaphysics, symbolism and ontology, which he continues to explore today. All of this ultimately manifests itself through his compositions, where he explores intonation theory, sound cognition as well as his curiosity for musical intuition. Currently, Ethan is based in Calgary, Alberta, where he proudly serves as Director of Music at Knox United Church and works with the Savridi Singers, Westwinds Music Society, the St John Choir Schola among several others. He continues to develop his artistry through residencies with the Banff Centre for Art and Creativity, the Domaine Forget de Charlevoix and Continuum Contemporary Music. Ethan also serves as the current president of the RCCO, Calgary Centre.
Lauren Woods is a soprano from Calgary, Alberta. Lauren has been a performer since she was a child, beginning with choir, piano, and competitive figure skating. She completed a vocal performance diploma at Mount Royal University, and went on to the University of British Columbia where she received a bachelor’s degree in Opera. Lauren now carries a Master’s in Voice Performance from the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. She was recognized as a finalist in the Wirth Vocal Competition in Montreal, and was one of six singers to represent Canada in the international Belvedere competition in Amsterdam in 2015.
Lauren was thrilled to return home and join Calgary Opera as one of their Emerging artists for the 2016-2017 season. During the program, she played Laurette in Le Docteur Miracle, Fairy-Godmother and Clorinda in Cinderella, and covered Adele in Die Fledermaus. Previous roles include: Brenda in Empty the House (Ammolite Opera), Pierrot in a staged production of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, the title role in Rodelinda, Amy in Mark Adamo’s Little Women (Opera McGill), Adina in Love Potion No. 9 (Cowtown Opera), Rose in Jake Heggie’s At the Statue of Venus, The Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, Musetta in La Bohème, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Meg in The Phantom of the Opera (Cowtown Opera), Gilda in Rigoletto, Sophie in Wether (Calgary Concert Opera), and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro (Opera NUOVA). At UBC she played Countess Blavinskeya in the world premiere of The Dream Healer, Nanetta in Verdi’s Falstaff and Despina in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte in the Czech republic, Ontario and Vancouver.
Lauren has been fortunate to tour across Canada with Cowtown Opera in Toronto and Charlottetown, as well as Mercury Opera, in Alberta and Ontario. She’s worked with the edgy opera company on various projects including Fiamma (Magnetic North Festival in Ottawa) and 109 Underground in Edmonton (Omni tv documentary).
Currently, Lauren is a featured soloist in Calgary with various Choirs including the Juno-nominated Luminous Voices, for which she also sings as a regular chorister. Most recently, she was thrilled to sing Mahler’s 4th symphony with the Calgary Civic Symphony and Mozart’s Requiem with the Firebird chorus and orchestra. She can be seen performing everything from Opera, Folk, Jazz, Pop to Musical Theatre and beyond. Aside from performing, Lauren is a prominent voice/piano teacher and clinician in Alberta. She is extremely passionate about music and acting, and she believes that music broadens the mind, feeds the soul and enriches lives.
Lauren has performed and toured with Rob in Good Story and collaborated in numerous workshops in the development of new opera since 2022. Rob and Lauren recently collaborated on the Calgary Opera: Let’s Create an Opera program at L’Ecole Sundance, of Elder Saa’kokoto’s story of Piita the Eagle.
Rob Hunter is a Cree Métis composer and performing artist for theatres throughout Canada. He took part in a Theatre Calgary workshop of Tom Jackson’s new musical Blue Water. Rob is a composer and librettist for Calgary Opera’s community outreach, and also creates new Indigenous operas with an ensemble of singers and musicians including Ethan Hill, Adam Brousseau, Lauren Woods, & Jeanine Williams. A lot of his new operas have been created out of the spirit of Portugal as he travels there and loves writing music of the land and sea. One of his goals is to perform in the Faro Opera House.
Rob is a UVIC School of Music Alumni where he was the last trombone student under the tutelage of Ian McDougall, well-known Canadian trombonist, composer and arranger.
Rob is thankful on behalf of the team to perform so near to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is a Truth that must be told, one that my grandmother and both grandparents told me about a past sometimes filled with difficulty in which our people still resiled and had fun, and the importance of hope for the future. Rob is a Librettist for the 2025 Calgary Opera Let’s Create an Opera and enjoys creating opera with kids, as well as opera for his family where they see themselves reflected in the characters. The art we include is part of commissions of Blackfoot artists Madison Sapieha and Ryan Willert supported by Calgary Arts Development.
This concert is the third in a series of four Distinctive Artists Series Concerts during 2025 that is generously sponsored by:
This Concert is a proud Community Co-Presentation of ProArts Society and The Calgary Downtown Association.
