Allyson McHardy

Hailed by Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle as “a singer of enormous imagination and versatility,” Allyson McHardy has appeared with the Paris Opera; Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Toronto Symphony; Glyndebourne Festival; San Francisco Opera; Boston Symphony; Canadian Opera Company; Warsaw Philharmonic; and Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse. She last appeared with Music of the Baroque in November 2021.

This season, Allyson McHardy joins Pacific Opera Victoria asFricka in Wagner’s Die Walküre; is a featured soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with Vancouver Symphony and in Handel’s Messiah with both Indianapolis Symphony and Early Music Vancouver; and returns to Victoria Symphony for a program of Schumann and Schafer. Other recent engagements include the lead role of Rose Valland in the world premiere of Le beauté du monde at Opéra de Montréal; a program of Bach Cantatas with Rafael Payare and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal; Elijah with the Grand Philharmonic Choir; Handel’s The Resurrection with Opera Atelier; and Messiah with the Victoria Symphony.

A native of the province of Ontario, Allyson McHardy's career is a carefully curated balance of opera and concert repertoire that moves easily from Donizetti to Handel and from Heggie to Mahler. She made her debut in China in Robert Carsen’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, first created for Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and was heard in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 for the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. The Mozart Requiem took her to Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, while in Seattle she was featured in Ligeti’s Requiem. Of particular note were her performances as Julie Riel in Harry Somers’ Louis Riel, a Canadian Opera Company production also seen in Ottawa and Québec City as part of the nation’s Sesquicentennial celebrations. 

Further opera highlights include appearances in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia in St. Gallen, Switzerland; Roberto Devereux for the Canadian Opera Company; Amadis De Gaule at the Opéra Comique; Handel’s Alcina with Opera Atelier; Madama Butterfly with OdeM and Vancouver Opera; Sister Helen in OdeM’s Dead Man Walking; and Handel’s Hercules with Toronto’s Tafelmusik. 

Allyson McHardy has appeared with major orchestras across the globe in works such as Ligeti’s Requiem with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Vancouver Symphony; Messiah in St. Louis, Madrid, and Chicago; and a staged production of Mozart’s Mass in D Minor for the TSO. 

Allyson McHardy’s discography includes the JUNO-nominated Orlando by George Frideric Handel with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra and Alexander Weimann (ATMA); the JUNO- and ADISQ- nominated recording of Caldara’s La Conversione di Clodoveo, Re di Francia (ATMA); Bellini’s Norma with the Warsaw Philharmonic (Philharmonia Narodowa); two works by Harry Somers—Serinette and A Midwinter Night’s Dream (Centrediscs); and Ukrainian music by composer Mykola Lysenko in a six-disc collection on the Musica Leopolis label.

Allyson McHardy returns to Music of the Baroque for Handel's Theodora on March 2 & 3.