Sabatino Vacca is the Founder, Artistic Director, and Chorus Master of Southern Ontario Lyric Opera (SOLO) which he founded in the latter part of 2015 after the demise of Opera Hamilton in 2013. He saw the need for a regional opera company and decided to go ahead. Most of the chorus and orchestra which were associated with and true to OH have since also become an integral part of SOLO. He oversees concert budgets, mainstage opera productions, fundraising, and grant writing.
Sabatino is also the Music Director of the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra (CSO) since 2007. Under his leadership, the CSO has accompanied Ben Heppner, Richard Margison, Gary Relyea, and others in concert. Sabatino also conducted an all-Tchaikovsky programme at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto.
He has conducted orchestras in the Czech Republic, Symphony Hamilton, Cathedral Bluffs Symphony, Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brampton Symphony Orchestra, the Rose Orchestra, Huronia Symphony Orchestra and the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra. He conducted Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, and Tosca for Opera Bel Canto.
Sabatino served as Artistic Director of Opera York from 2004 to 2016. For Opera York, he has served as Artistic Director for productions of Carmen, Suor Angelica/Gianni Schicchi, La Traviata, The Barber of Seville, Tosca, Rigoletto, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Il Trovatore, and as Conductor for Le Nozze di Figaro and Così Fan Tutte. For Opera Belcanto he has conducted Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, and Tosca. He was on staff with Opera Hamilton as a repetiteur and has worked as an opera coach for the University of Toronto, Wilfrid Laurier University and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.
He was also the head coach for many years for the International Opera Workshop held in the Czech Republic. He has a Post-Graduate Diploma in Opera Performance from the University of Toronto and a Master’s Degree in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Montreal.
Sabatino is the recipient of the Spirit of Ontario Award for the Arts by the National Congress of Italian Canadians and was recently inducted into the Alumni Gallery at McMaster University where he completed his undergraduate degree in music.