Mezzo-soprano Meagan Reimer is at home in a broad range of repertoire from jazz to musical theatre, art song, classical and operatic repertoire. As a consummate portfolio artist, she has appeared with familiar companies in the Toronto area, including Opera by Request, Toronto Operetta Theatre, Voicebox Opera in Concert, Tapestry Opera, and Opera Sustenida, as well as a guest soloist with Windsor Symphony Orchestra and York University with the Talisker Players. Now based in Manitoba, Meagan has been a featured artist with Winnipeg’s Flipside Opera & Art Song Collective, Manitoba Underground Opera, and Manitoba Opera.
Oratorio works she has performed include music by composers such as Duruflé, Fauré, Händel, Mozart, Haydn, Allegri, a host of Bach cantatas, Saint-Saëns, Pergolesi/Durante, and more. Opera and operetta credits include Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) and Rossini’s Desdemona (Otello) with Opera by Request, Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) with Lyric Opera Studio Weimar, Ino (Semele) with Summer Opera Lyric Theatre, Jules/Julia (Pomegranate Opera Workshop) with Tapestry Opera, Kate (The Pirates of Penzance) with Toronto Operetta Theatre, Bertarido and Unulfo (Rodelinda), Mercédès (Carmen) with 3-7-Ace Opera, Sesto (Giulio Cesare) with Accademia Europea dell ‘Opera, Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), and both Ruggiero and Bradamante (Alcina). After her performance as Donna Elvira with Lyric Opera Studio Weimar, she was invited to return as Angelina in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, a performance which was ultimately cancelled due to the global pandemic. In 2018, Meagan was Runner-Up of the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra Clifford Poole Vocal Competition in Toronto, and was also a semi-finalist of the Doris MacLellan Competition in Winnipeg in the same year. In late 2020, Meagan was invited to Salzburg, Austria to take part in the Oper im Berg Grandi Voci Vocal Competition. She has been a vocal finalist at the National Music Festival, and a past recipient of a study scholarship from the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Toronto to study language in Florence, Italy. She has been guest alto soloist with Windsor Symphony Orchestra’s Messiah, and recently stepped in last minute for a fundraising Messiah concert with orchestra at Winnipeg’s Westminster United Church. Her performance as Desdemona in Rossini’s Otello with Opera by Request in 2023 garnered accolades for her clean colouratura, even likened to the vocalizations of the great Joan Sutherland (Leslie Barcza, Barczablog). Meagan is often a guest artist for events with Manitoba Opera in Winnipeg.
Meagan holds a Bachelor of Music from Canadian Mennonite University, and a Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Vocal Performance from the University of Manitoba Desautels Faculty of Music, where she is currently completing her Master of Music studies in performance. This past year of study saw her appear as Ramise with the University Chamber Ensemble’s production of Händel’s Arminio, and a role study of Romeo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi, a role she was able to perform in concert with colleagues and friends of Opera by Request in Toronto this past May. Her recent recital in Winnipeg included
Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Été, Grieg’s Sechs Lieder (Op. 48), Sibelius’s 5 Songs for Voice and Piano (Op. 38), Zarzuela by Ruperto Chapì, and Argentine songs of Carlos Guastavino.
An advocate for lifelong learning and literature, Meagan is a clerk in her local library and teaches voice in southern Manitoba. She enjoys creating imaginative collaborative projects with fellow musicians, sommeliers, chefs, and visual artists, reimagining classical music repertoire for everyone.