From Saint John, New Brunswick, tenor Owen McCausland is increasingly in demand for engagements with important opera companies and symphonies across Canada. He opened the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal’s 2018-2019 season with the World Premiere of Chaakapesh, The Trickster’s Quest under the baton of Kent Nagano. Written by Tomson Highway and Matthew Ricketts, the chamber opera’s premiere was followed by an extensive tour from the Arctic to the interior of Quebec. McCausland’s season continued with Jaquino in Fidelio for Pacific Opera Victoria, Ottavio in Don Giovanni for Manitoba Opera, Roderigo in Otello for the Canadian Opera Company, Messiahs in Victoria and New Brunswick and Mozart’s Requiem for Ottawa’s Music and Beyond.

McCausland looks forward to an exciting year ahead. Lensky in Eugene Onegin for Opéra de Montréal, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi for Pacific Opera Victoria, Messiah for the Okanagan Symphony and an extension of Soundstreams’ Musik für das Ende project focusing on the enigmatic work by Claude Vivier.

An alumnus of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio, his 2017-2018 schedule called for Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and the Fisherman in Le Rossignol for the Canadian Opera, Weill’s Sieben Todsünden for the Toronto Symphony, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde for the Ottawa Symphony, Vivier’s Musik für das Ende for Soundstreams and Messiah for Symphony Nova Scotia and the London Symphonia. Other recent credits include Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Lurcanio in Ariodante for the Canadian Opera Company, Messiah with the Regina Symphony and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 for Kitchener-Waterloo’s Grand Philharmonic Choir, and Rodolfo in La bohème for Against the Grain Theatre.

He has appeared in COC mainstage productions as Don Juan in Don Quichotte, Lord Cecil in Roberto Devereux, Ferrando in Così fan tutte (Ensemble Studio performance), Reverend Horace Adams in Peter Grimes and stepped in for a colleague in the title role of La clemenza di Tito for four performances.

During the ²⁰¹⁵⁄₂₀₁₆ season, Mr. McCausland performed as Alfredo in La traviata with the University of British Columbia Ensemble and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Testo in the Canadian Opera Company production of Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 for the Regina Symphony and Messiah for the Sudbury Symphony.

Further credits include Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor (Pacific Opera Victoria), the title role in Werther (Chautauqua Institution), Camille in The Merry Widow (Newfoundland Symphony), Alfred in Die Fledermaus (Guelph Symphony) and Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi (Opera on the Avalon).

Mr. McCausland was a finalist and winner of the Canadian Encouragement Award at the 2015 George London Singing Competition and a semi-finalist in both the 2015 Montreal International Music Competition and 2019 Hans Gabor Belvedere International Singing Competition.

Mr. McCausland holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Dalhousie University.