Described as a “rising star to watch” by Opera Canada, soprano Sydney Baedke was recently named one of Canada’s top emerging musicians under 30 by the CBC (2021). Praised for her “shimmering” coloratura (Opera News), she began her vocal training at age five in her native Alberta and has since made emerging artist appearances across Canada, the United States, and Europe. She looks forward to making her principle artist debut at Opera on the Avalon as Beatrice in Heggie & Sheer’s Three Decembers in June 2022.

Sydney made her professional debut in 2019 as La Fortuna & Valletto in Tim Albery’s critically acclaimed production of Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where she also covered Gilda in Rigoletto as a member of the Gerdine Young Artist Program. Unfortunately Sydney’s return to Saint Louis as Frasquita in their 2020 production of Carmen was postponed due to the global pandemic. She recently spent the 2021 summer season as a member of the renowned Apprentice Program for Singers at the Santa Fe Opera, where she covered Tatyana in Eugene Onegin and appeared as Antonia in an excerpt from Les Contes d’Hoffmann in the annual Apprentice Scenes Showcase. 2021 also saw Sydney star in the title role of Brott Opera’s digital, abridged production of Estacio’s iconic Canadian opera, Filumena.

Additional operatic roles include Calisto (La Calisto), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Malwina (Der Vampyr), and Johanna (Sweeney Todd). Sydney is an alumnus of prestigious opera training programs at the Aspen Music Festival, the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy, Brott Opera, the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts, and was an inaugural member of Manitoba Opera’s Digital Emerging Artist Program.

Throughout the 2019-2020 season, Sydney was a member of the Rebanks Family Fellowship and International Performance Residency Program with Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music. During this time, she made concert debuts at Koerner Hall, the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, the 21C Music Festival, and the National Ballet of Canada. Her love of chamber music has lead her to opportunities to perform compositions such as Shostakovich’s Seven Romances on Poetry by Blok (op. 127) for soprano & piano trio, Chausson’s Chanson Perpetuelle, and Ernst Toch’s rarely heard Die Chinesische Flöte with the Royal Conservatory of Music. Sydney has found great success with, and has a sincere fondness for, the music of Romantic Russian composers, having performed many iconic works of Rachmaninoff, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich.

Sydney is a Regional Finalist & three-time prize winner at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and recently performed on the stages of the Civic Opera House and Place des Arts as a finalist at the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s & Opéra de Montréal’s respective Young Artist Audition Galas. Sydney holds degrees in opera & voice performance from Rice University and the University of Toronto. She is immensely grateful for the support of the Alberta Government, the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation, the Art Song Foundation of Canada, and the Weston Family Foundation. She is on the roster of Dean Artists Management.