Classical music mourns Canadian soprano
Classical music fans are remembering Canadian soprano Erin Wall as a virtuosic talent whose voice was taken away too soon. The singer’s family says in an obituary that Wall died Thursday of complications from metastatic breast cancer. She was 44. With a repertoire ranging from Mozart to modern opera, Wall held top roles in some of the most prestigious operas in the world.
As news of her death sparked an outpouring of tributes on social media, Christopher Deacon, the president and CEO of Canada’s National Arts Centre, wrote that Wall “shone brightly on stages around the world, inspiring and moving so many.” The National Arts Centre Orchestra also wrote that Wall will be “deeply missed and remembered for her vivacious spirit and infectious laugh.”
Born in Calgary on Nov. 4, 1975, Wall was raised in Vancouver. She studied piano at the Vancouver Academy of Music and went on to study singing in the U.S. In 2001, she launched her professional career as a member of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She returned to Canada in 2009, and settled down with her family in Toronto.
She appeared in concerts with the Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Nashville symphony orchestras in the U.S., as well as the London Symphonic Orchestra and the Paris Orchestra. In Canada, in addition to the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra, she sang with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic and the Edmonton Symphony.