Lara Secord-Haid is a versatile singing artist with a rich artistic practice. Her work as an opera and classical singing artist has been praised for its “impassioned strength” (Classical Scene) and for being “capable of the highest flights of coloratura and possessing a rich and expressive overall quality” (Attencion San Miguel). Lara explores a wide range of classically informed music, from the antique to contemporary. Beyond the traditional and avant-garde, she has immersed herself in the captivating world of Sephardic music. This love resonates through her commission and performance of new works within this genre.

This season, Lara performs Erwachen, an evocative work about climate change and human bewilderment at the force of our nature and denial by Alexander Liebermann, with musicians from Orchester des Wandels in the Braunschweiger Dom. She also takes the stage as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss and later as Blanche de la Force in Les Dialogue des Carmelites by Francis Poulenc with MusikfürMusik Künstler collaborative in Berlin. She will revive her recital program, All Mute Things Speak, which she curated through an intensive search for music and poetry in Hebrew and Ladino and through commissions of new and adapted works made possible by the Canada Council for the Arts with pianist Daniel Seroussi also in Berlin. Lara will premiere her Sephardic song project, performing two new song cycles entitled Shir Hashirim and Canciones Sefarad by composer Sid Robinovitch in a brand-new orchestration by Tad Biernacki with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. She will also appear as Frasquita in Carmen with Manitoba Opera and performs a recital program featuring the works of Richard Strauss with pianist Michael Oike presented by The Little Opera Company in Winnipeg.

Lara’s operatic highlights include Governess in The Turn of the Screw at Nashville Opera; Micaëla in La Tragedie de Carmen with City Lyric Opera, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Manhattan Opera Studio; Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica, Manhattan Opera Studio; Cendrillon in Cendrillon, New York Lyric Opera; Sophie in Werther, Manitoba Opera; Cendrillon in Cendrillon, New York Lyric Opera; Marzelline in Fidelio, Manitoba Opera; Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw, Opera on the Avalon; Miss Silverpeal in The Impresario for North Shore Music Festival, Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Opera on the Avalon; Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Banff opera as Theatre; Giulia in La Scala di Seta, Juilliard opera; the Woodpecker in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Juilliard opera; Marsinah in Kismet, Little Opera Winnipeg; Loon Returns: An environmental operetta by Daniel Janke, The Longest Night Society; Jessie Anderson in the new opera No One’s Safe by Lizée and Ivany; Silent Light by composer Paola Prestini and librettist Royce Vavrek.

On the concert platform, recent performances include soprano soloist in Beethoven 9, Gardner Museum Boston; premieres of new works by Sid Robinovitch, Yaron Gottfried, Osnat Netzer and a workshop of Operatic Works by Daniel Janke. Additional performances include The Sopranos of Winnipeg Concert at Manitoba Opera, a residency and recitals with Pacific Opera Victoria, Poulenc’s Gloria with the Greenwich Choral Society, a concert in the Jeonju International Sori Festival in Korea and a concert at Opera Helikon in Moscow, a 15-city operatic concert tour throughout China, a concert at Linz Oper in Linz, Austria, a solo concert with Opera San Miguel (San Miguel, Mexico), 3 Settings of Celan by Harrison Birtwistle with the AXIOM Ensemble at Lincoln Center, an Alice Tully hall premiere of Ritual by Alessandro Iglesias Rossi and works of John Cage with both The New Juilliard Ensemble and Banff Centre with the resident new music ensemble conducted by Joel Sachs. She also performed Handel’s Messiah and Verdi’s Requiem with the Orchestra at Shelter Rock. She sang featured works of Granados, R. Strauss and Rimsky-Korsakov in recital, a soloist in a Salute to Bernstein with Little Opera Winnipeg, recitals in the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s summer concert series and performed Tyzik’s 12 gifts of Christmas and Howard Blake’s The Bear.

Lara is a recipient of awards from The Geroge London Foundation, Metropolitan Opera National Council, the Giulio Gari Foundation, Orvieto International Singing Competition, and Opera San Miguel. She was named a Jeune Ambassadeur Lyrique in 2015 and 2016 by Théâtre Lyrichorégra 20. She was awarded the top prize of Jeune Espoire Lyric Canadienne and the Mexican, Austrian, Korean, Russian and the Chinese Lyric Bursaries. She has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Manitoba Arts Council and the Winnipeg Arts Council and a two-time finalist in the Canadian Opera Company’s Center Stage competition.

Lara holds a Master of Music from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Music from The New England Conservatory of Music. She was a fellow at the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie, attended Highlands Opera Studio, the Banff Center, the Conservatoire de Nice summer academy, and the Spoleto Vocal Arts Symposium.