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.

This season, Lara sang Titania in The Fairy Queen by Henry Purcell with Dorf Macht Opera in Brandenburg. The Einstein Forum in Potsdam then invited her to curate and perform a program of the music sung and popularized by Paul Robeson. She focused on the works that most demonstrated his

values of brotherhood, protest of injustice, and the sharing of language and culture to find commonality. Lara also lent her voice to a concert collaboration between Manitoba Opera, Flipside Opera and Little Opera in celebration and tribute to Michael Cavanagh, singing works by him and his lifelong collaborator, Neil Weisensel. She and composer Neil Weisensel are working towards recording these works for posterity. She sang a concert of beloved arias by Puccini and Verdi with the Alaia quartet in Leipzig’s stunning Salles de Pologne. She collaborated with Maestro Emmanuel Plasson in selections from Thaïs and other masterpieces from the French operatic canon at the Centre Bagatelle in Fronau.

Recent performances include Erwachen, an evocative work about climate change and human bewilderment by Alexander Liebermann, with musicians from Orchester des Wandels in the Braunschweiger Dom; Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos with MusikfürMusik Künstler under the baton of Maestro Peter Selwyn and Shir Hashirim and Canciones Sefardies by Sid Robinovitch with Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. She revived her recital program, All Mute Things Speak with pianist Daniel Seroussi, in Berlin. She also performed a recital for the Little Opera Company featuring the works of Richard Strauss, Debussy and Fauré with pianist Michael Oike presented in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

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

Recent concerts include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Gardner Museum in Boston, premieres of new works by Sid Robinovitch, Yaron Gottfried, Osnat Netzer and Daniel Janke. She performed on the Sopranos of Winnipeg Concert at Manitoba Opera, recitals with Pacific Opera Victoria, and Poulenc’s Gloria with Greenwich Choral Society. Internationally, she presented concerts at the Jeonju International Sori Festival in Korea, Opera Helikon in Moscow, a 15-city operatic concert tour in China, Linz Oper, and Opera San Miguel (Mexico). Of the more contemporary variety, she performed 3 Settings of Celan by Harrison Birtwistle with the AXIOM Ensemble at Lincoln Center, the premiere of Ritual by Alessandro Iglesias Rossi and works of John Cage with both The New Juilliard Ensemble, and the Banff Centre conducted by Joel Sachs.

Lara has won awards from The George London Foundation, Metropolitan Opera National Council, Giulio Gari Foundation, Orvieto International Singing Competition, and Opera San Miguel. She was named a Jeune Ambassadeur Lyrique by Théâtre Lyrichorégra 20 and was awarded the top prize of Jeune Espoire Lyric Canadienne from the Mexican, Austrian, Korean, Russian and the Chinese Lyric Bursaries.

Lara Secord Haid 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.