Owen McCausland
Canadian tenor Owen McCausland is increasingly in demand for both operatic and symphonic engagements across North America. Highlights of recent seasons include Verdi’s Otello and Puccini’s La fanciulla del west with The Cleveland Orchestra, Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Pacific Opera Victoria, and the premiere of Cusson’s Fantasma with the Canadian Opera Company. This season, Owen looks forward to returning to the Canadian Opera Company for Berg’s Wozzeck and Bilodeau’s La reine-garçon, and Vancouver Opera for Strauss’ Die Fledermaus. On the concert stage, he joins Grand Philharmonic Choir for Handel’s Messiah and the Victoria Symphony for Haydn’s Creation.
Owen’s previous season included appearances with Vancouver Opera (Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute), the Adelaide Festival (Fisherman in Robert Lepage’s production of The Nightingale and Other Fables), and The Cleveland Orchestra, also for Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The 2022/2023 season saw returns to the Canadian Opera Company (Salome), Pacific Opera Victoria (Così fan tutte), his role debut as Lucio Silla with Opera in Concert (Toronto), the world premiere of Frehner’s LEX with Soundstreams, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Grand Philharmonic Choir and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.
Owen enjoyed an exciting 2019-20 season that included Lensky in Eugene Onegin for Opéra de Montréal, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi for Pacific Opera Victoria, and Messiah for the Okanagan Symphony. 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.
An alumnus of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio, he has been heard at the Four Seasons Centre as Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and the Fisherman in The Nightingale and Other Fables. Weill’s Sieben Todsünden for the Toronto Symphony, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde for the Ottawa Symphony, Messiah for Symphony Nova Scotia, the London Symphonia and Regina Symphony, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Lurcanio in Ariodante for the Canadian Opera Company, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 for Kitchener-Waterloo’s Grand Philharmonic Choir and Regina Symphony, and Rodolfo in La bohème for Against the Grain Theatre are among recent credits.
He has also 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. 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), and Alfred in Die Fledermaus (Guelph Symphony).
Mr. McCausland was a finalist and winner of the Canadian Encouragement Award in the George London Singing Competition and also a semi-finalist in the Montreal International Music Competition.
August 2024
Not to be altered or copied without permission.
““Young Canadian tenor Owen McCausland did a cracking job as a last-minute replacement for John MacMaster. He has a bright, ringing, enchantingly coloured voice, with a wonderfully secure top...He’s sharply attentive to the nuances of the poetry, and his performance was alert and thoroughly engaged.
”
