Teiya Kasahara 笠原 貞野
Nikkei Canadian settler Teiya Kasahara 笠原 貞野 (they/he) is a trans(masc) non-binary opera singer and theatre creator based in Tkarón:to (Toronto), and is the creator-performer of the critically acclaimed operatic play The Queen In Me. Recently featured in the CBC short-doc OPERA TRANS*FORMED, Teiya is a graduate of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio and a recent recipient of the Joseph S. Stauffer Prize in Music from the Canada Council for the Arts.
Heralded as “a force of nature” (Toronto Star), “a fearless artist” (Ludwig van Toronto), and “an artist with extraordinary things to say” (The Globe and Mail), Teiya has nearly 20 years of experience singing both traditional and contemporary operatic and concert roles across North America and Europe, performing with the Aalto-Essen Musiktheater (Germany), Against the Grain Theatre, Aspen Opera Theatre, Canadian Opera Company (COC), Edmonton Opera, Kingston Symphony, Opéra Toulon (France), Tapestry Opera, Toronto Symphony, Vancouver Opera, Vancouver Symphony, and Windsor Symphony, among others.
Upcoming this season, Kasahara looks forward to creating the titular role in the world premiere of Leslie Uyeda’s Silence (Nuova Vocal Arts), and returns to the Canadian Opera Company for cover assignments in both Verdi’s Nabucco as Abigaille and the title role of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. They join re:Naissance Opera (Vancouver) to create the role of O in the world premiere of Eurydice Fragments, and various appearances as artistic associate with Confluence Concerts (Toronto). Teiya will also present a queer retelling of Schubert’s Dichterliebe (University of Toronto) with pianist David Eliakis, and will deliver a recital and workshops at Mount Allison University as an artist in residence. Performances of The Queen In Me will also come to western Canada later in 2025.
Teiya is known for their signature interpretations of Queen of the Night/The Magic Flute (Canadian Opera Company, Essen, Vancouver, Edmonton, Kitchener, Haliburton), Fata Morgana/L’Amour des Trois Oranges (Essen), and the title role of Madama Butterfly (COC cover; Southern Ontario Lyric Opera; Windsor Symphony). Other vocal highlights include performing alongside Polaris Prize and Juno award winner Jeremy Dutcher in albums Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa (2018) and Motewolonuwok (2023), and creating the role of Solana in the world premiere of Canada’s first lesbian opera When the Sun Comes Out (Queer Arts Festival, 2013).
The 2023/2024 season brought a number of prototypes of projects to life, including the devised work Belladonna (Fawn Chamber Creative) and an autoethnographical multifaceted series entitled Project T with its first public performance in New York (ChamberQUEER). Teiya was noted for their “bright, rich tone” and “always pitch perfect” (La Scena Musicale) as the soprano soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
For the 2022/2023 season Teiya was a resident artist with re:Naissance Opera’s Indie Fest, developing new works including Imaginarium; Inferno, a new hip hop opera by Omari Newton and Amy Lee Lavoie; and Eurydice Fragments. He also covered the title role in Salome with the Canadian Opera Company, and returned to the COC to perform the Priestess and Bartender in the premiere of a new queer opera, Pomegranate. Notable performances were also the soprano solos in Beethoven‘s Symphony No. 9 (Vancouver and Kingston Symphony Orchestras) and Orff’s Carmina Burana (Amadeus Choir).
During the global pandemic (2020-2021), Teiya also created their first video series 19 VIDEOS FOR COVID-19 which garnered them the nickname, “the balcony soprano” (Toronto Star). Other content during this period included the digital debut of the ongoing Butterfly Project (Confluence Concerts, Amplified Opera), and various digital offerings including S.O.S. Sketch Opera Singers (Tapestry Opera), Electric Messiah (Soundstreams), and Symphonic Pride (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra).
Within his own artistic practice Teiya explores the intersections of gender, sexuality, and race using elements of opera, theater, and electronics, as both creator and performer, noted in their first original work The Queen In Me which had its world premiere in June 2022 at the Canadian Opera Company (with co-producers Amplified Opera, Nightwood Theatre, and Theatre Gargantua). The Queen In Me was a sold-out success and was nominated for five Dora Mavor Moore awards (2022), and has since toured to the Belfast International Arts Festival, and had a sold-out run at the National Arts Centre (2023) where it was praised as “a radical, innovative piece of operatic art.” Click here to learn more about The Queen In Me.
Head over to Teiya’s website to learn more about his work as a creator, including Little Mis(s)gender, 夜 Yoru (or When the Night Becomes One Sound), and River Island; as co-founder of Amplified Opera (Canadian Opera Company’s first Disruptor-in-Residence), and as a consultant and vocal clinician.
September 2024
Not to be altered or copied without permission.
““Kasahara is a force to be reckoned with, offering up stunning renditions of beloved pieces from Puccini, Donizetti, Verdi, Strauss, Massenet and Mozart. Even more exhilarating is their reclamation of the spotlight on their own terms, mastering the material and illustrating — viscerally — the transcendent potential of the art form.” ”
