About OperaQ

Founded in 2018, OperaQ is a Toronto-based independent opera company dedicated to amplifying queer and trans voices to offer unique perspectives on traditional narratives.  

The company is run as a project-based collective, allowing queer artists the autonomy to explore and share their own unique experiences of queerness.

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Our Team

  • Ryan McDonald

    CO-FOUNDER (he/they)

    Countertenor Ryan McDonald is a current Young Artist with POV’s Civic Engagement Quartet. A recent Encouragement Award winner from the MET Council Auditions, Ryan has been seen on stage across Canada and Europe in a variety of operatic and concert roles.

    Ryan was hailed by Opera Canada for his performance in Dido and Aeneas: “Ryan McDonald, a young Newfoundland and Labrador countertenor, made a particularly favorable impression as Spirit. McDonald has a voice of luminous, fresh colour, combined with natural musicality and an exciting sense of narrative drama”.

    Ryan is currently pursuing a DMA at the University of Toronto where they are researching the life of Klaus Nomi and investigating the ever expanding queer performance practice guide.

  • Smiling, young white non-binary person with short, curly brown hair and glasses.

    Camille Rogers

    CO-FOUNDER (they/them)

    Camille recently completed a Doctor of Musical Arts with a Collaborative Specialization in Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto.  Their research, supported by the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship and the France-Canada Cultural Exchange Experience France Award, investigated the life of queer and gender-non-conforming 17th-century French opera singer Julie d’Aubigny.  Camille has also invited to speak at events hosted by Against the Grain Theatre, Amplified Opera, and the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra.

    Opera roles include Suli/Suzie in Buddies in Bad Times’s world premiere of Pomegranate, Lake in FAWN's collectively improvised techno opera Belladonna, Young Girl in The Marriage of Figaro with Opera Atelier, and the title role of L’Italiana in Algeri with MYOpera.  Camille has also been featured as a soloist with Pax Christi Chorale, Toronto Bach Festival, and the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra, and has presented solo recitals with Centric MusicFest and Lethbridge Pride. 

    Photo by Kinsey Holt