ABOUT US
Richard Wagner Canada is a not-for-profit organization aiming to realize Richard Wagner's dream of making music and culture accessible to all individuals.
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Our organization was born on November 1st, 2020. We hope to perpetuate the art and the music that conquer time and space.
We are a not-for-profit organization. Our goal is to:
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realize Richard Wagner’s dream of making music and culture accessible to all individuals;
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promote Richard Wagner’s music, life and literature;
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engage in educational activities in the form of conferences, discussions, masterclasses and presentations;
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organize charitable events at schools, universities, hospitals, senior-care homes;
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organize competitions, masterclasses and summer academies;
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provide support for the next generation of artists especially those from disenfranchised communities;
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provide support for retired or unwell artists in financial need;
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support the Richard Wagner Scholarship Foundation founded at the behest of Richard Wagner;
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work to ensure the continuing success of the Bayreuth Festival;
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engage in, participate at, and promote other activities pertaining to art, music and opera;
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promote international cooperation for all purposes hitherto mentioned.
DIRECTORS
KAMMERSÄNGER PROFESSOR
MARIO ZEFFIRI
Vice-President
Mario Zeffiri has an excellent international reputation as a leading interpreter of the bel canto repertoire and has performed as a guest artist in principal theaters throughout Europe, especially in Italy (including Teatro alla Scala, Opera di Roma, Teatro Regio di Torino, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Comunale di Firenze, Teatro Verdi di Trieste, Teatro Filarmonico di Verona, Teatro La Fenice, and Teatro San Carlo di Napoli). Outside Italy, he has performed at Opéra National de Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Opéra Comique de Paris, Opernhaus Zurich, Gran Teatre de Liceu Barcelona, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, as well as in the opera houses of Athens, Bordeaux, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Essen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Helsinki, Köln, Leipzig, Liège, Montpellier, Nice, Tel Aviv, Santiago, Stockholm, Tallinn, Moscow and St. Petersburg.
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Mario regularly collaborates and collaborated with renowned conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Nello Santi, Roberto Abbado, Bertrand de Billy, Daniele Gatti, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Jesús López Cobos, Helmut Rilling, Stefan Soltesz, Daniel Oren, Eve Queler, Alberto Zedda, and with international directors such as Hugo de Ana, Dario Fo, Pier’Alli, Pierluigi Pizzi, Luca Ronconi.
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Under the baton of Riccardo Muti, with whom Mario Zeffiri enjoys a long-time collaboration, he performed several titles including Verdi’s Messa da Requiem in Ravenna, Parma, Las Palmas, Montpellier, at Rome’s Quirinale Palace and twice in Chicago. His recording of this great work with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Muti won two Grammy Awards in 2010 (Best Classical Album | Best Choral Performance). Mario Zeffiri’s solo album entitled "Liebesgeschenke" (Gifts of Love) with songs for voice and piano by Franz Liszt and Richard Strauss was released by Prestige Classics in 2013 and highly commended by the Greek Critics Society in 2014. Again under the baton of Riccardo Muti he also took part in the recording of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique – Lélio featuring Gérard Depardieu as narrator.
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Mario Zeffiri was awarded the prestigious title of Europäischer Kammersänger in April 2015 and made his debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in March 2016 with the title role of Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux. Since October 2016, Mario Zeffiri holds a professorship of singing at the University of Music Detmold.
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KAMMERSÄNGER
JOHANNES VON DUISBURG
Vice-President
Bass-baritone, Johannes von Duisburg studied and obtained his music degree at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. Throughout his studies, he attended the masterclasses of KS Prof. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
In 1992, the second prize of the Opera Singers Competition of Staatsoper Hannover, and in 1995 the O. E. Hasse Award for outstanding stage performers. In 1991, Johannes accepted a position at the Mecklenburgische Staatstheater Schwerin and made his debut as Don Pizarro in Fidelio and as the world’s youngest Flying Dutchman. Since 1992, he has worked as a freelance singer all over the world singing in Barcelona, Bologna, Budapest, Cagliari, Cologne, Florence, Geneva, Lisbon, Moscow, Naples, Prague, Rome, Saint-Petersburg and Strasbourg among others. Roles he performed include Sachs, Telramund, Holländer, Wotan, Wanderer, Amonasro, Scarpia, Escamillo, Kaspar, Claggart, Sarastro and Jochanaan among others.
He has worked with conductors as Alain Lombard, Bertrand de Billy, Chung Myung-Whun, Daniele Gatti, Pinchas Steinberg and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, and stage directors such as David Alden, Francesca Zambello, Götz Friedrich, Harry Kupfer and Robert Wilson.
From 2013 to 2014 he was teaching at Liszt Academy Budapest while giving masterclasses across the world. In 2015, Johannes von Duisburg was awarded with the artistic honorary title “Kammersänger”.
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MARC BIGLARY
President
Marc is a PhD student in political science at the University of Ottawa. His main interest is the concept of borders and how it is relates to the question of identity and citizenship.
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He has previously studied geopolitics and music in France. Both as a musician and a musicologist, he remains passionate about Mozart and German vocal music, particularly that of Robert Schumann, Richard Wagner and Gustav Mahler. Throughout the years, he has conducted extensive research on Richard Wagner, his life, his works, and his passionate views on art, life, literature, religion and politics.