Roxolana Roslak

Roxolana and family left Ukraine in the early 1940's, traveling through war torn Eastern Europe to finally reside in Innsbruck, Austria before immigrating to Canada in 1948, settling in Edmonton. Roxolana studied voice as a child in Edmonton and later at the University of Toronto and the Royal Conservatory of Music. She made her Canadian Opera Company debut in 1963 as the Milliner in Der Rosenkavalier. After a season at Covent Garden she returned to Toronto in 1967 to create the role of Marguerite in Somers' Louis Riel, and repeated it in the 1975 productions in Canada and the USA. Other roles with the Canadian Opera Company have included Musetta in La Bohème (1968), Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni (1970), Micaëla in Carmen (1970, 1979), Agnes Sorel in Joan of Arc (1978), the Countess in Marriage of Figaro (1979), and Alice Ford in Falstaff (1982). Roxolana became a charter member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble program in 1980. She has made many appearances with Stuart Hamilton's Opera in Concert series, and sang Odarka in the North American premiere of Anatole Vachniany's opera Kupalo in Toronto in 1979, and in a subsequent performance in Edmonton in 1981. Roxolana was the featured soloist on the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir's 1972 European tour, and has appeared in recital, in oratorio, and in Royal Ballet (Covent Garden) and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's presentations of Stravinsky's Les Noces. As a soloist, she has appeared with orchestras across Canada. She sang the Indian Princess in the premiere of Seabird Island and on the Canadian tour of that opera. She made her New York debut in 1978 at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, accompanied by Stuart Hamilton in songs of Debussy, Hindemith, and Webern and the Kuyas from Somers' Louis Riel in Shostakovich's Romanzen-Suite. Following her TV appearances in 1975 with Glenn Gould on 'Musicamera,' she recorded Hindemith's Das Marienleben with the pianist, that received a Juno Award. Roxolana is heard on the recordings of Somers' The Fool, Louis Riel, and on two Centredisc releases that feature his works: Sacred and Profane Somers and Kuya (which received a 1983 Juno Award). She can also be heard on a recording of Anhalt's La Tourangelle. Roxolana commissioned and premiered Dr. Faustus by Larysa Kuzmenko in 1984, and with Jean McPhail and Stuart Hamilton, Of Bells, Birds and Bee in 1985. She also performed in the premiere of Srul Irving Glick's, The Hour Has Come. In 1985 Roxolana appeared in the Ann of Green Gables movie, as Madame Selitsky. In 1986 Roxolana began teaching voice at the Royal Conservatory of Music, where she continues today.