City Opera Appoints New General Manager
Vancouver, BC – The Board of Directors of City Opera Vancouver (City Opera) is thrilled to announce the appointment of composer and vocalist Anna Pidgorna as the organization’s next General Manager.
“I love opera’s potential to envelope the audience in an immersive, multisensory experience which reaches to the outer limits of human emotion,” says Pidgorna. “I am excited to grow City Opera as an organization in collaborating with Artistic Director Gordon Gerrard, and to develop the vibrancy of Vancouver’s opera scene as a whole.”
About Anna Pidgorna
Anna Pidgorna is a Ukrainian-Canadian composer, vocalist and multi-media artist who combines sound, visual arts, theatre and writing in her work. She works extensively with opera and voice, draws inspiration from Ukrainian folk singing and the natural soundscape, and incorporates visual elements into some of her manuscripts. Having undertaken a number of song-collecting expeditions in rural Ukraine, Anna has developed her own hybrid style which combines Ukrainian folk elements with a contemporary classical approach to singing and composition.
Collaborating with writer and librettist Maria Reva, Anna has written several operas including “Plaything” developed through the Mécénat Musica Prix 3 Femmes 2020 Award, and “Our Trudy” commissioned and premiered by the Ad Astra Festival in Russell, Kansas. The duo are developing the opera theatre play “Dental Interceptions” with Sawtooth Duo, supported by Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council and Shevchenko Foundation. Anna is also working on a theatrical collaboration with Irish composer Brian Irvine, co-produced by Red Note Ensemble in Edinburgh and Soundstreams in Toronto.
Anna is the founder of Pickle Underground, a not-for-profit arts organization designed to promote and develop Ukrainian music and other art forms in Canada. She holds a PhD from Princeton University, an MMus from the University of Calgary, and a BA from Mount Allison University. She took part in Beth Morrison Projects’ Producer Academy in 2024.
Visit Anna’s website to learn more about her work.
About City Opera
City Opera Vancouver is a professional opera company under the leadership of Artistic Director Gordon Gerrard. We believe in the power of great operatic storytelling, and we see the potential for extraordinary impact in the presentation of opera in smaller spaces. Now in its 19th year, the company has gained a stellar reputation for bringing opera to Vancouver and for commissioning dynamic new work that highlights contemporary cultural issues. Our programming spans early classical repertoire to new works created in our time. To date, City Opera has given more than 200 free pop-up opera concerts and special events, alongside 14 full-length mainstage productions, including five commissioned operas.
