Canadian baritone Mark Wilkinson’s eclectic performance career has expressed a versatility of artistry founded in a gift for truthful storytelling in a vast array of repertoire.
As an expert in chamber music and theatre, he has enjoyed intimate collaborations in traditional music, choral repertoire, experimental stage work, cabaret, recital, and premiere compositions. Highlights include the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, Soundstreams Canada for CBC Music, Music and Beyond, the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards, The Aldeburgh Connection, Early Music Alberta, recitals throughout Austria, the North American premiere of Ms. Atwood’s The Year of the Flood for the Ottawa Writers Festival, and a long-time collaboration with the Sesquisharp Ensemble and its forward-thinking theatrical productions, including for the world premiere of Ryan Keebaugh’s chamber work of mad scenes, DeSceNt inTo mAdnEss. |
Mark Wilkinson, who was not only extremely enthusiastic but extremely flexible, looked like an angel that had been stretched -- short he wasn't -- and the Ensemble followed his every sinuous move with rapt attention, as did I.
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Dr. Wilkinson’s affinity for early music has seen him collaborate with such leading ensembles and colleagues as the Early Music Festival of Alberta, the Edmonton Symphony, the Alberta Baroque, the Richard Eaton Singers, Da Camera Singers, les Plaisirs du clavecin, the Ottawa Baroque Consort, l’Orchestre symphonique de Gatineau, Le Nouvel Opéra, and the King’s University College Chapel Choir with Ensemble Regale and Paul Halley for CBC Music.
His stage roles run the gamut from classic operas and plays to modern musical theatre, including Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Adonis (Venus and Adonis), Pluton (La Déscente d'Orphée aux Enfers), Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Frank (Mrs. Warren's Profession), Pirelli (Sweeney Todd), and his signature role in I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change.
His stage roles run the gamut from classic operas and plays to modern musical theatre, including Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Adonis (Venus and Adonis), Pluton (La Déscente d'Orphée aux Enfers), Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Frank (Mrs. Warren's Profession), Pirelli (Sweeney Todd), and his signature role in I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change.
Bass Mark Wilkinson sang Adonis with the right boyish energy and a suitably light touch. When he returned mortally wounded from the hunt, he had the requisite darker sound to project his dire condition.
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Mark Wilkinson recently completed his Doctor of Musical Arts in Voice Performance and Singing Health at The Ohio State University under Dr. Scott McCoy. He is grateful to all of his colleagues for the many lessons they have taught him through their generous collaborations. He is currently a guest teacher at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. Dr. Wilkinson is a proud French-speaking resident of Ottawa, Ontario, the unceded and traditional territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation.