2026 Adjudicators

Elizabeth McDonald is empowering the next generation of operatic artists through
bold teaching, creative mentorship, and entrepreneurial vision.

As a faculty member of the University of Toronto, Elizabeth teaches applied voice to
undergraduate and graduate-level singers. Her students have won major awards,
including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition, the Canadian Opera
Company Competition, and the Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition. They have been
young artists at the Canadian Opera Company, the Metropolitan Opera Lindeman
Program, the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program at LA Opera, and
Vancouver and Calgary Opera, and have been accepted to prestigious summer
programs including the Ravinia Festival, Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS
Program, The Franz Schubert Institute, and the Mark and Eva Stern Fellowship
Program at SongFest. Elizabeth's students are regularly accepted to major graduate
programs across North America and the United Kingdom and have received
Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation Grants, the Tecumseh Sherman Rogers
Graduating Award (UofT), and the Metcalf Foundation Performing Arts Internship.
They have been featured on CBC's annual "Hot 30 Under 30 Classical Musicians" list
in 2016 and 2017.

As a principal and co-founder of the creative facilitation coaching practice
em2CONNECT, Elizabeth offers consulting, grant writing, event production, and
career development mentorship for arts organizations and individual artists.
A young artist with both the Santa Fe Opera and the Canadian Opera Company,
Elizabeth understudied and performed several major roles, including Elettra in
Mozart’s Idomeneo, The Woman in Schoenberg’s Erwartung, Miss Jessel in Britten’s
Turn of the Screw, and Jenufa in Janecek’s Jenufa. She was a founding member of
Women on the Verge, a trio that explored women's experiences through music and
championed Canadian female composers by commissioning and premiering new
works.

Elizabeth holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of
Toronto. She resides full-time in Prince Edward County, Ontario, with her husband
and standard schnauzer Oscar and texts regularly with her two university-bound
children.