Recently named one of CBC’s “30 Hot Classical Musicians Under 30,” mezzo-soprano Alex Hetherington is earning acclaim as a versatile interpreter of operatic and concert repertoire. Hailed for her “wonderfully rich, warm tone” (Opera Canada), Alex recently completed her tenure with the Canadian Opera Company’s prestigious Ensemble Studio. In the 2024-25 season, she will portray Siebel in a new production of Faust at the Canadian Opera Company and make her debut with Vancouver Opera as the Stewardess in Flight. On the concert stage, Alex will perform as a soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with both the Ottawa Chamberfest and the Mandle Philharmonic, appear in recital with Chamberfest, and join Chorus Niagara for Handel’s Messiah.

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Alex returned to Tapestry Opera in the 2023-2024 season, where she performed as the House (mezzo-soprano) in Rocking Horse Winner and participated in the company's Box Concert series. At the Banff Centre for Arts, Alex took on the role of Offred in a new arrangement of Poul Ruders' The Handmaid's Tale. During her recent tenure with the Canadian Opera Company, she performed as Lapák in The Cunning Little Vixen, Second Handmaiden in Cherubini’s Medea, and the Slave in Salome, and covered Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and Suli in the world premiere of Kye Marshall and Amanda Hale’s Pomegranate. Alex made her COC debut as Mercédès in Carmen in 2022.

 

Highly skilled in the realm of new music, Alex premiered the role of [Riley] in Nicole Lizée’ and Nicholas Billon’s R.U.R. A Torrent of Light at Tapestry Opera, for which she won a 2022 Dora Mavor Moore Award. Further operatic credits include Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Carmen in La tragédie de Carmen (UofT Opera), and Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Toronto City Opera). 

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On the concert stage, Alex made her National Arts Center Orchestra debut in 2022 as the alto soloist in Mozart's Requiem under the baton of Bernard Labadie. This marked the beginning of a series of collaborations with the orchestra, including notable performances of Ana Sokolović’s Golden Slumbers Kiss Your Eyes and the premiere of Cecilia Livingston’s orchestral arrangements of lieder selections by Clara Schumann, led by Maestro Alexander Shelley. Other recent concert highlights include performing Ian Cusson’s Songs from the House of Death with the Victoria Symphony under the baton of Christian Kluxen, and Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs with the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra. A consummate recitalist, she has curated programs for the Toronto Summer Music Festival and the Norcop Art Song Recital at the University of Toronto. 

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Alex has garnered many notable accolades in the last few years, securing the 3rd Prize in the Christina and Louis Quilico Awards, being named a finalist in the Concours Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and receiving an encouragement award from the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. She holds a Bachelor’s in Voice Performance and a Master's in Opera Performance from the University of Toronto, where she was recognized with the Jim and Charlotte Norcop Award in Art Song and named the winner of the UTSO Concerto Competition. Throughout her studies, Alex conducted a research-creation project exploring art song performance practice through the lens of modern gender theory. In her spare time, Alex can be found reading, gardening, and doting on dogs (primarily, but not exclusively, her family’s sweet pup, Max).