Erin Armstrong, Mezzo-Soprano, is native to Windsor/Essex County and is well known for her ability to captivate an audience with her commanding stage presence and warm, rich voice as well for her constant community driven performances and creative initiatives. She is the recipient of the 2018 Windsor Endowment of the Arts Elizabeth Havelock Grant, a 2017 nominee for the Ontario Premiere’s Award and the 2016 Windsor Mayor’s Award for Individual Artist.
She is the founder and director of Music Moves Kids summer program and children’s choir, rapidly gaining recognition and recent recipients of the Performing Arts Infrastructure Grant through the Windsor Endowment for the Arts. Her choir has performed on Cogeco TV, PBS and with The Tenors. They have sung in seven operas including the Canadian premier of Czech national opera, Jakobin, by Dvorak. Other credits include the chorus of Cherubim in Mefistofele, the shepherds in Amahl and the Night Visitors and the children in Act 2 of La Boheme both with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra and Opera Niagara. In 2016 they performed the children’s opera Brundibar, both at the Windsor and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. They have been the chorus of Kuchenkinder for three productions of Hansel and Gretel and appeared as the orphans in DerRosenkavalier. They are frequent guests of the WSO for the Holiday Pops concerts, and this May performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, singing John Rutter’s Mass of the Children, conducted by John Rutter.
Erin is also founder and director of Abridged Opera, a new initiative in Windsor designed to bridge the gap for audiences and the world of opera, making the art form more accessible. In 2017 Abridged Opera produced six operas, three concerts and a fringe festival entry. In addition to her transition from performer to behind the scenes, Erin is entering her fifth season as conductor of the award-winning Windsor Community Choir. She has also guest-conducted the Walkerville Centre for the Creative Artsvocal students at Musicfest where they placed Silver and were invited to Nationals.
To read more about Erin’s past and future credits, visit: https://erinarmstrong.ca/biography
