Born in Saskatchewan and raised in Ontario, Peter McGillivray is an emerging Canadian talent on both the concert and operatic stage. He won the Deuxième Grand Prix, as well as the Chalmers award for Best Canadian Performance, at the 2005 Montreal International Musical Competition broadcast live to a national radio audience, a success which was followed by winning another 2nd Prize at the Queen Sonja Competition in Oslo, Norway. He previously gained national recognition at the 2003 CBC Radio-Canada Young Performers Competition in Calgary when he took home 1st Prize in the vocal category, as well as the Audience Prize.During the 2007-2008 season, Mr. McGillivray was heard with Rilling at the International Bach Festival, in a Poulenc concert with the Aldeburgh Connection of Toronto and as Prince Yamadori in MADAMA BUTTERFLY with Pacific Opera Victoria and again this spring in London Ontario. His concert season also included Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Haydn’s DIE SCHÖPFUNG, both with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and Estacio’s THE HOUSES STAND NOT FAR APART with the Richard Eaton Singers in Edmonton.
Performances in 2008-2009 include the roles of Dolokhov and General Belliard in WAR & PEACE with the Canadian Opera Company, the Duruflé REQUIEM with the Vancouver Chamber Choir, MESSIAH with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Winnipeg Symphony and a programme of Operatic highlights with the Regina Symphony.
As a recent member of the Ensemble Studio of the Canadian Opera Company, he made his professional debut as Aeneas in Purcell’s DIDO AND AENEAS, and as Schlendrian in a staged production of Bach’s COFFEE CANTATA in 2003. Performances in past seasons with the Canadian Opera Company have included turns as Sid and as the Vicar in Britten’s ALBERT HERRING, Schaunard in Puccini’s LA BOHÈME and Wagner in FAUST. He was seen as Demetrius in a critically-acclaimed production of Britten’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM at the Tanglewood Festival in Massachusetts. Highlights of past seasons have also included a recital tour of the Maritime provinces with Debut Atlantic; recitals in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Saskatoon and Ottawa; as well as engagements with the Calgary Philharmonic, the Regina Symphony and l’Orchestre Symphonique de Québec.
Mr. McGillivray is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Opera Division and he also holds an honours degree in Canadian History and Literature from the U of T’s University College. Having previously performed at the Ravinia, Aldeburgh and Aspen Music Festivals, he has been awarded substantial grants from both the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts. He has been a finalist and prize-winner at the Eckhart-Gramatté Competition, at the Lotte Lenya Singing Competition and at the Robert Schumann International Competition for Piano and Lied, held in the composer’s birthplace of Zwickau, Germany.
