Sinéad and Ian

About

Musique Royale welcomes you to a morning of vocal chamber music featuring soprano Sinéad White and pianist Ian Tomaz. Both musicians are familiar faces to Musique Royale but this is our first chance to feature them in collaboration, in the intimate setting of Cecilia’s Retreat in Mahone Bay. Details on the musical program will be released soon!

About the Artists

Sinéad White – soprano

Praised for her “luminous soprano” (The Whole Note), “gorgeous and subtle vocal palette” (La Scena Musicale), “dreamy vocals” (Oxford Daily Info, UK) and “lovely, precise coloratura” (OperaRamblings), Irish-born soprano Sinéad White maintains an active performing and teaching schedule in North America.

Highlights of her solo work include the role of Dido in Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas with the Theatre of Early Music, onstage ensemble in Opera Atelier’s production of Charpentier’s David & Jonathas, Mozart’s Requiem with Capella Regalis, multiple appearances with both the Toronto Bach Festival and Nota Bene Players, Handel’s Messiah with the Chilliwack Symphony Orchestra, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the Kamloops Symphony and Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri with Early Music Vancouver.

Equally at home as an ensemble singer, Sinéad has performed frequently with the Elora Singers, Theatre of Early Music, Toronto Mendelssohn Singers and Tafelmusik Chamber Choir. She and lutenist Jonathan Stuchbery founded the soprano/lute ensemble, Duo Oriana. Their debut album, How Like a Golden Dream, was released with Leaf Music and is available on all major streaming platforms.

Sinéad holds a DMA in Historical Performance from the University of Toronto and both her Bachelor and Masters’ degrees in Voice/Opera from McGill University. Further artistic training includes her time as a young artist at Boston Early Music Festival, the Masterclass Residency with Les Arts Florissants and an Art of Song Fellowship at the Toronto Summer Music Festival.

From her home base in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she is featured this fall in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with Capella Regalis, and in the spring with Symphony Nova Scotia for their Purcell and Handel program. For more, please visit Sinéad White’s biography.

Ian Tomaz – piano

Ian Tomaz has performed as a solo and collaborative pianist across North America and Europe. As Artist in Residence at the Fondation des Etats Unis in Paris from 2022-2024, he performed at Musee Petit Palais, The American Cathedral in Paris, Maison du Japon, Musée JJ Henner, College Franco Britannique and Salle Cortot, as well as in Saline Royale and Villa Eilenroc in Antibes. While in Paris, he pursued research funded by the Centre Nadia et Lili Boulanger (CNLB), Societe des Amis de Poulenc, Societe des Professeurs Français et Francophones d’Amerique (SPFFA) and Fondation des Etats Unis, studying the work of Francis Poulenc and Nadia Boulanger.

In the 2024-2025 season, as Pianist in Residence at the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance, he performed the first book of J.S. Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier in numerous concerts and lectures around Nova Scotia.

Committed to engaging new audiences, Ian Tomaz’s lectures combine high level music performance with humor and clear, comprehensible explanations of musical concepts, guiding audiences towards a deeper relationship to what they hear.