Manitoba soprano makes Lincoln Center debut

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This article was published 04/02/2025 (537 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

From her hometown of Stony Mountain to Manitoba Opera to New York’s Lincoln Center — Camryn Dewar’s rise has already seen quite the trajectory.

The soprano, with a freshly minted bachelor’s degree from the University of Manitoba, where she studied vocal performance, made her Lincoln Center debut Tuesday in Blind Justice, which has a second and final performance tonight.

The 90-minute new work, an opera with dashes of gospel, jazz and hip hop, is based on the true stories of six wrongly convicted, and later exonerated, Americans.

“Growing up in Manitoba, I never could have imagined this kind of opportunity,” says Dewar. “I’m so grateful to be part of such a powerful work, and I hope the audience leaves inspired to reflect and take action.”

She describes Blind Justice — conducted by the Tony Award winner Ted Sperling and noted by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times as a biting critique of the American criminal justice system — as an “opera about truth, justice and the voices that need to be heard.”

This is Dewar’s second time performing at a major New York venue, debuting at Carnegie Hall in a choral role last April. It likely won’t be her last, as she now calls Montclair, N.J. — a stone’s throw over the Hudson River — home.

Dewar is a 2024 recipient of the prestigious Fulbright scholarship, which sends a select group of Canadian scholars to study and lecture at American universities every year.

Through Fulbright’s support, she began a master of music in performance last fall at Montclair State University in New Jersey, where she’s performed Blind Justice once already.

In New York, Dewar sings in the featured ensemble of Lincoln Center’s production — a notable start for the 24-year-old at one of the world’s top opera centres.

“All of this has been so surreal,” she says. “Especially just being, as I say, a little girl from Manitoba. It’s been so exciting and unbelievable to be commuting into and working in New York.”

The Métis vocalist played a lead in Manitoba Opera and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s 2023 workshop of Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North, as the sharpshooter Josette LaGrande, a runaway who falls in love with Louis Riel while travelling with him and the last buffalo brigades.

Dewar continues to pursue her interest in Indigenous studies in the U.S., with her graduate research project at Montclair State exploring female Indigenous representation in Canadian opera from 1879 to the present.

“Especially in the U.S., where knowledge of Indigenous people is so, so limited, I really have to start at Square 1, which for some could feel a little bit overwhelming,” she says.

“But for me, it’s exciting, because I feel like no matter what, American audiences are going to be able to walk away having learned at least something about us and our culture.”

Dewar emphasizes the key influence of two University of Manitoba music professors: Mel Braun, head of the music faculty’s vocal program — “He’s just the best teacher; we’re still super close” — and musicologist Colette Simonot-Maiello, whom she says encouraged her to do Indigenous opera.

“I’m just so thankful that my training led me to so many of the things that I’ve done.”

conrad.sweatman@freepress.mb.ca