The COC is thrilled to announce that the contracts of COC Music Director Johannes Debus and Price Family Chorus Master Sandra Horst have been renewed through our 2028/2029 season.

Addressing the Board, COC General Director David C. Ferguson remarked “This is wonderful news for the company, providing strong artistic leadership and continuity in developing Canada’s very best musicians and choristers. It’s also terrific news for our audiences who, over the years, have learned that an opera with Johannes at the podium and Sandra guiding our chorus will always be an exceptional musical experience.”

SANDRA HORST, Price Family Chorus Master (Toronto, ON) Based in Toronto, Sandra Horst is the Canadian Opera Company’s Price Family Chorus Master, where her repertoire spans more than seventy operas, including her COC conducting debut in Il viaggio a Reims. As Director of Musical Studies for Opera at the University of Toronto she has conducted repertoire ranging from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, to Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing and most recently Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park. She is a guest faculty member of Open Space: Opera in the 21st Century at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity and co-founder of the National Opera Intensive summer program with UofT Opera and Toronto’s Against the Grain Theatre. A frequent Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions judge, Ms Horst served as audition consultant and chorus master for Opera Theatre of St Louis and Edmonton Opera, and has been on the music staff of the COC, Juilliard Opera Centre, Chautauqua Institute School of Singing, Boston Lyric Opera and Opera Ontario. In addition to being recognized as one of the 100 Alumni of Achievement, in 2019 she received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Wilfrid Laurier University and holds a Masters degree in Accompaniment from New England Conservatory, Boston. An active recital collaborator, she has been heard recently in recital with Brandon Cedel, Michael Schade and Marie Berard, Erin Wall, Myles Mykkanen and Elena Tsaligova, as well as in performance on WGBH radio in New England and CBC Radio.

JOHANNES DEBUS, Conductor, COC Music Director (Toronto, ON/Berlin, Germany) German-born conductor Johannes Debus was appointed Music Director of the Canadian Opera Company in 2009, having already established himself in many of the great opera houses and festivals worldwide. Over the course of his tenure, he has captivated Toronto and international critics alike, skillfully leading productions that include Götterdämmerung, Eugene Onegin, Otello, Salome, and the COC world premiere of Hadrian in 2018. Throughout the pandemic disruption of 2020-2022, his work for digital included the hosting of Solo Spotlights, a video series highlighting musicians of the COC Orchestra, as well as conducting for several of the company’s online presentations, including: In Winter, In Concert with Jane Archibald, and Bluebeard’s Castle. Debus most recently conducted the COC’s productions of Fidelio, Don Giovanni, and The Cunning Little Vixen, and will conduct Faust, La Reine-garçon, and Wozzeck in the company’s 2024/2025 season.

When he is not conducting at the COC, Debus is very active with international engagements that include appearances with the BBC Proms, the orchestras of Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland, Aspen, the National Arts Centre, Houston, and Toronto, at the Spoleto, Bregenz, and Tanglewood festivals, and at opera companies such as San Francisco, Berlin Staatsoper, Komische Oper Berlin, Oper Frankfurt, and Bayerische Staatsoper, among many others. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2016 conducting Salome, and returned the following year to conduct Les contes d’Hoffmann.

In 2021, Debus co-founded the Biglake Festival in Prince Edward County, Ontario. The annual summer event showcases music that bridges the past and present, originating from various countries and influenced by a diverse range of cultures from around the world.