Refuge
Artists
Soprano, Lara Ciekiewicz
Hailed for her “tour-de-force
performance” (Winnipeg Free Press) in the
title role of Manitoba Opera’s Susannah,
Lara has established herself as a dynamic,
intelligent, and moving singing-actress. Her
facility for fully transforming into a
character, regardless of genre, has earned
her the reputation of being an artistic
chameleon.
Select credits include: Elle, La voix
humaine (Manitoba Opera); Countess, Le
nozze di Figaro (Edmonton Opera);
Tatyana, Eugene Onegin (Calgary Opera);
Nellie Forbush, South Pacific (Pacific Opera
Victoria); Bea, Three Decembers (Little
Opera Company); Maria, The Sound of
Music (Opera on the Avalon).
Lara is increasingly in demand as an
adjudicator, and teacher. She serves as a
Voice Instructor at the University of
Manitoba’s Desautels Faculty of Music.
For over thirty-five years Michael Oike
has maintained a busy piano teaching
studio, held piano workshops and master
classes, adjudicated music festivals at the
local, provincial and national levels, and
heard in performances of chamber music,
instrumental and vocal recitals.
Michael’s pedagogues have included
Alice Nakauchi and Sydney McInnis in
Winnipeg, Boris Lysenko at the Royal
Conservatory of Music and University of
Toronto where he was awarded the
Forsythe Scholarship as the outstanding
graduating pianist. He has also studied
solo piano and chamber music with the
renowned Jeaneane Dowis of New York
City at her private studio and twice as a
Fellowship student at the Waterloo Festival
at Princeton University.
Pianist, Michael Oike
The Little Opera Company
presents
Refuge
January 22, 2023 | 3PM
St. Andrew’s River Heights United
Church
255 Oak Street, Winnipeg
We are so excited to start off the new
year with the announcement of a new
show! The LOC invites you to take
Refuge in well-known, well-loved
classics, performed by well-known, well-
loved local performers. Presented by
The LOC, this single show performance,
Refuge, features a selection of art
songs—bringing forth the simplicity of a
solo voice and pinao.