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.