THE WALK FROM
THE GARDEN
Production and Cast
LITTLEOPERA.CA
ARTISTS
DIRECTORS
Canadian stage director Rob Herriot’s career has taken him to Opera Companies and
Universities across North America.
Here in Winnipeg he has directed productions of Cosí fan Tutte, La Cenerentola, Madama
Butterfly, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Boheme, Carmen, Rigoletto and Don Pasquale (Manitoba Opera),
Barber of Seville, Don Pasquale (Livermore Valley Opera) Cosí fan tutte (Opera Kelowna) Three
Decembers, The Magic Flute, At the Statue of Venus and A Tall Order (Little Opera Company) He is
currently a returning director for Opera Nuova, Canada’s leading young artist summer program.
As a teacher and mentor, he has directed productions of Tuck Everlasting, The Fairy Queen,
Tartuffe, Beatrice and Benedict, Don Giovanni, Oklahoma, La Boheme and Patience. Virtual
productions include, I Need Opera and Dance for The Little Opera Company, writer and director
for the 3-episode series All Those Arias for Little Opera Company and The Manitoba Opera as well
as writer and director for the Manitoba Opera’s 6-part series Opera School.
Other productions include Wizard of Oz, Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast for Winnipeg’s
Rainbow Stage.
Rob Herriot, Director
Cary Denby, Répétiteur
Cary Denby, is very happy to be back with the Little Opera Company playing for the
rehearsals for the upcoming production of The Walk From the Garden.
Cary is a collaborative pianist who been fortunate to work with such notable organizations
such as Canzona, the Winnipeg Singers, Rainbow Stage, MTC, the WSO, the University of
Manitoba, as well as many singers, instrumentalists, schools, churches and community groups.
PRAIRIE VOICES
Philip Lapatha, Artistic Director
Kimberly Lapatha, Collaborative Pianist
Founded in 2000 by Dr. Elroy Friesen, Prairie Voices is an award-winning choir of 18-25 year-
old singers. Currently led by Philip Lapatha, past directors have included Dr. Elroy Friesen, Kristel
Peters, Nathan Poole, Vic Pankratz, and GiUng Lee. Prairie Voices performs in their own concert
series, is a regular guest of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and has recorded 6 CDs
(including one as guest choir with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra). While placing an
emphasis on performing the music of Canadian and Manitoban composers, Prairie Voices also
loves to perform innovative contemporary choral music from all over the world. The choir uses
energy, expressiveness and movement to connect avant-garde composition with a popular
audience. Prairie Voices is known for their passionate style of performance, which combines
exceptional vocals with engaging presentation to provide the ultimate choral experience. Prairie
Voices has performed around the world, bringing their unique touch to a diverse repertoire.
Working with choral legends such as R. Murray Schafer, Stephen Hatfield and vocal superstars
Rajaton, Prairie Voices has managed to grow as an organization while still remaining true to their
Canadian roots.
Praised for her “beautifully clear, light lyric soprano” (Ludwig Van), Toronto-born soprano Sara
Schabas has received awards from the Eckhardt-Grammaté Competition, the Metropolitan
Opera Laffont Competition, the Hnatyshyn Foundation, and the IRCPA in Toronto. This season,
she performs a recital in the Canadian Opera Company’s Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, joins
the Grand Philharmonic Choir for James Whitbourn’s Annelies, sings Carmina Burana with the
MGSO and Chorus under the direction of Jean-Sebastien Vallée, Eve in Jonathan Dove’s The Walk
from the Garden with Little Opera Company of Winnipeg, and Musetta in La bohème with
ICAV/Orchestre Classique de Montréal. She recently performed as the title role in Maxime
Goulet’s The Flight of the Hummingbird with Pacific Opera Victoria and Vancouver Opera, returning
the following season to sing as the Dormouse in POV’s filmed production of Elizabeth Raum’s The
Garden of Alice. Further roles include Henri in Tapestry Opera's Dora-nominated production of
Bandits in the Valley and Anne Frank in Cecilia Livingston’s Singing Only Softly with Loose Tea
Music Theatre in 2020, for which she was nominated for the Dora for Outstanding Performance
by an Individual. Sara began her career singing Papagena (Die Zauberflöte) with the Dayton
Opera in Ohio, Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) with the Aspen Opera Theatre and Mahler’s Fourth
Symphony with the late Lorin Maazel. She has performed as a soloist with organizations and
venues including Ottawa's Thirteen Strings, the Dayton Philharmonic, Mississauga Symphony,
the Oakville Masterworks,Vienna’s Concentus Musicus, and the Zürich Opera House. Sara is a
current member of Barbara Hannigan’s Equilibrium Young Artists, and holds degrees from the
University of Toronto and Roosevelt University with additional studies at Vienna’s Universität für
Musik und darstellende Kunst. She is also a yoga teacher, writer, and is currently pursuing
doctoral studies at McGill University researching the Austrian-Canadian mezzo-soprano and
pedagogue Emmy Heim. www.saraschabas.com
Prairie Voices Inc.
Armand Singh Birk, Music Director
One of two 2023 conducting fellows at the Tanglewood Music Center, Canadian
conductor Armand Singh Birk is currently a fellow with the Orchestre Métropolitain
Conducting Academy mentored by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Having started university as a
biology major, he only learned to read music after he found his love and passion for
classical music and conducting in 2014. His primary teachers have been Jonathan Girard
and Petar Dundjerski, and in addition, he has had the privilege of learning from Andris
Nelsons, Stefan Asbury, Dima Slobodeniouk, Xian Zhang, Dame Jane Glover, James Ross,
James Lowe, and Daniel Raiskin. Recent and upcoming professional engagements include
working with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Mendelssohn-Orchester Akademie, the Tanglewood
Music Centre Orchestra, l’Orchestre Métropolitain, l’Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the
Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, the Spokane Symphony Orchestra, the Winnipeg
Symphony Orchestra, and the River City Chamber Orchestra, which he founded in 2019.
Sara Schabas (Eve)
STAGE
MANAGEMENT
Neon Venus, Projection Concept Design and
Production
DESIGN / CREATIVE
TEAM
PROMOTION
Graphic Design: Stephen Boyd
Publicity: Heather Milne
Web Master: Don Larsen
Spencer Duncanson, Artistic Director,
Little Opera Company
Treaty One-based tenor Nolan Kehler is a performer dedicated to collaboration and
reconciliation. He recently made mainstage debuts in his home city of Winnipeg with Manitoba
Opera as La Roche in Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North, the first full-scale Indigenous-led opera
production presented on a Canadian mainstage, and with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra as
Oronte in Alcina. Nolan also recently made his American debuts with American Bach Soloists in
San Francisco and Emmanuel Music in Boston. In 2024, Nolan will be making his debut in
Carmina Burana with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and as the tenor soloist in Bach’s Coffee Cantata
with the Winnipeg Baroque Festival.
Nolan has also had the pleasure of working with Juno-nominated Cree composer Andrew
Balfour on his compositions Captive and Nôtinikêw in performances with Winnipeg’s Dead of
Winter at the Montreal New Music Festival, the Brandon University Chorale, and with
Edmonton’s Chronos Vocal Ensemble.
When he is not performing, Nolan serves as Provincial Coordinator for the Manitoba
chapter of Opera InReach, which aims to provide accessible opera education to schools from a
wide variety of perspectives and backgrounds. Nolan can also be heard over the airwaves on
CBC Radio One on the weekends across Canada introducing curated classical music selections.
Nolan Kehler (Adam)
Neon Venus Productions is a new immersive media collective led by Winnipeg-based
Immersive Event Producer Zohreh Gervais, alongside team members Architect Joe Kalturnyk,
Projection and Lighting Designers jaymez and Jason Fung, and Art Director Ricardo Soriano.
Together with our award-winning collaborators, we are creating multi-sensory, universally
accessible journeys that resonate with audiences around the globe. Our mission is to provide
entertainment experiences that transcend cultural boundaries and tap into universal human
emotions. We do this by merging technology, architecture, music and art to develop safe spaces
for exploring the breadth of human emotions. We help audiences form bonds of shared wonder
and community through carefully crafted visual and auditory stimulation informed by the latest
research in psychology and neuroscience.
It has always been The Little Opera Company's goal to present operas that not only
entertain but also speak to the human condition. To quote the late Leonard Bernstein “A work of
art does not answer questions, it provokes them; and its essential meaning is in the tension
between the contradictory answers.” As an arts organization, The Little Opera Company
attempts to speak to individual audience members at myriad levels. We work diligently to reach
out to diverse audiences The Walk form the Garden meets these criteria. It is not only a
beautifully crafted work, but it is extremely relevant to the central concerns of our time,
sustainability, stewardship, and social responsibility
Ntara Curry, Stage Manager
Ntara Curry is a theatre artist investigating Directing for Opera because it compliments and
invigorates her professional practice. Stage Management has taken Ntara all over the Prairies
(Concrete Theatre, Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Shakespeare in
the Ruins), and led to her current position as Production Manager for sick + twisted Productions
(Tiresias, June 2024). Ntara Assistant Directed on The Corsair (Manitoba Underground Opera).
She is being mentored by Philip Akin as part of Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre 2024 Mentorship
program. Ntara is also a collaborator on the upcoming production of Jordan Tannahill’s Is My
Microphone On? (Winnipeg Fringe, 2024).
Jason Fung, Projection Artist
Jason Fung is a multidisciplinary artist, jazz pianist, and technology enthusiast from Canada.
Recently, one of my pieces, The Strong Unstaggering Breeze, was featured in /’fu:bar/[2] (Zagreb,
Croatia). /’fu:bar/ is an annual program focused on “electronic experiments and research in
contemporary error-themed digital art and theory.” Another of my pieces, The Body Electric, was
included in the 2022 Contemporary Venice Exhibit (Venice, Italy).
Additionally, I have a background as a technology lawyer and have presented on subjects
ranging from artificial intelligence’s potential impacts on public policy (i.e. to the World Bank) to
Web3’s potential implications on internet regulation. I am currently the General Counsel for
MacEwan University.
In my process, I utilize audiovisual software such as TouchDesigner, visual processing
software such as StudioArtist, and artificial intelligence generative visuals such as ArtBreeder. If
there is an audio component, I use software such as Logic Pro, Pendulum Generate, etc.
My Instagram account @granularadventures includes samples of my work, which features
regular audio and visual work.
DIRECTORS
ARTISTS
Canadian stage director Rob Herriot’s career
has taken him to Opera Companies and
Universities across North America.
Here in Winnipeg he has directed productions
of Cosí fan Tutte, La Cenerentola, Madama Butterfly,
Lucia di Lammermoor, La Boheme, Carmen, Rigoletto
and Don Pasquale (Manitoba Opera), Barber of
Seville, Don Pasquale (Livermore Valley Opera) Cosí
fan tutte (Opera Kelowna) Three Decembers, The
Magic Flute, At the Statue of Venus and A Tall Order
(Little Opera Company) He is currently a returning
director for Opera Nuova, Canada’s leading young
artist summer program. As a teacher and mentor,
he has directed productions of Tuck Everlasting, The
Fairy Queen, Tartuffe, Beatrice and Benedict, Don
Giovanni, Oklahoma, La Boheme and Patience.
Virtual productions include, I Need Opera and
Dance for The Little Opera Company, writer and
director for the 3-episode series All Those Arias for
Little Opera Company and The Manitoba Opera as
well as writer and director for the Manitoba
Opera’s 6-part series Opera School.
Other productions include Wizard of Oz,
Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast for Winnipeg’s
Rainbow Stage.
Cary Denby, Répétiteur
Cary Denby, is very happy to be back with the
Little Opera Company playing for the rehearsals for
the upcoming production of The Walk From the
Garden.
Cary is a collaborative pianist who been
fortunate to work with such notable organizations
such as Canzona, the Winnipeg Singers, Rainbow
Stage, MTC, the WSO, the University of Manitoba, as
well as many singers, instrumentalists, schools,
churches and community groups.
PRAIRIE VOICES
Philip Lapatha, Artistic Director
Kimberly Lapatha, Collaborative Pianist
Founded in 2000 by Dr. Elroy Friesen, Prairie
Voices is an award-winning choir of 18-25 year-old
singers. Currently led by Philip Lapatha, past
directors have included Dr. Elroy Friesen, Kristel
Peters, Nathan Poole, Vic Pankratz, and GiUng Lee.
Prairie Voices performs in their own concert series,
is a regular guest of the Winnipeg Symphony
Orchestra, and has recorded 6 CDs (including one
as guest choir with the Winnipeg Symphony
Orchestra). While placing an emphasis on
performing the music of Canadian and Manitoban
composers, Prairie Voices also loves to perform
innovative contemporary choral music from all over
the world. The choir uses energy, expressiveness
and movement to connect avant-garde composition
with a popular audience. Prairie Voices is known for
their passionate style of performance, which
combines exceptional vocals with engaging
presentation to provide the ultimate choral
experience. Prairie Voices has performed around
the world, bringing their unique touch to a diverse
repertoire. Working with choral legends such as R.
Murray Schafer, Stephen Hatfield and vocal
superstars Rajaton, Prairie Voices has managed to
grow as an organization while still remaining true to
their Canadian roots.
Praised for her “beautifully clear, light lyric
soprano” (Ludwig Van), Toronto-born soprano Sara
Schabas has received awards from the Eckhardt-
Grammaté Competition, the Metropolitan Opera
Laffont Competition, the Hnatyshyn Foundation, and
the IRCPA in Toronto. This season, she performs a
recital in the Canadian Opera Company’s Richard
Bradshaw Amphitheatre, joins the Grand
Philharmonic Choir for James Whitbourn’s Annelies,
sings Carmina Burana with the MGSO and Chorus
under the direction of Jean-Sebastien Vallée, Eve in
Jonathan Dove’s The Walk from the Garden with Little
Opera Company of Winnipeg, and Musetta in La
bohème with ICAV/Orchestre Classique de Montréal.
She recently performed as the title role in Maxime
Goulet’s The Flight of the Hummingbird with Pacific
Opera Victoria and Vancouver Opera, returning the
following season to sing as the Dormouse in POV’s
filmed production of Elizabeth Raum’s The Garden of
Alice. Further roles include Henri in Tapestry Opera's
Dora-nominated production of Bandits in the Valley
and Anne Frank in Cecilia Livingston’s Singing Only
Softly with Loose Tea Music Theatre in 2020, for
which she was nominated for the Dora for
Outstanding Performance by an Individual. Sara
began her career singing Papagena (Die Zauberflöte)
with the Dayton Opera in Ohio, Juliette (Roméo et
Juliette) with the Aspen Opera Theatre and Mahler’s
Fourth Symphony with the late Lorin Maazel. She
has performed as a soloist with organizations and
venues including Ottawa's Thirteen Strings, the
Dayton Philharmonic, Mississauga Symphony, the
Oakville Masterworks,Vienna’s Concentus Musicus,
and the Zürich Opera House. Sara is a current
member of Barbara Hannigan’s Equilibrium Young
Artists, and holds degrees from the University of
Toronto and Roosevelt University with additional
studies at Vienna’s Universität für Musik und
darstellende Kunst. She is also a yoga teacher,
writer, and is currently pursuing doctoral studies at
McGill University researching the Austrian-Canadian
mezzo-soprano and pedagogue Emmy Heim.
www.saraschabas.com
Prairie Voices Inc.
Rob Herriot, Director
Neon Venus, Projection Concept Design and
Production
STAGE
MANAGEMENT
Sara Schabas (Eve)
PROMOTION
Graphic Design: Stephen Boyd
Publicity: Heather Milne
Web Master: Don Larsen
Treaty One-based tenor Nolan Kehler is a
performer dedicated to collaboration and
reconciliation. He recently made mainstage debuts
in his home city of Winnipeg with Manitoba Opera
as La Roche in Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North, the
first full-scale Indigenous-led opera production
presented on a Canadian mainstage, and with the
Manitoba Chamber Orchestra as Oronte in Alcina.
Nolan also recently made his American debuts with
American Bach Soloists in San Francisco and
Emmanuel Music in Boston. In 2024, Nolan will be
making his debut in Carmina Burana with the Royal
Winnipeg Ballet and as the tenor soloist in Bach’s
Coffee Cantata with the Winnipeg Baroque Festival.
Nolan has also had the pleasure of working
with Juno-nominated Cree composer Andrew
Balfour on his compositions Captive and Nôtinikêw in
performances with Winnipeg’s Dead of Winter at the
Montreal New Music Festival, the Brandon
University Chorale, and with Edmonton’s Chronos
Vocal Ensemble.
When he is not performing, Nolan serves as
Provincial Coordinator for the Manitoba chapter of
Opera InReach, which aims to provide accessible
opera education to schools from a wide variety of
perspectives and backgrounds. Nolan can also be
heard over the airwaves on CBC Radio One on the
weekends across Canada introducing curated
classical music selections.
Nolan Kehler (Adam)
Neon Venus Productions is a new immersive
media collective led by Winnipeg-based Immersive
Event Producer Zohreh Gervais, alongside team
members Architect Joe Kalturnyk, Projection and
Lighting Designers jaymez and Jason Fung, and Art
Director Ricardo Soriano. Together with our award-
winning collaborators, we are creating multi-
sensory, universally accessible journeys that
resonate with audiences around the globe. Our
mission is to provide entertainment experiences
that transcend cultural boundaries and tap into
universal human emotions. We do this by merging
technology, architecture, music and art to develop
safe spaces for exploring the breadth of human
emotions. We help audiences form bonds of
shared wonder and community through carefully
crafted visual and auditory stimulation informed by
the latest research in psychology and
neuroscience.
THE WALK FROM
THE GARDEN
Production and Cast
DESIGN /
CREATIVE
TEAM
It has always been The Little Opera Company's
goal to present operas that not only entertain but
also speak to the human condition. To quote the
late Leonard Bernstein “A work of art does not
answer questions, it provokes them; and its
essential meaning is in the tension between the
contradictory answers.” As an arts organization,
The Little Opera Company attempts to speak to
individual audience members at myriad levels. We
work diligently to reach out to diverse audiences
The Walk form the Garden meets these criteria. It is
not only a beautifully crafted work, but it is
extremely relevant to the central concerns of our
time, sustainability, stewardship, and social
responsibility
Ntara Curry, Stage Manager
Jason Fung, Projection Artist
Jason Fung is a multidisciplinary artist, jazz
pianist, and technology enthusiast from Canada.
Recently, one of my pieces, The Strong Unstaggering
Breeze, was featured in /’fu:bar/[2] (Zagreb,
Croatia). /’fu:bar/ is an annual program focused on
“electronic experiments and research in
contemporary error-themed digital art and theory.”
Another of my pieces, The Body Electric, was
included in the 2022 Contemporary Venice Exhibit
(Venice, Italy).
Additionally, I have a background as a
technology lawyer and have presented on subjects
ranging from artificial intelligence’s potential
impacts on public policy (i.e. to the World Bank) to
Web3’s potential implications on internet
regulation. I am currently the General Counsel for
MacEwan University.
In my process, I utilize audiovisual software
such as TouchDesigner, visual processing software
such as StudioArtist, and artificial intelligence
generative visuals such as ArtBreeder. If there is an
audio component, I use software such as Logic Pro,
Pendulum Generate, etc.
My Instagram account @granularadventures
includes samples of my work, which features
regular audio and visual work.
Ntara Curry is a theatre artist investigating
Directing for Opera because it compliments and
invigorates her professional practice. Stage
Management has taken Ntara all over the Prairies
(Concrete Theatre, Manitoba Theatre for Young
People, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Shakespeare in
the Ruins), and led to her current position as
Production Manager for sick + twisted Productions
(Tiresias, June 2024). Ntara Assistant Directed on The
Corsair (Manitoba Underground Opera). She is being
mentored by Philip Akin as part of Royal Manitoba
Theatre Centre 2024 Mentorship program. Ntara is
also a collaborator on the upcoming production of
Jordan Tannahill’s Is My Microphone On? (Winnipeg
Fringe, 2024).
Armand Singh Birk, Music Director
One of two 2023 conducting fellows at the
Tanglewood Music Center, Canadian conductor
Armand Singh Birk is currently a fellow with the
Orchestre Métropolitain Conducting Academy
mentored by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Having
started university as a biology major, he only
learned to read music after he found his love and
passion for classical music and conducting in
2014. His primary teachers have been Jonathan
Girard and Petar Dundjerski, and in addition, he
has had the privilege of learning from Andris
Nelsons, Stefan Asbury, Dima Slobodeniouk, Xian
Zhang, Dame Jane Glover, James Ross, James
Lowe, and Daniel Raiskin. Recent and upcoming
professional engagements include working with
the Leipzig Gewandhaus Mendelssohn-Orchester
Akademie, the Tanglewood Music Centre
Orchestra, l’Orchestre Métropolitain, l’Orchestre
Symphonique de Québec, the Saskatoon
Symphony Orchestra, the Spokane Symphony
Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra,
and the River City Chamber Orchestra, which he
founded in 2019.
