School of Music

Since returning to Nova Scotia, after completing her graduate studies at University of Toronto, Paula Rockwell has been steeped in musical projects, performances and music festivals in her home province, Canada and the United States. She teaches Applied Voice, Diction for Singers, Scene Studies and the Singing Actor at her alma mater Acadia University and has created productions for Acadia’s Singing Theatre Ensemble. She has been featured on several recordings and co-produced her debut CD entitled Fleeting Melodies, a collection of 20th century art songs and arias.

Paula has taken on several operatic roles since graduating from University of Toronto working with the Canadian Opera Company, Toronto’s Opera in Concert, Vancouver Opera, Tidal Opera, Orchestre Baroque de Montreal, Opera Nova Scotia and Maritime Concert Opera. She has performed with Symphony Nova Scotia, Chorus of Westerly, RI, North York Philharmonic, ON, Symphony New Brunswick, Peterborough Singers, ON, The Music Room Chamber Series in Halifax as well as for many fundraisers, including Music for Haiti, Women Only at Pier 21 and the annual Opera Nova Scotia’s Opera Valentine. Paula is heard every summer giving masterclasses, vocal warm-up sessions and a recital in Lyman, New Hampshire at The Ogontz Choral Symposium. She adjudicates music festivals on the Provincial and National level and gives clinics/masterclasses on the topic of vocal pedagogy, interpretation and stage craft. Recently, Acadia’s School of Music Lecture & Concert Series premiered Paula’s sabbatical project entitled Letters from Home, based on letters from her great grandmother to her maternal grandmother (circa 1941-1961). Other projects include a recording of original works entitled Unwrapped…finally surfacing and a music video, I’m on My Way Home, released on vimeo.

Other projects she has directed and created are Scenes from Street Scenes by Kurt Weill, an opera excerpt show entitled The B Boys of Opera and a musical theatre excerpt program entitled The Games People Play in Musicals: Chess & The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and in 2016 directed Grease – the musical for Acadia’s Singing Theatre Ensemble. She was soloist with Acadia University’s Choral production of Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. She also was the vocal coach for Halifax Summer Opera Workshop productions of Bizet’s Carmen, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann. She sang the alto solo in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Symphony New Brunswick in May 2014 and performed it again in Fredericton, NB in April 2016. She has performed with the Halifax based contemporary music group, Musikon at the Saint Mary’s Art Gallery as well as a recent Garden Room Concert Series recital entitled Sing the Trumpet at Acadia University with trumpeter Curtis Dietz and collaborative pianist Jennifer King. This concert was performed again in September 2016 at the Indian Brook Concert Series in Cape Breton. In May 2016, Paula sang the mezzo-soprano solo in Verdi’s Requiem with the Chorus of Westerly, RI with Maestro David Hill at the podium and in August, performed a recital in New London and Lyman, NH with American collaborative pianist, Geoffrey Wieting. In May 2017, Paula sang the lead role in Opera Nova Scotia’s production of Gustav Holst’s opera Savitri. In April 2017she directed the Canadian musical Pélagie, written by Allen Cole.  Rockwell performed an Alumni Concert July 7 with collaborative pianist Jennifer King and David Parker, French horn, in the Garden Room at Acadia University. In September 2016 she performed the role of the Beggar Woman in Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.

Education
Bachelor of Music Degree – Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, 1987
Artist Diploma in Performance (with honours) – University of Toronto, ON, 1990
Opera Diploma Program (1 year) – University of Toronto, ON 1991
Britten/Pears School of Advanced Study – Aldeburgh, UK 1991
Resident Young Artist Program – Vancouver Opera, BC (1991, 1992, 1993)
Yokohama Opera, Japan – “sister company” to Vancouver Opera (1991)
Canadian Opera Ensemble (artist-in-residence) – school outreach tour of Bizet’s Carmen – 1994

Website and Social Media   
www.paularockwell.ca
www.paularockwell.com
https://music.apple.com/ca/album/unwrapped-finally-surfacing/1456767306
http://ogontzarts.com/paularockwell/

Links to Performances and Recordings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nZAG5HRVPo
https://vimeo.com/481772687?fbclid=IwAR3RpJYkyZrDyRnv-gPRtXzB6eun8szCDtR6wnJ8h78QsaBKb_qUR1pUGtM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoWW25brVb8