Carmen Creative Team
Click on an image for the full biography
Stephen Carr
Stage Director
Ivan Estey Jovanovich
Music Director
Pianist
Jennifer Tung
Artistic Director
Conductor June 22/23
Connor O'Kane*
Assistant Conductor
June 19
Tamar Ilana
Choreographer/Dancer
Logan Raju Cracknell
Lighting Designer
Lin-Mei Lay
Production Stage Manager
Andrew Nasturzio
Costume Designer
Head of Wardrobe
Alia Stephen
Projection Designer
Dana Burmaster*
Assistant Stage Manager
Gabriel Graziano
Production
Mabel Wonnacott*
Assistant Director
Erin Woodward*
Assistant Stage Manager
* Azrieli Mentoring program participant
This season, TCO deepens its commitment to championing the next generation. Thanks to the generosity of the Azrieli Foundation, we will welcome ten Emerging Opera Artists to each opera in our season as participants in our Opera Mentoring Program. Our artistic team will mentor singers, conductors, directors & stage managers at a career stage where we can achieve maximum impact on future success.
Biographies
Stephen Carr Stage Director
Stephen Carr has directed recent productions of Dialogues des Carmélites at Koerner Hall, Lucia di Lammermoor for the Korean National Symphony, Turandot and Tosca at the Seoul Arts Center, Cavalleria Rusticana and Die Fledermaus for Toronto City Opera, Tosca for the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, and Le Nozze di Figaro with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Auditorium called his 2019 production of La Bohème for Daejeon Opera “A significant milestone... A futuristic staging that remains grounded in realism, breathing new vitality into this well-known storyline.” A 2014 winner of the American Prize for Stage Directing, Stephen has also served on the faculties of the Eastman School of Music, Royal Conservatory of Music, University of Toronto, Interlochen Arts Academy, and the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Tokyo. www.stephen-carr.net
Ivan Estey Jovanovich Music Director/ Pianist
Ivan Estey Jovanovic is the accompanist / Music Director at TCO. He completed his BMus and MMus in piano performance at the Belgrade University of Arts. In 2004, he joined Belgrade Opera Orchestra as répétiteur and concert pianist and in 2005 joined their staff as a principal vocal coach.
n 2013 he completed his MMus. in Collaborative Piano at the UofT, won the Gwendolyn Williams Koldofsky Prize in Accompanying, then joined UofT’s Opera Division as a vocal coach and pianist. He is a vocal coach and harpsichordist in UofT’s Early Music Department and Schola Cantorum and the vocal coach/harpsichordist with Toronto Lyric Opera.
Jennifer Tung Artistic Director/Conductor June 22/23
A Dora nominated conductor (Gould's Wall), Jennifer Tung is the Artistic Director of Toronto City Opera and assistant conductor of the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra. In 2020/21, she was selected as a conducting fellow in the inaugural year of the Women in Musical Leadership program.
Jennifer has conducted with the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, Opera McGill, Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic and Kamloops Symphony. In 2023, Jennifer conducted the world premieres of Show Room (Rodney Sharman/Atom Egoyan) and Of the Sea (Ian Cusson/Kanika Ambrose). Jennifer is on faculty at Toronto’s Glenn Gould School.
Connor O'Kane* Assistant Conductor June 19
Connor O’Kane is a highly sought-after pianist, vocal coach, and conductor. As a soloist, he has performed across Canada, and was awarded the Canimex Second Prize at the 2022 CMC Stepping Stone. A passionate opera lover, he has been a répétiteur on productions at the National Arts Centre, the Banff Centre, University of Ottawa, Wilfrid Laurier University, and at Western University, where he currently serves as assistant conductor under Maestro Simone Luti.
Most recently, Connor conducted Western’s closing performance of Britten’s Albert Herring in March 2023. He is thrilled to be joining Toronto City Opera as assistant conductor on Carmen.
Tamar Ilana Choreographer / Dancer
Tamar Ilana has been dancing flamenco since the age of seven and singing in multiple languages since the age of four. Her fierce talent reflects her life growing up in multicultural Toronto; accompanying her ethnomusicologist mother on village fieldwork expeditions and on stage as a child; living in Ibiza, Barcelona, Paris and Seville; and her Ashkenazi Jewish and Saulteaux-Cree background.
Tamar fronts for the flamenco/global roots project, Ventanas, with whom she has released three albums, been nominated for four Canadian Folk Music Awards, and toured Canada, US, Colombia, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. Tamar is also the co-founder and Executive Director of the not for profit performing arts organization FabCollab.
Logan Raju Cracknell Lighting Designer
Logan Raju Cracknell is a Toronto based theatre artist specializing in theatrical design and live stream creation. Their work has taken them across the country and they are excited to see what journeys lie ahead.
Select works include: Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (Theatre Calgary), Fairview (Canadian Stage/Obsidian Theatre Company), Prodigal (Howland Company), The Extinction Therapist (Theatre Aquarius), Jesus Christ Superstar (Theatre Sheridan), Alice in Wonderland (Bad Hats Theatre), Dixon Road (The Musical Stage Company / Obsidian Theatre Company), As You Like It/Dream In High Park (Canadian Stage Company), William Shakespeare’s As You Like It: A Radical Retelling by Cliff Cardinal and Orphans for the Czar (Crow’s Theatre).
Lin-Mei Lay Production Stage Manager
Lin-Mei is a multidiscipline theatre practitioner. She has taken various theatre production roles from technician to designer to props builder before settling into stage management. This is Lin’s 4th production with TCO. She is the winner of the inaugural MyTheatre Award for Outstanding Stage Management (2015). Prior to this career change, Lin has worked in the IT industry for 15+ years. (www.linkedin.com/in/lilay)
Select SM Credits: The Chasse-Galerie , 2015, 2016 Dora Winner (Red One: PSM; Kabin / Storefront / Soulpepper: Apprentice SM); Die Fledermaus, Don Giovanni, Cavalleria Rusticana, Susannah (TCO); Eugene Onegin (HOS); La Traviata (Opera York; MSO: ASM); The Merry Widow (Opera York); Retreat (Hart House); The Chance (Leroy Street); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Red One); Divine (Red One / Summerworks 2017); Othello (Ale House: PSM).
Andrew Nasturzio Costume Designer/Head of Wardrobe
Andrew Nasturzio (He/Him) is a Toronto based Costume Designer. He is a graduate from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Performance Production + Design program. His work ranges from opera, theatre, dance, and film. More of his work can be found at andrewnasturzio.com.
Selected Recent Credits:
Costume Designer/Head of Wardrobe, U of T Opera; (Cendrillon, Lysistrata, Il Capello di Paglia di Firenze, A Tale of Two Cities, Disobedience, A Comedic Trilogy);
Costume Designer, The SpongeBob Musical, Mansfield Entertainment (BroadwayWorld Toronto Award Nomination);
Costume Designer, Peter Pan, Mansfield Entertainment
Alia Stephen Projection Designer
Based in Toronto and originally from Vancouver, Alia has been designing for over 15 years across Canada and the UK.
Credits include: Projection and lighting design for People Like Us (Firehall Arts Centre); Projection, set and lighting design for Secret Service (Fugue Theatre); Lighting Design for White Muscle Daddy (Buddies in Bad Times/PencilKit), Alternative Routes (NDCWales), PROUD (Firehall Arts Centre), Supernatural Noir (Fugue Theatre), among others.
She has a diploma in Technical Theatre from Capilano University, a BFA in Production and Design from UBC, and an MA in Lighting Design from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. www.aliastephen.com
Dana Burmaster* Assistant Stage Manager
Dana Burmaster got her first taste of Stage Management while completing her degree in English Literature at the University of Ottawa.
Her time studying at Sheridan College led them to an opportunity to work on Mississauga Symphony Orchestra’s production of Tosca as Assistant Stage Manager. They are thrilled to continue learning and growing through her work on a piece as iconic and renowned as Carmen.
Gabriel Graziano Production
Gabriel Graziano is pleased to return to Production for Toronto City Opera. This year marks the 40th year Gabriel has been associated with Toronto Opera Repertoire / Toronto City Opera. He has been involved in many different areas, including lighting designer, stage manager and was the first stage director, other than his mentor Giuseppe Macina, for Toronto Opera Repertoire.
Mabel Wonnacott* Assistant Director
Mabel Wonnacott is a Toronto-based director who works primarily in opera and puppetry. She has a diploma in Operatic Stage Directing from the University of Toronto.
Recent directing credits include Lysistrata Reimagined (U of T Opera), The Paper Man (Fresh Ideas in Puppetry) and Mostly Mozart (U of T opera). In 2023, Mabel was the Banff Centre’s opera directing participant where she was the associate director for Don Giovanni (original direction by Joel Ivany) and the assistant director for Ivany’s production of Don Giovanni with the NAC Orchestra. Mabel was the assistant director for U of T’s 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons..
Erin Woodward* Assistant Stage Manager
Erin Woodward (she/her) is currently a student at Sheridan College. She has worked on small-scale productions in the past such as Charlie Brown in A Charlie Brown Christmas, and some school productions and is super excited to be back at Toronto City Opera for Carmen after being part of the team in Susannah as an Assistant Stage Manager. When she is not making costumes and props or being around the theatre scene, she can be found curled up with a good book and a cup of tea