John MacMaster's way into opera wasn't exactly smooth or linear. Born in Moncton, Canada, and moved to Montréal at age 12, he sang
in regional rock bands as a young man in the 1970s, organized musical life at a local church, and studied theology (1973–78). He had
never heard any opera, and had but a very faint concept of what it might be. He only got to know when starting to study voice himself in
1978, on advice by people who had heard him sing in his church.
His studies took until 1981, then he sang in the choir of the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto for five years. The chief conductor there
realized that his voice was larger than an average chorister's, and told him to study further. MacMaster went to New York for that
purpose; voice lessons were much more expensive than in Canada, and he had to work so as to pay for them. He became a cantor and musical
director at a church. He auditioned regularly with opera companies, but never got hired. In the end, he worked at that New York church for
almost ten years. Then, at long last, he got a contract to perform on stage – in Phantom of the opera, though, first in
Toronto (1995) and then on Broadway.
In 1996, he finally got to sing opera, making his debut in San Francisco as one of the Jews in Salome, followed by Aegisth the
following year. His first main role was Peter Grimes in Detroit in 1999, then he sang at the Vienna Volksoper for a while. His
breakthrough came in 2002, as Canio at the Glimmerglass Opera. He sang around Canada (Montréal, Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa), in
Carmel-on-Sea (California), Louisville, Cardiff, but also in Dresden, at the Paris Opéra, and a handful of performances at the New
York Met. Roles he sang included Manrico, Otello, Pollione, Italienischer Sänger, Laca, Grigorij, Tristan or Calaf. He probably sang
just as much in concert as in opera.
From 2016, he taught voice at McGill University in Montréal.
Reference 1: The Globe and Mail, 14 September 2002; reference 2 and picture source: MacMaster's website; reference 3: The Gazette, 24 August 2016; reference 4: MacMaster's LinkedIn
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