From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada. LA Opera: Nabucco (2017, assistant director); Placido Domingo 50th Anniversary Gala (2017, stage director); Otello (2023, mainstage debut as director).
Joel Ivany is the founder and artistic director of AtG as well as the artistic director of Opera at Banff Centre. He was recently appointed the artistic director at Edmonton Opera.
His directing credits include productions of Macbeth (Minnesota Opera), Carmen (Vancouver Opera), The Tales of Hoffmann (Edmonton Opera), Gavin Bryars’ Marilyn Forever (Adelaide Festival, Australia) and The Marriage of Figaro (revival at Norwegian National Opera). He is the author of seven (and counting) original librettos for companies such as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Canadian Opera Company.
Recent mainstage directing credits include Dead Man Walking at Minnesota Opera and Orphée⁺, a multiple award-winning re-imagining of Gluck's opera, with Opera Columbus, AtG and Banff Centre. He has directed productions for the Canadian Opera Company (Hansel and Gretel, Carmen), Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Mozart’s Requiem, Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins), the Canadian Children’s Opera Company (Brundibár), Vancouver Opera (Carmen, Dead Man Walking), and Claude Vivier’s Kopernikus (AtG and Banff Centre). Recent highlights include the worldwide critically acclaimed film Messiah/Complex (AtG) and directing the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards for CBC Television.
He is a proud graduate of the Opera School at University of Toronto and is a member of the Alumni Wall of Fame at his alma mater, Western University.
Upcoming productions include Carmen for Canadian Opera Company, Orphée⁺ for Edmonton Opera and Don Giovanni for National Arts Centre.
