Soprano Irene Ilic has a Master's Degree in Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music in Ohio. She has performed a variety of operatic and musical theatre roles in the U.S. and Canada and has sung as a guest soloist with many Canadian choirs and orchestras.
Ms. Ilic currently has a thriving private teaching practice in Newmarket. In addition to being an O.R.M.T.A. member, she is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (N.A.T.S.) and the Canadian Music Festival Adjudicator's Association (C.M.F.A.A.). She is also currently a board member of the OMFA (Ontario Music Festivals Association).
She was honoured to be selected to join the repertoire selection committee for both the 2012 edition and 2019 edition of the Royal Conservatory of Music Songbook Series.
Ms. Ilic has adjudicated many festivals throughout Canada. She has extensive experience as a teacher and clinician, and she is also the founder and director of the Newmarket Voice Festival, an annual event since 1996.
Her love of both classical and musical theatre repertoire has strongly been reflected in her teaching. Several of her students have appeared in the Toronto casts of The Sound of Music, Billy Eliot, Mary Poppins, The Lord of the Rings, The Lion King, Mamma Mia, We Will Rock You and in many productions of Opera Atelier. Her student, John-Michael Scapin, won CBC's show Triple Sensation and was awarded a $150,000 scholarship. Twelve of her students have won Silver and Gold Medals for the highest voice RCM exam mark in Ontario over the years.
Irene is very active in the arts community and regularly produces concerts and shows. She was the founder and director of Vivace!, an award-winning triple trio who performed at many community events for ten years. She scripted and directed two sold-out musical revues ("Musical Mayhem" and "More Musical Mayhem") at Theatre Aurora with talented casts of her students. Her annual "Tea & Tunes" concerts have raised thousands of dollars for Sick Kids Hospital for over twenty-five years.
She is very proud that so many of her students have chosen to pursue music at the university level and as a career path.