A Homecoming For Woodmass

It was a homecoming of sorts for singer Rebecca Woodmass who grew up in the Steinbach area. Earlier this month the Southern Manitoba Choral Society presented its annual Christmas concerts. Woodmass, who sings soprano was one of four Manitobans to take centre stage. She says it was nice to come back to Southern Manitoba and recognize those who have helped her get to where she is today.
   
The student at McGill University in Montreal says it's been an interesting year for her. "Well one interesting thing is last summer I actually sang in the metro all summer. So I went down into the metro and sang my opera arias and that was my summer job." Woodmass graduated with her Masters degree in Opera Performance in May and is currently in a new program called the Artist Diploma which involves a lot of performing and lots of lessons in coaching. Woodmass says "it's fun, it's really great." Woodmass notes when she walks the hallways at McGill she notices a lot of really good singers that originally came from Manitoba. "It's a great example of all the wonderful programming in this province," she says.

So what does the future have in store for the Southern Manitoba singer? Woodmass will be playing the role of Poppia in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppia. That will take place in March. Woodmass says she's also doing a lot of contemporary work. "I'm collaborating with local Quebec composers to do premiers of their work and maybe do some touring with that into Europe possibly. I'm also working with a contemporary opera company in Montreal, so that's into 2013." Woodmass says she's got a lot of exciting projects on the go.

Woodmass says the smile on her face while she performs is there because "I can't help but feel just an overwhelming sense of gratitude when I'm on stage because I know a lot of people have this dream and I feel that I'm very, very blessed and very lucky to be able to express myself in this way."