Alex Hetherington

Praised for her “wonderfully rich, warm sound” (Opera Canada), mezzo-soprano Alex Hetherington was recently named one of CBC Radio’s “30 Hot Classical Musicians Under 30.” In the 2025/26 season, Ms. Hetherington, a Canadian Opera Company (COC) Ensemble Studio graduate, returns to the COC as Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette and makes a role debut as Dorabella in Vancouver Opera’s Così fan tutte. In concert, she joins the National Ballet of Canada in their newly commissioned ballet, Procession, reunites with the National Arts Centre Orchestra for a recording project with Maestro Alexander Shelley, and makes much-anticipated debuts with Boston Baroque in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and with Les Violons du Roy in Mozart’s Requiem.

Ms. Hetherington made her National Arts Centre Orchestra debut in 2022 as the alto soloist in Mozart's Requiem under the baton of Bernard Labadie. This marked the beginning of a series of collaborations with the orchestra, including notable performances of Ana Sokolović’s Golden Slumbers Kiss Your Eyes and the premiere of Cecilia Livingston’s orchestral arrangements of lieder selections by Clara Schumann, led by Alexander Shelley. Other highlights include Ian Cusson’s Songs from the House of Death with the Victoria Symphony under Christian Kluxen, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Ottawa Chamberfest and the Mandle Philharmonic, Duruflé’s Requiem with the Amadeus Choir, and her first Messiah with Chorus Niagara. An accomplished recitalist, she has also curated programs for the Toronto Summer Music Festival and the Norcop Art Song Recital at the University of Toronto.

Alex’s recent operatic engagements include Siebel in a new production of Gounod's Faust at the Canadian Opera Company directed by Amy Lane, and her Vancouver Opera debut as the Stewardess in Jonathan Dove’s Flight. During her time as an ensemble member with the Canadian Opera Company, she performed Mercédès in Carmen, Lapák in The Cunning Little Vixen, Second Handmaiden in Cherubini’s Medea, and the Slave in Salome, while also covering Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, and Suli in the world premiere of Kye Marshall and Amanda Hale’s Pomegranate. Skilled in the realm of new music, Alex premiered the role of [Riley] in Nicole Lizée’ and Nicholas Billon’s R.U.R. A Torrent of Light at Tapestry Opera, for which she won a 2022 Dora Mavor Moore Award. Further operatic credits include Offred in Paul Rouder's The Handmaid's Tale (Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity), Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Carmen in La tragédie de Carmen (UofT Opera), and Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Toronto City Opera).

Alex holds a Bachelor’s in Voice Performance and a Master's in Opera Performance from the University of Toronto, where she was recognized with the Jim and Charlotte Norcop Award in Art Song and named the winner of the UTSO Concerto Competition.