Mireille Asselin

A singer deemed “a treasure” by the Toronto Star, Canadian soprano Mireille Asselin enjoys a diverse, international career spanning concert, opera and recital work. Mireille has performed in five seasons at the Metropolitan Opera, where she notably stepped in as Adele for the opening night of Die Fledermaus, giving a performance that critics raved “stole the show,” hailing it as one of New York’s “most enchanting” of the season.

Engagements in the 2025/26 season include her first appearance at London’s Royal Ballet and Opera as Arianna and La Fortuna in Handel’s Giustino, and her role debut as Nellie in the Canadian premiere of 10 Days in a Madhouse (Orth/Moscovitch) with Tapestry Opera. In concert, she will perform Rutter’s Magnificat with the Orchestre symphonique de Gatineau, Mozart’s Requiem with Chorus Niagara, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Festival International Bach Montréal. She will also appear with Victoria Baroque, Amici Chamber Ensemble, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and the Brooklyn Art Song Society.

In the 2024/25 season, Mireille made a critically acclaimed role debut as Jonathas in David et Jonathas with Opera Atelier and was featured in Tim Albery’s The Garden of Vanished Pleasure, with music by Cecilia Livingston and Donna McKevitt, at Soundstreams. Asselin also appeared as the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and in Handel’s Messiah with the Richard Eaton Singers and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

During the 2023/24 season, Ms. Asselin returned to Garsington Opera as La Folie in Platée, Opera Atelier as Eurydice in Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice, Edmonton Opera as Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and Vancouver Opera/Re:Naissance Opera as Eleanor of Aquitaine in the world premiere of Tawnie Olson and Roberta Barker’s Sanctuary and Storm. Additionally, she made orchestral debuts with the Victoria Symphony, Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, and Symphony Nova Scotia. In 2022/23, she appeared as Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro with the Canadian Opera Company, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas with Opera Atelier, and in a staged production of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Edmonton Opera. She also debuted with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah, returned there as Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and joined Music and Beyond for Rutter and Fauré’s Requiems as well as a recital with Phillip Chiu.

Other recent highlights include appearances at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Garsington Opera (Zerlina, Don Giovanni), Vancouver Opera (Amore, Orfeo ed Euridice), the Milwaukee and Rhode Island Symphony Orchestras (Handel’s Messiah), the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris (Mozart’s Requiem), and at Toronto Summer Music Festival and the Rockport Chamber Music Festival.

As a respected interpreter of early music, Ms. Asselin appears regularly with period groups such as the Boston Early Music Festival and Opera Atelier, where her roles have included Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Créuse (Médée), Celia (Lucio Silla), Morgana (Alcina), Galatea (Acis and Galatea), Minerva (Ulisse), and La Musica/Euridice (Orfeo). She made her European opera debut as Princesse Andromède (Persée) at Versailles in 2014, and sang the title role in Handel’s Berenice at the 2016 Göttingen International Handel Festival in Germany.

A former member of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio, she performed Adele in Die Fledermaus, Servilia in La clemenza di Tito, and the title role in Handel’s Semele with the company. Her operatic credits elsewhere include Eurydice (Glück/Berlioz Orphée), Despina (Così fan tutte), Thérèse (Les mamelles de Tirèsias), Nannetta (Falstaff), Musetta (La bohème), the title role in Stravinsky’s Rossignol, Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), and Soeur Constance (Dialogues des Carmélites).

Ms. Asselin is an accomplished concert performer who has appeared with many major orchestras and ensembles, including the Minnesota Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society, Milwaukee Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra, and Les Violons du Roy. A committed advocate for contemporary music, she has premiered and workshopped numerous new compositions and participated in the innovative development of VR techniques for opera, originating the role of Eurydice in ORPHEUS VR with Re: Naissance Opera. She is also an avid recitalist and a core member of The Mirror Visions Ensemble, a vocal chamber music collective.

Her discography includes two albums of Canadian repertoire—Ash Roses, featuring music by Derek Holman on the Centrediscs label, and Inspired by Canada – Notre Pays with Marquis Classics, a solo album of Canadian popular and traditional songs recorded with the legendary Amici Chamber Ensemble. She also appears on the CORO label in the Handel and Haydn Society’s recording of Haydn’s Harmoniemesse.

Mireille obtained her Master of Music from Yale University’s prestigious Opera Program. Prior to her studies at Yale, she completed a Bachelor of Music at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. In addition to being a former member of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio, she was also a Filene Artist with Wolf Trap Opera for two summers. Ms. Asselin was born in Ottawa, Canada, and is both an American and Canadian citizen.