Biography

Hailed by the Ottawa Citizen as a singer possessing “…an instrument of rare beauty, majestic and commanding from the bottom of his range to the top…”, bass-baritone Stephen Hegedus is frequently heard with leading orchestras and opera companies in Canada and abroad.

His operatic roles include Figaro and the Count (Le nozze di Figaro), Leporello (Don Giovanni), Colline (La Bohème), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Alidoro (La Cenerentola), Albert (Werther), Nick Shadow (The Rake’s Progress), Collatinus (The Rape of Lucretia), Talbot (Maria Stuarda), Sprecher (Die Zauberflöte), Masetto (Don Giovanni) and Angelotti (Tosca). He has been engaged by the Teatro Municipal de Santiago, Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver Opera, L’Opéra de Montréal, Opera Atelier, Pacific Opera Victoria, Edmonton Opera, Opera Columbus, Opera Hamilton and Against the Grain Theatre.

A prize winner at the Lyndon Woodside Oratorio Solo Competition, hosted by the Oratorio Society of New York, Mr. Hegedus’ extensive concert experience includes appearances with the Vancouver and Seattle Symphonies (Mozart’s Requiem) , Winnipeg Symphony (Haydn’s Creation), the Grant Park Festival (Dvorak’s The Spectre’s Bride, Brahms’ Requiem), l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Bernstein’s A Quiet Place), the Florida Orchestra (Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9), the Aldeburgh Festival (Bach’s B-minor Mass) and the l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec (Bach’s Magnificat).

Stephen has performed Handel’s Messiah with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Seattle Symphony, Houston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Naples Philharmonic and Victoria Symphony.

Recent appearances include Handel’s Messiah with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, an all Bach program with the Orchestre Symphonique du Montréal and Colline in Puccini’s La Bohème with the Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières.

This season he will perform Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Grand Philharmonic Choir, Messiah with Victoria Symphony, Haydn’s Creation with Vancouver Symphony and Bruckner’s Te Deum with the Calgary Philharmonic.

A finalist at Placido Domingo’s Operalia, Stephen made his Carnegie Hall debut singing Bach’s Mass in B-minor with the Oratorio Society of New York and later returned for Handel’s Messiah as well as with Les Violons du Roy.