Alexandra Ioan is a soprano living in Evanston, Illinois. She is currently a Grant Park Music Festival Supplementary Chorus Member, a Member of the Chicago Symphony Chorus and as well as lead cantor for Saint Josaphat Catholic Church in Chicago. Originally from Romania, Alexandra studied piano from an early age alongside choir, music theory and music history. After moving to New Zealand in 2002, she turned to voice as her instrument and completed a Conjoint Bachelors Degree in Music and Commerce at the University of Auckland . Subsequently, Alexandra studied and worked in Australia where she received a PhD in Music Performance with a focus on Romanian folk inspired art song, from the University of Melbourne in 2019.
Alexandra has sung as a soloist and chorus member with Milwaukee's Florentine Opera, Victorian Opera, Opera Australia, New Zealand Opera and Gertrude Opera. She has also presented art song recitals for the Lieder Society of Victoria and the University of Melbourne Lunchtime Series. In 2017 Alexandra was awarded the More Than Opera Prize in the German Australian Opera Competition and was a reserve finalist for the Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Scholarship . She has won the 2016 Liederfest competition, was chosen as a semi-finalist in the 2016 Mietta Song Competition and won the 2015 Boroondara and Warrnambool Aria Competitions in Victoria. She has also won the New Zealand Becroft, Napier and Christchurch Aria competitions. Operatic roles include: Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Barbarina (Le Nozze di Figaro), Mimi (La Boheme), Micaela (Carmen), Morgana (Alcina), Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring), Cendrillon (Cendrillon), Adina (L'elisir d'amore). Alexandra was a 2009/2010 Dame Malvina Major Emerging Artist with the New Zealand Opera. During her internship she performed the role of Barbarina in the opera The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart. One reviewer describes her performance ”Barbarina was charmingly played by Alexandra Ioan, who has an exceptional voice – a young singer to watch.” In 2015 Alexandra was a Young Artist with Gertrude Opera, where she received the Alice Amy McDonald Scholarship and performed main roles in their inaugural Nagambie Lakes Opera Festival. Other operatic highlights include performing with Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra in the New Zealand Aria finals and sharing the stage with one of the world’s most famous sopranos, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, at the Nelson Sealord Opera in the Park. |