Biography

Vania Lizbeth Chan is a versatile artist, active in the fields of vocal performance, academic research and education. She enjoys collaborating with fellow artists to create new and exciting projects that inspire and educate a wide ranging audience.

A singer of a variety of styles, she has performed opera, operetta, musical theatre, oratorio, scared, jazz and popular music.

Vania’s lyric coloratura soprano voice has been described as “gently shimmering” (Opera News, NY) and “lovely and agile” (@KarasReviews). She has been praised for her fine acting skills, acclaimed as a “first-rate comedienne” (Halifax Chronicle Herald).

She made her Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Recital Hall, claiming first prize in the Barry Alexander International Competition, NY, performing “Glitter and be Gay” from Bernstein’s Candide.

Vania’s upcoming performances in 2026 include:

Soundstreams – “I Want to Tell You Everything: An Anthology of Love Songs” – singing with a 7 member vocal ensemble. This production begins with a performance at the Jane Mallet Theatre, Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts (April 9th, 2026), followed by a tour to Ireland (performance at New Music Dublin, National Concert Hall), and Chicoutimi, Quebec.

Rezonance Baroque Ensemble – “Pallade e Marte” – performing the role of Pallade in a rare revival of an opera by Italian composer Maria Margherita Grimani (May 3rd, 2026).

Little Pear Garden Dance Company – “Echoes of the Underworld” – an immersive dance theatre experience inspired by Chinese folklore inside Toronto’s historic Campbell House Museum. Vania performs the role of Queen of the Underworld. (June 12th – 14th, and 19th – 21st, 2026).

An avid supporter and performer of new Canadian music, Vania works closely with Canadian composers to record and premiere their works. She has an ongoing collaboration with composer Alice Ping Yee Ho, recently commissioning a dramatic musical work entitled “Transfiguration”, with a projected premiere in December 2026. Vania is also developing a vocal album with music producer and composer David Jaeger, showcasing his works for solo and accompanied voice.

As an artist scholar, Vania is deeply immersed in the topic of Mindfulness and Self-Regulation in vocal training. She has explored the foundation for this topic in her doctoral dissertation and continues to build her research through publications and conference lectures. She presented a lecture at the International Congress of Voice Teachers (ICVT), held in Toronto in the summer of 2025.

Vania is the creator of “When Music Meets Mindfulness”, an interview series that shares examples of mindfulness in musical practice, performance, creation and collaboration. Her written interview articles are published regularly in The WholeNote Magazine, and the video interviews are released on her YouTube channel – Vania Chan Music.

As co-artistic director of the Asian Heritage Month Concert in Toronto (CFACI – Canadian Foundation for Asian Culture, Central Ontario), Vania works alongside fellow co-artistic directors and composers Ka Nin Chan and Alice Ho. She hosts and performs in this annual event.

Throughout her career, Vania has performed with several prominent performance companies, ensembles, and music festivals in Canada and internationally. She has sung with Internationalen Sommereakademie – Elysium Between Two Continents in Bernried, Germany, and has gone on a European tour with Soundstreams in 2022, performing a program that featured the music of Canadian composer Claude Vivier.

Performance Highlights include:

Premiering the role of the Light Moon in the Lesson of Da Ji (Alice Ho/Marjorie Chan) with Toronto Masque Theatre.

Premiering the role of Wenli in CHINATOWN (Alice Ho/Madeleine Thien/Paul Yee) with City Opera Vancouver.

Eurydice in Orpheus in the Underworld (Jacques Offenbach) with Toronto Operetta Theatre.

Mabel in The Priates of Penzance (Gilbert and Sullivan) with Toronto Opereta Theatre.

Cunegonde in Candide (Bernstein) with Toronto Operetta Theatre and in concert with the Grand Philharmonic Choir (Kitchener, Ontario, Canada).

Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare (Handel) with Halifax Summer Opera Festival (Nova Scotia, Canada).

Olympia in Les Contes D’Hoffmann (Offenbach) with Summer Opera Lyric Theatre (Toronto, Canada).

Celia in Lucio Silla (Mozart) with Voicebox: Opera in Concert (Toronto, Canada).

The Ad Exec in Airline Icarus (Brian Current and Anton Piatigorsky) with Soundstreams (Toronto, Canada).

Soprano soloist in Carmina Burana (Carl Orff) with Chorus Hamilton (Hamilton, ON, Canada).

Gretel in Hansel and Gretel (Humperdinck) with Opera Manhattan Repertory (Manhattan, New York, USA).

Soprano soloist in Handel’s Heroines – Rezonance Baroque Ensemble, featured at the Early Music America, Emerging Artist Showcase (Bloomington, Indiana, USA).

Vania’s voice can be heard on a number of CD/digital audio recordings. Of special mention are:

The Lesson of Da Ji (Alice Ho/Marjorie Chan – Toronto Masque Theatre), singing the roles of The Light Moon and Ming. This opera won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Opera (2013). The CD recording, released by Centrediscs at the Canadian Music Centre, in Toronto (2015), received a Critic’s Choice Review in Opera News, New York (2016).

Venom of Love (Alice Ho) features electronic ballet music originally commissioned by Toronto’s Little Pear Garden Dance Company. Vania performed as the Story Teller in the live performance and in the recording, digitally released by Leaf Music (Halifax, NS). The recording ranked 9th place in the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s top 20 best classical recordings in 2020.

CHINATOWN (Alice Ho/Madeleine Thien/Paul Yee) singing the role of Wenli. This opera was commissioned and premiered by City Opera Vancouver. The CD features the original cast.

Little Heart (Afarin Mansouri) is a CD recording of a children’s opera, released by Centrediscs at the Canadian Music Centre (2020). Vania performs the singing role of the Little Girl and the singing/speaking role of the Mother.

Vania has been involved in several unique projects including a D’Italiano Bread Commercial (Jigsaw Casting, Toronto, 2017-2018), where she was featured as the Woman with Garlic Breath in the “Romantic Dinner” scene.

Her voice can also be heard in the short operatic cartoon film by Sofia Bohdanowicz – The View from Here (Norbet Palej/Liz Rucker), produced by Jumblies Theatre in partnership with Arts4All. The film has been shown at The Insomniac Film Festival (Toronto), the Fantastic Fest (US premiere, Austin, Texas) and the Bloody Mary Film Festival (Toronto).

Vania received her Doctor of Philosophy in Music from York University, successfully defending her dissertation in 2020. She received her Master of Music degree (M.M.) at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Vania also obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.), with a Specialized Honours in Music, graduating Summa Cum Laude from York University, and was awarded the Fine Arts Convocation Award (Highest Cumulative GPA in the Fine Arts Faculty).

Her teaching credits include:

Teaching Assistant at York University – Choir, Music Theory, Music History and Music and Cultures.

Completed her Teaching Assistants’ Certificate in Teaching (TACT) – York University Teaching Commons, SEDA – Staff and Education Development (2015).

Teaching Internship with Music and the Brain (MATB, the 42nd St. Development Corp., Manhattan, New York).

Private Voice studio – teaching students different musical styles at various levels of experiences (2013 – present).