Born in Montreal, Giancarlo Scalia leads an active and versatile career as a pianist, vocal coach and composer. He has performed throughout Canada, Italy, Austria, Germany, France, the United States and China and his compositions have been presented throughout North America and Europe.
Mr. Scalia has worked on over 45 productions in various capacities (musical director, chorus master and répétiteur) for a multitude of companies such as l’Opéra bouffe du Québec, the Halifax Summer Opera Festival, Contact Theatre, Opéra immédiat and Lakeshore Light Opera. He has also collaborated with l’Opéra de Montréal and it’s Atelier lyrique, TUNDI Productions’ Wagner in Vermont Festival, Light Opera of Montreal, Snowglobe Theatre, Haskell Opera House, Opéra Outside the Box, the Festival Classica, les Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques, Opéra de Lévis, Opera Atelier in Toronto, Gesellschaft für Musiktheater in Vienna, l’Istituto Italiano di Cultura de Montreal, the Société d’art vocal de Montréal and la Semaine italienne de Montréal.
A fervent supporter of the next generation of singers, he has coached at Concordia University, the prestigious Mediterranean Opera Studio and Festival in Sicily, the Scuola internazionale di Teatro Italiano Giovanni Grasso and the École de musique Vincent d’Indy.
As a performer, his large repertoire ranges from full operas, operettas and musicals to the major mélodie, lieder and art song works. He toured China twice; in 2024 with sopranos Suzanne Taffot and Lucie St-Martin, mezzo soprano Caroline Gélinas, tenor Mathieu Abel and baritone Philip Kalmanovitch and in 2017 with baritone Hugo Laporte, mezzo soprano Marie-Andrée Mathieu and soprano Jessica Latouche. In 2016, he recorded and released the album Arie e canzoni with soprano Sophie De Cruz featuring arias by Puccini, Donizetti and Verdi; art songs by Donaudy, Gastaldon, and Tosti as well as his composition Ideale.
Giancarlo Scalia is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre and has composed for, among others, l’Orchestre de la Francophonie, l’Ensemble Paramirabo, l’Ensemble Saxologie, l’Académie Francis Poulenc (Tours, France), pianist Jimmy Brière, cellist Julie Hereish, mezzo soprano Rose Naggar-Tremblay, Leoria Productions, the West Island Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre d’Harmonie Leonardo da Vinci and the Grand Ensemble de Cuivres de l’Université de Montréal. His catalogue includes works for a variety of instrumentations (solo instruments, voice, chamber groups, ensembles, mixed music, film music) and his compositional style incorporates both traditional and contemporary elements; a combination of modal, tonal and atonal music.
He obtained a Bachelor’s degree and a DESS diploma in piano performance under the direction of Jimmy Brière and Marc Durand and a Master’s degree in composition under the direction of Denis Gougeon from the Université de Montréal before pursuing his studies privately with pianists Walter Moore and Norman Shetler in Vienna and Claude Webster in Montréal. He has also participated in vocal accompaniment programs at the Orford Arts Centre, the Wiener Musikseminar (Vienna, Austria), Vox Musicae (Senigallia, Italy) and the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy.
(September 2024)