Canadian soprano Avery Lafrentz has travaled a long way from Saskatchewan – and she’s just getting started. Raised and classicaly trained in Canada, she went on to earn a Master of Music in Voice and Opera Performance from McGill University, where she as a Wirth Family Fellow; before completing her Artist Diploma on the Guildhall School of Music & Drama’s Opera Course in London where she was awarded the Rosemary Thayer Award, the Beris Hudson Award, and the Timothy Brennan KC Scholarship, recognizing her among the school’s most promising young artists. This season she joins the Scottish Opera as an Emerging Artist for 2026/27 – the latest, biggest step yet in a fast-rising career.

What sets Avery apart is as much her mind as her voice. Before opera, she completed a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Biological Anthropology at the University of Toronto (alongside a degree in music) – a foundation that informs a distinctive, psychologically grounded approach to character work. Critics have noticed both sides of that combination: at the 2026 Lammermuir Festival, The Herald singles her out as facing arguably the toughest assignment of the evening in Britten’s vocally punishing Our Hunting Fathers, noting she “appeared to be enjoying its demanding complexity” – while Seen and Heard International turned to the voice itself, praising her “vivd colour and astonishing technique.” A Young(ish) Perspective has also called her performance as Iolanthe in Smyth’s Der Wald “emotionally and technically excellent singing.”

On stage, Avery’s roles span Mozart, Britten, and contemporary opera: Iolanthe (Der Wald), Witch/Mother (Hansel und Gretel), Vitellia (La Clemenza di Tito), Anna Maurrant (Street Scene), and the title role in Suor Angelica. In concert she has soloed with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s 9th, sung with the UBU Contemporary Ensemble at GSMD, and appeared in recital alongside Nicky Spence OBE and Dylan Perez. She was a professional fellow at SongFest in Los Angeles as a grant recipient from the Art Song Foundation of Canada.

This autumn, Avery tours Scotland’s Highlands as Mother/The Witch in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with Opera on Your Doorstep, appears in Scottish Opera’s Orchestral Gala in Inverness on November 20th, and gives an Emerging Artists’ Recital at the Royal Conservatory of Scotland on November 27th.