Bass-baritone Gordon Bintner of Regina has won both first prize and the People’s Choice Award in the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio Competition.

Bintner performed Non più andrai from The Marriage of Figaro and Sibilar gli angui d’Aletto from Rinaldo to win the $5,000 first prize on Thursday in Toronto.

Bintner was selected from among 10 finalists who performed in front of a live audience at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts Thursday. Those 10 finalists were selected from among 146 young singers from across Canada who auditioned for a chance to perform.

The audience also picked Bintner as their favourite performer. He wins an additional $1,500 with the People’s Choice Award.

COC artistic staff take into account performances by all the finalists when they select the lineup of the 13/14 Ensemble Studio, a training program for young singers in which they can perform with the opera company.

Other winners last night:

• Second prize ($3,000): Tenor Andrew Haji of London, Ont.
• Third prize ($1,500): Mezzo-soprano Charlotte Burrage of Woodstock, Ont.

Gordon Bintner performs Thursday night at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto. (Chris Hutcheson/Canadian Opera Company)

Bintner is currently studying for his master of music degree in opera and voice at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music. He has performed as Figaro with Opera Nuova and made his European debut as Colline in La Bohème with Angers Nantes Opéra.

He previously won the OSM Standard Life Competition and debuted with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

Upcoming appearances include Nardo in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera with San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program and Lescaut in Massenet’s Manon with Opéra de Montréal.

The Ensemble Studio program has launched the careers of over 150 Canadian singers, opera coaches, stage directors and conductors, including Ben Heppner, Isabel Bayrakdarian, John Fanning, Allyson McHardy and Krisztina Szabo.