BIOGRAPHY
Daniel Cabena is a concert singer, recitalist, chamber musician, and singing actor. He is highly regarded in both Canada and Europe for performances of music from the medieval to the contemporary. He brings a background in early music and liturgical music scholarship and a commitment to exploring how music functions in different performance contexts and traditions, a commitment to the ‘why’ of music and to its ‘how.’
His Canadian concert engagements have included performances with the Victoria and Newfoundland Symphony Orchestras, the Ottawa Choral Society, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Winnipeg’s Camerata Nova, the Grand Philharmonic Choir, the Elora Festival Singers, Spiritus Ensemble, Spiritus Chamber Choir, and Tafelmusik, to name a few. Highlights of his European work include performances with Musica Fiorita, Ensemble Diapsalma, Le Concert Spirituel, La Divina Armonia, Le Parlement de Musique, and Ensemble Gilles Binchois.
His work on the operatic stage has taken him most recently to Prague, Ostrava and Vancouver, for performances in the role of Ochre in Rudolf Komorous’ The Mute Canary. Past seasons have included appearances with l’Opéra de Montréal, Pacific Opera Victoria and Edmonton Opera in the role of Lydie-Anne in Kevin March and Michel Marc Bouchard’s Les Feluettes, as well as in productions at Theater Basel and the Grand Théâtre de Genève.
As a recitalist, Daniel regularly collaborates with pianist Stephen Runge, and their A Sanctuary in Song recording was nominated for a 2022 East Coast Music Award. Other recent performances are with Scaramella Ensemble (The Red Priest), and the Cardinal Consort of Viols. In 2024, Daniel is a guest soloist in Bach’s St.John Passion with Grand Philharmonic Choir. His concert work includes performances of Bach’s music with Spiritus Ensemble, Kitchener, the Ottawa Choral Society and Pallade Musica, Montreal.
Daniel has appeared with Soundstreams, in Electric Messiah, and The Garden of Vanished Pleasures, a semi-staged concert featuring the music of Donna McKevitt and Cecilia Livingston and at Vancouver’s Modulus Festival, in Aves, the Four-Chambered Heart, a new song cycle by Alfredo Santa Ana with texts by Colin Browne.
Daniel participates with lyricist Luke Hathaway in ANIMA, which is a metamorphosing ensemble, a gathering-place in art: a place of friendship, of sustaining story; a place where old texts and melodies are animated by spirit and voice.
Daniel holds an Honours Bachelor of Music from Wilfrid Laurier University and a Doctorate of Music from l’Université de Montréal. He is a past recipient of the Bernard Diamant and Virginia Parker Prizes from the Canada Council for the Arts, and he holds a Master in Specialized Early Music Performance from the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland.
REVIEWS
As Jarman in Garden of Vanished Pleasures with Soundstreams –
“Cabena is surely a perfect fit to portray Jarman. His countertenor voice is filled with layered meanings, hidden commentary about gender and strangeness and oppressive societal limits.”
Jenna Simeonov, Schmopera
As Lydie-Anne de Rozier in Les Feluettes with Edmonton Opera –
“As the aristocratic Lydie-Anne de Rozier, Daniel Cabena is a countertenor of the highest quality: a rich, vibrant higher register with the depth of the lower registers... Cabena offers poignant scenes as a woman in love with a man who is in love with another.”
Oliver Munar, Schmopera
As Lydie-Anne de Rozier in Les Feluettes with L’Opera de Montreal –
"...both profoundly touching and utterly compelling... Daniel Cabena as Lydie-Anne (Simon’s fiancée), his vocal poise and theatrical aplomb constantly rewarding.”
Richard Turp, Opera Canada
In O Magnum Mysterium with Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra –
" ... it was a pleasure to hear countertenor Daniel Cabena’s gentle, elegant singing, supported by an especially fine sensitivity to the text."
Natasha Gauthier, Ottawa Citizen
In air india [REDACTED] with Turning Point Ensemble –
“...Cabena could fairly be described as extraordinary”
Alexander Varty, The Georgia Straight
In Dido and Aeneas with Les Violons du Roy –
“...counter-tenor Daniel Cabena stood out even amid the general din of talent.”
Lev Bratishenko, Montreal Gazette
As Tolomeo in Handel’s Giulio Cesare with Thirteen Strings –
"The star of the evening came in the form of Daniel Cabena (Tolomeo), who shone in his humorous character and the flexible style in which he sung, melding chest voice and falsetto into his lines effortlessly."
Andrew Burn, The Heckeler
“Countertenor Cabena portrayed the black-hearted Tolomeo as an effeminate masochist, delightfully in certain scenes, and with strong, articulate singing to boot.”
Richard Todd, Ottawa Citizen
In Bach's Christmas Oratorio in Reykjavik, Iceland –
“Daniel Cabena's countertenor was nothing less then excellent in the alto role”
Ríkharður Ö. Pálsson, Morgunblaðið fimmtudagur
In concert with Musica Fiorita, Motets by Swiss composer Gletle –
"Daniel Cabena was also very classy, with his freely flowing, slender, well-sustained alto voice."
Alfred Ziltener, Basellandschaftliche Zeitung
As Lydie-Anne de Rozier in Les Feluettes with Edmonton Opera –
“As the aristocratic Lydie-Anne de Rozier, Daniel Cabena is a countertenor of the highest quality: a rich, vibrant higher register with the depth of the lower registers... Cabena offers poignant scenes as a woman in love with a man who is in love with another.”
Oliver Munar, Schmopera
SELECTED ROLES
Lydie-Anne de Rozier | Les Feluettes
Ochre | The Mute Canary
Tolomeo | Giulio Cesare in Egitto
SELECTED REPERTOIRE
Bernstein | Chichester Psalms
Bach | St. John Passion
Handel | Messiah
