ABOUT
Soprano Dory Hayley is recognized as a leading voice in Canada’s contemporary and experimental music scene. Praised for her “very personal creative power” (Badener Zeitung) and her “amazing coloratura skills” (Opera Canada), she has worked with composers such as Helmut Lachenmann, Georges Aperghis, Cassandra Miller, and Diógenes Rivas, created roles in Mark Haney’s Omnis Temporalis, Katerina GImon’s The Transformation of Miss Emily Evans, and Michael James Park’s Diagnosis Diabetes, and commissioned and premiered an expanding catalogue of new works.
Dory Hayley has been a soloist with the Vancouver Symphony, the Vancouver Island Symphony, the Allegra Chamber Orchestra, the Turning Point Ensemble, and Capriccio Basel, and has appeared in recital across four continents. She has performed in
festivals such as Sonic Boom, the Happening Festival, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Gulangyu Autumn Festival (China), Performer’s Voice Symposium (Singapore), and Festival Atempo (Venezuela), and with organizations like the SMCQ, Chants Libres, CIRMMT, Codes d’accès, Vancouver New Music, Little Chamber Music, the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra, and the Land’s End Ensemble.
An avid and adventurous collaborator, her performances have ranged from early music to free improvisation. She is a member of the Erato Ensemble, the Broadwood Duo, and the Hayley-Laufer Duo, and has recorded with Postcommodity, Sun Belt, and the Negative Zed ensemble. She is the Artistic Co-Director of the Blueridge Chamber Music Festival.
Dory Hayley is an enthusiastic and sought-after adjudicator and teacher. She is a former Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute, Visiting Artist at University at Buffalo’s Creative Arts Initiative, and Visiting Faculty Artist at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, and a frequent Musician in Residence at the Banff Centre. On faculty at Vancouver Community College since 2015, she served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Voice at Mount Allison University in 2021-22.
Dory Hayley holds performance degrees from the University of British Columbia, McGill University, and Université de Montréal. Alongside her musical activities, she recently completed a master’s degree in public policy, with a focus on cultural policy, at Simon Fraser University. Her research and artistic projects have been funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Koerner Foundation, the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada, the BC Arts Council, and the Conseil des arts et des letters du Québec.