(Photo by Kevin Calixte)
On February 11th, the Fondation Mécénat Musica for cultural philanthropy awarded the Prix Goyer for Collaborative Emerging Artists to the mezzo-soprano Kristin Hoff. The prize is valued at $125,000 CAD—the largest of its kind in Canada and one of the largest for artists in the world.
Receiving an award for collaboration may seem unusual for an opera singer who performs primarily as a soloist. But for Kristin Hoff, this prize couldn’t be a more natural fit.
“Opera is a discipline that is very reliant on healthy collaboration,” Hoff explains. “It will always be more successful when trust is built and different voices and perspectives are heard. It seems innate to the discipline that [collaboration] be central to the way projects are built.”
Hoff has prioritized this collaborative approach to opera throughout the life of her opera company, Musique 3 Femmes (M3F). Co-founded in 2018 by Hoff, the soprano Suzanne Rigden, and the pianist Jennifer Szeto—now head of Opéra de Montréal’s Atelier Lyrique—, Musique 3 Femmes has commissioned eleven operas by female-identifying composers and librettists and presented over sixty-five concerts and opera workshops over the past seven years.
Hoff describes the company’s origins as “artist-centered,” and that it grew out of a desire to make art that was more integrated between creators and performers.
“The immensity of the production side of things was learned over time,” Hoff relates regarding M3F’s projects, which have now been presented in eleven provinces as well as in Germany and the United States.
As a soloist, Hoff has performed at the highest level of the classical music profession. She has performed at Carnegie Hall under James Levine in Elliot Carter’s Syringa with the Met Chamber Ensemble, as well as in performances with the Boston Pops, Vancouver Opera, the Tanglewood Festival, the New York Festival of Song, and the Mark Morris Dance Company. She brings this wealth of experience to the way she cares for her collaborative artists.
“I’ve tried to build environments that feel supportive, safe, and that have space for ideas,” she shares. “That way, people feel they can really express themselves creatively without judgment.”
But Hoff’s propensity to care for artists also comes with its challenges.
“I’m an empath,” she states, explaining how her excessive care for her collaborators can sometimes lead to worrying and absorbing their struggles. “I really care about all the artists involved.”
Mécénat Musica’s Prix Goyer is named for Jean-Pierre Goyer, a philanthropist responsible for giving Yannick Nézet-Séguin the position of Emerging Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain when Nézet-Séguin was only twenty-five years old. Out of the Prix Goyer’s $125,000 award, $50,000 is given to the artists in cash, $50,000 is given to the artist’s cultural organization, $13,500 is allotted for Mécénat Musica’s composer-in-residence to compose a piece for the artist, and $11,500 is given to the artist for business coaching.
Kristin Hoff intends to spend the allotted $50,000 for an organization on M3F’s opera creation endowment fund. Currently, M3F is working on an operatic adaptation of John Irving’s bestselling novel, “A Prayer for Owen Meany,” by the composer and librettist Luna Pearl Woolf. Owen Meany will be one of the organization’s biggest shows, with a cast that includes twelve soloists, a children’s choir, and a thirty-piece orchestra. So far, M3F has financed the first half of its libretto and is awaiting further funding results, while also seeking major operatic partners interested in collaborating on the commission, development, and production of the work.
In the meantime, in a couple of weeks M3F will premiere “NANATASIS: Opéra en trois légendes” by composer Alejandra Odgers and librettist Nicole O’Bomsawin as part of Festival de Casteliers and Le Vivier’s La Semaine du Neuf. A partnership with Montreal’s Sixtrum Percussion ensemble, Nanatasis was commissioned in 2022 through M3F’s biannual Mécénat Musica Prix 3 Femmes.
Always wearing more than one hat, Hoff will also perform at La Semaine du Neuf, tackling Ana Sokolovič’s fiendishly difficult “Love Songs” from memory.
“What I do is straddle both worlds,” she explains of her unconventional career. “I’m a producer with an artist’s perspective and an artist with a producer’s perspective.”
Sounds like a 21st-century opera singer to me. Congrats to Kristin Hoff and to Musique 3 Femmes; this award sounds more than deserved.
