©Photo: Kristin Hoebermann

Erin Wall (1975 — 2020)

In Memoriam

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“Erin Wall is the Thaïs of one’s dreams, wielding a soprano of radiance, pristine beauty and tingling top notes…Singing without a score, she made us believe every word.”
(Financial Times)

Erin Marie Wall passed away peacefully on Thursday, October 8 from complications due to metastatic breast cancer. She is survived by her husband, Roberto Mauro, children Michael and Julia Mauro, sister Shannon Wall, parents Michael and Suzanne Wall and many family and friends. Born in Calgary, Alberta, Erin grew up in Vancouver, BC. She studied piano at the Vancouver Academy of Music and attended Pt. Grey and Sutherland High Schools graduating in 1993. She pursued a singing career at Western Washington University, Aspen Summer Music Festival 1998, Rice University, Music Academy of the West 2000 and the Chicago Lyric Opera’s Ryan Opera Center.

Erin developed into an extraordinary lyric soprano with an international career, who performed with most of the world’s great symphony orchestras and opera companies. She was a Grammy Award winning artist and can be heard and seen on many CDs and DVDs. Besides her amazing professional career, Erin loved her home and family, often wishing that she could be home more. In addition she was an avid long distance runner having completed a New York Marathon and 2 Chicago Marathons. Erin was a bright light with an amazing gift and a huge heart. Just as her soul and special gift allowed her to lift the spirits of those she touched, may her spirit shine over all who knew her and forever keep her close to our hearts. The family would like to extend their thanks and gratitude to the amazing medical teams at Princess Margaret and Credit Valley Hospitals.

Throughout her career, Erin was profoundly grateful for the mentorship opportunities she received as an artist and was committed to paying those experiences forward by nurturing the next generation of voices and musicians. To carry on this legacy, her family is establishing the Erin Wall Tribute Fund at the Canadian Opera Company. In lieu of flowers, friends and family are asked to make a donation to the COC to provide vital support to the future of opera and in memory of Erin’s life through this fund.

To make a donation visit coc.ca/Support, call 416 – 847‑4949, or email donors@coc.ca.

Gallery

Josep Pons with Erin Wall - Strauss Vier letzte Lieder, Human Rights Concert in Geneva © Medici TV

Mahler: Symphony No.8 (excerpts) © Deutsche Grammophon

“Erin Wall’s Ellen gleams high above them – a still point of goodness among so much turbulence. .. It’s a finely judged account – lovely but life-scarred, self-deceiving enough to be a viable match for Skelton’s lost soul.”

(Opera magazine, November 2020)

“Erin Wall sang Ellen Orford with emotional intricacy and a warm, sincere tone that made her the ideal foil to [her Peter Grimes].”

(OperaMag, Feb 2020)

“Erin Wall was an anguished Ellen, with radiant tone”

(The Times, December 2019)

“Erin Wall deployed all her registers topped by a creamy top line to full effect as a surprisingly youthful-sounding Ellen Orford”

(Classical Source, December 2019)

“Erin Wall has the ideal lyricism … for Ellen Orford, so classy in the “Embroidery Aria””

(Arts Desk, December 2019)

“Erin Wall hits all the right notes in every sense as the emotionally wavering Chrysothemis.”

(Toronto Star, January 2019)

“As the avenging Elettra, Erin Wall flung vocal thunderbolts this way and that with ‘D’Oreste, d’Aiace’ as the opera’s ‘other woman’, singing herself to death.”

(Opera Magazine, February 2019)

“Erin Wall was a silver-toned Arabella…underscoring the regal, aristocratic quality of the character.”

(Opera Magazine, February 2018)

“Erin Wall sang Ellen with Straussian bloom”

(Opera Magazine, October 2017)

“Gardner would be hard to beat as a conductor of this opera, and he assembled a first-rate cast around Skelton. Chief among them were Erin Wall’s compassionate, luminous Ellen Orford”

(The Times, August 2017)

“Erin Wall was a vocally glorious Ellen Orford, infusing her arias and the Act 2 quartet with Straussian radiance”

(The Telegraph, August 2017)

“Erin Wall gave a splendid, gleamingly sung performance as Vanessa that conveyed both the woman’s pensiveness and the transformation of her spirits after winning Anatol’s affections.”

(Opera Magazine, November 2016)

“Erin Wall’s explosive soprano embodied Vanessa’s delusions”

(Wall Street Journal, August 2016)

”Equally attractive, Erin Wall gave the Santa Fe audience a thoughtful, provocative portrayal of the role. Wall has a wide range of vocal color and she used it to add emotional impact to her music. Her aria “Do not utter a word, Anatol” secured her position as the diva of the evening.”

(Bachtrack, August 2016)

“Soprano Erin Wall had shattering power in the title role, her voice revealing all of Vanessa’s pent-up frustration, but with a striking high pianissimo also in her arsenal.”

(Washington Post, July 2016)

“As the Countess, Erin Wall offered silvery tone with plenty of chiaroscuro.”

(Opera Magazine, June 2016)

“Amid that storm, soprano soloist Erin Wall could be heard delivering a series of lightning-bolt high C’s, the culmination of a powerful presence throughout the movement.”

(Boston Classical Review, September 2015)

“…the finely balanced solo quartet, led by Hanno Müller-Brachmann’s authoritative bass and Erin Wall’s laser-like soprano, were outstanding.”

(Tim Ashley, The Guardian, June 2015)