Biography
Originally from Cape Breton, mezzo-soprano Mairi-Irene McCormack is a versatile performer and teacher based in Edmonton, Alberta. She holds a Performer Diploma in Vocal Performance from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music (2017) and a Masters of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Alberta (2019.) Mairi-Irene has had experience performing a wide-range of genres from folk and pop music to classical music and opera.
Operatic roles performed include Mrs. Sedley in Peter Grimes, Third Lady in The Magic Flute, Aloes in L’etoiles, and The Monitor in Suor Angelica, with additional scene performances as Charlotte in Werther and Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw. As a concert soloist, she has performed with several orchestras and ensembles locally and regionally including the Richard Eaton Singers and the Alberta Baroque Ensemble. During the 2020-21 season, Mairi-Irene was a member of Edmonton Opera’s Emerging Artists Studio.
This 2023-24 season, Mairi-Irene appears as part of the Jeanne & Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre chamber music series and as the alto soloist in Mozart's Requiem with the University of Alberta Symphony Orchestra.
Prior to her graduate studies, Mairi-Irene earned a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the Augustana Faculty at the University of Alberta and received further training at Opera NUOVA and the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy. An avid performer of art song and lieder, Mairi-Irene is a 2012 graduate of the Franz Schubert Institut. She has received grants and awards from the Anne Burrows Music Foundation, the Winspear Fund, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Edmonton Arts Council, the Wirth Institute, and Indiana University.
In addition to her career as a performer, Mairi-Irene has been teaching voice for over ten years. She is currently the primary vocal instructor at the University of Alberta Augustana Faculty, where she teaches private lessons to Bachelor of Music students. As a sessional instructor at Concordia University of Edmonton, she has taught courses in Vocal Literature and Vocal Diction, and continues to teach class voice and private voice lessons. Mairi-Irene also maintains a busy home studio, teaching dynamic and engaging lessons to adults, young professionals, and children as young as six years old. She specializes in breath and body work and enjoys helping singers build their confidence in themselves and their ability to communicate through song.
Mairi-Irene has served as the vocal adjudicator at the Barrhead Rotary Music Festival (2020,) the Leduc Rotary Music Festival (2022,) the Red Deer Festival of the Performing Arts (2023,) and the North Peace Performing Arts Festival (2024.) She is actively seeking further opportunities to adjudicate music festivals and lead vocal workshops and masterclasses.