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Mary Morrison has had a long and distinguished performing career which included principal operatic roles with the Canadian Opera Company and the CBC Opera Company, solo symphony appearances with the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, and the symphony orchestras of Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg, as well as recitals, chamber music, and recordings. She has been featured at prestigious international music festivals throughout North America, Europe, Scandinavia, and japan.
Some of the renowned composers with whom she has performed and recorded include Stravinsky, Berio, Cage, Xenakis, Takemitsu, Maxwell Davies, George Crumb, Penderecki, Ligeti, and Canadian composers Schafer, Somers, Weinzweig, Beckwith, and her husband, Harry Freedman.
For 30 years she has taught voice at universities across Canada as well as at L' Atelier de L'Opera de Montreal and the Banff Centre for the Arts. She is a frequent vocal consultant at the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies at Aldeburgh, England, where her colleagues are such artists as Martin Isepp, Sergei leiferkus, Sir Charles Mackerras, and Elizabeth Soderstrom. She is a frequent consultant and juror for arts organizations and councils.
Currently, she teaches at the Faculty of Music of the University of Toronto where she has supervised the vocal studies of many young singers who are among today's emerging stars of opera and the concert stage. A partial list of these graduates attests to Ms. Morrison's deft touch in the development of young voices: Valdine Anderson, Nancy Argenta, Ingrid Attrot, Measha Bruggergosman, Tracy Dahl, Gregory Dahl, Gordon Gietz, Barbara Hannigan, Wendy Nielsen, John Tessier .
In 2002, at the 3rd annual Opera Canada "Rubies" Gala, Marilyn Home presented Ms. Morrison with the award as Opera Educator of 2002, a fitting summation of a remarkable pedagogical achievement. This was the latest of many honours in recognition of her outstanding contribution to Canadian music: the Canadian Music Citation in 1968; appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1983; received the Medal of Service to the Arts from the City of Toronto in 1985; and received the Queen Elizabeth Commemorative Medal in 1993.
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