Dr. Joel Katz holds a PhD in Music (York University), an MA in Psychology for Musicians (University of Sheffield), an Opera Diploma (University of Toronto), an Artist Diploma in Performance (University of Toronto), and a Bachelor of Arts (Bennington College). Dr. Katz is one of a handful of Canadian artists to have received a Canada Council Arts B Award, an Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Grant, and most recently, a three-year SSHRC fellowship to support his research into singers’ memory. Teachers have included Louis Quilico, Arthur Levy, Richard Miller, Daniel Ferro and Ed Zambara. Dr. Katz has also worked in master class with Hans Hotter, Erik Werba, Elly Ameling and Walter Berry, and has coached with Joan Dornemann, Stuart Hamilton, Helmut Deutsch, and Walter Moore. He is a laureate of the Munich international Voice Competition and received an honourable mention at the Rio de Janeiro International Voice Competition.
Dr. Katz was a member of the COC Ensemble and principal singer with the Canadian Opera Company, and has sung with the Edmonton Opera, Calgary Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Chattanooga Opera, the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, the Landestheater Hof and the Aspen Festival. As an oratorio soloist, he has been heard at the Schaffhausen Festival, the Ludwigsburger Festspiele and with the St. Louis Symphony, the Toronto Symphony, the Mendelssohn Choir, the Edmonton Symphony, Calgary Symphony, Quebec Symphony and Symphony Nova Scotia, among others. For several years, he was a member of the international touring company of The Phantom of the Opera.
Joel Katz now teaches at The Glenn Gould School (GGS) and
Oscar Peterson School of Music of The Royal Conservatory of Music. At The Glenn Gould School, he is an instructor in applied voice, music history, vocal literature, vocal pedagogy and opera; at the Royal Conservatory School he maintains a private studio. Joel has taught artists performing at the Bayreuth Festival, the Metropolitan Opera, the Staatsoper in Berlin, La Scala and the Wiener Staatsoper, and the Canadian Opera Company, among others. His students have won admission to many prestigious training programs, including the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, The University of Toronto Opera Department, the Chautaqua Festival, the Ryan Opera Centre at the Chicago Lyric Opera and the Ensemble Program of the Glimmerglass Festival.