John Giffen performs regularly as a soloist in opera and in concert in oratorios: Scotsman, Silent Night (Opéra de Montréal); title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Handel’s Israel and Egypt (Chœur Classique de Montréal, Maison Symphonique de Montréal), Tibetan Monk, Alexander (Chants libres).
Mr. Giffen also has a solid experience in choral singing which has led him to sing with elite ensembles such as La Chapelle de Québec and Le Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal.
Recently, in the fall of 2022, he was a soloist in a program of works by Schütz with Le Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal, and also in the spring of 2017 in a concert of works by Campra.
The versatile baritone was a soloist in Dvorak’s Mass in D major at St. Andrew and St. Paul Church in the fall of 2022. In December 2016, his voice could be heard on CBC Radio in a concert broadcast from the same church.
In the spring of 2019, John Giffen performed in a solo voice and organ recital during a tour of Alberta organized by the Canadian International Organ Competition.
John views singing not only as a career, but also as a powerful, political and social gesture. He believes in the power of music and the human voice to help us become fully embodied, to name our needs, expectations and limitations, to express our emotions, and to be more attuned, all of which help us to become more human, both individually and collectively.