Canadian mezzo-soprano Mireille Lebel is originally from Vancouver and currently based in Berlin. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto and a Master of Music from the University of Montreal. She is the recipient of grants from the Canada Council and the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation.
Following her tenure as a young arist at the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montreal, a grant from the Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques sent her on an audition tour to Germany. She was engaged at Theater Erfurt where she became a member of the ensemble for 5 years singing roles such as Sesto (Clemenza di Tito), Orlovsky (Die Fledermaus), Haensel (Haensel und Gretel), and Idamante (Idomeneo).
Following her time in Erfurt, she relocated to Berlin as a freelance artist and has since worked in opera and concert with theatres internationally including Opera Atelier, Narodni Divadlo Praha, Theater Basel, Opera Theatre de Metz, Opera de Nancy, Opera de Nice, Vancouver Opera, Schwetzingen SWR Festspiele, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Staatstheater Nuernberg, Les Violons du Roy, Collegium 1704, Houston Symphony, Ensemble Castor, and Early Music Vancouver. Her roles include Elle in La Voix Humaine (recorded for Vancouver Opera’s digital season 2020), Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier (recorded by BR-Klassik), Charlotte in Werther (recorded for Culture Box and French Television), the Ftle role in Carmen, Penelope in Il ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, Nerone in L’incoronazione di Poppea, the title role in Gluck’s Orfeo, Nicklausse in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Siébel in Faust, and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro. She has worked as a soloist with conductors
Christoph Eschenbach, Bernard Labadie, Hervé Niquet, Jonathan Darlington, Jean-
Marie Zeitouni, Rodolfo Richter, Jacques Lacombe, Leslie Dala, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, and regularly performs the music of composer Samy Moussa. She has recorded 6 opera discs with the Boston Early Music Festival on the CPO label, including the 2015 Grammy Winner ‘La descente d’Orphée aux enfers’. Most recently she recorded Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 2 with The Richter Ensemble.
In 2020 she co-founded the artistic collective Crown the Muse in Berlin with frequent collaborator, the soprano/pianist Rachel Fenlon. They were awarded a Canada Council Grant for their first collaboration, a staged two woman opera directed by Bruno Ravella.