A Message from ARIAS Chair

Welcome to the website of A R I A S: Canadian Opera Student Development Fund (formerly Canadian Opera Volunteer Committee). A R I A S is a registered charitable organization dedicated to promoting and supporting opera through fundraising initiatives. Over the years our committed members have raised over six million dollars to donate to the Canadian Opera Company and presented over 850 scholarships and awards to talented young students at the Opera Division of the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto.

Founded in 1947 by a group of dedicated opera-loving women as the Opera and Concert Committee of the Royal Conservatory of Music, our organization has evolved over the years necessitating several name changes. Most recently the name was changed in 2009 from Canadian Opera Volunteer Committee to A R I A S: Canadian Opera Student Development Fund reflecting our new mission of support focused totally on young people pursuing operatic studies, operatic training and potential operatic careers. For more details, please view our Vision of Volunteerism.

Membership in our organization is a rewarding experience for anyone who is interested in supporting the arts by continuing to help build opera in Canada and raising Canada’s profile on international operatic stages generally and by helping to support talented young people in the vocal arts specifically.

We regard the financial support of talented young people considering the risk of a musical education to be one of the three vital components of opera in Canada: the other two being opera companies (providing a venue for expression of this art) and Opera Canada Magazine (providing a medium through which to highlight Canadian accomplishments in this art-form).

We would welcome your participation in and contribution to ensuring that, through support of talented young people, opera in Canada maintains its trajectory of growth and that Canada continues to be recognized as a major presence on the operatic stages of the world.

Please continue to browse our web pages to keep updated on news and events.

To become a member, we invite you to contact us at the ARIAS office in Toronto at 416-963-0364, or alternatively, by e-mail at info@covc.org.

Arija Stiver
Chair, A R I A S: Canadian Opera Student Development Fund