The journey to here

Canadian soprano, Cassandra Lemoine, was born and raised in Edmonton, Canada with Portuguese family heritage. She attended Victoria School of the Performing and Visual Arts which combined a formative education with a special focus in music and stage performance. Upon graduating, there was no doubt that she would pursue classical music and went on to take her Bachelor of Music Degree in Voice Performance from the University of Victoria where she studied with Canadian tenor Benjamin Butterfield. While in Victoria, she developed a special interest in Baroque music while gaining further acquaintance with the operatic repertoire. She made opera role debut at Opera Nuova, one of Canada’s best breeding grounds for young Canadian opera singers, as Kuchtík in Dvorak’s Rusalka conducted by Rosemary Thomson. She made her professional Canadian stage debut as Cis in Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring with Pacific Opera Victoria in 2012 conducted by Leslie Dala.

After a summer at the the Salzburg Mozarteum, she was encouraged to further her musical studies in Europe and took full advantage of her dual citizenship with Portugal to help make that happen. In 2013, she landed in Copenhagen, Denmark where she quickly established professional work for herself both as soloist and ensemble singer while developing her light and easy lyrical soprano voice. 

After a few seasons of private lessons and professional work, Cassandra continued her formal studies with a Masters Degree at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Vocal Pedagogy followed by the Opera Academy at the Royal Danish Opera.

At the academy, she performed several roles in staged productions including Gretel in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel,  Drusilla in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, Eurydice in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Eurydice,  Dalinda in Handel’s Ariodante, Madame Herz in Mozart's Der Schauspieldirektor, The Vixen in Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen, Pamina in Mozart‘s Die Zauberflöte, Princess and The Fire in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges, Lucia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Oberto in Handel's Alcina, Ophélie in Ambroise’s Hamlet, and Sophie in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier.

She made her soloist debut at The Royal Danish Opera in 2017 as Papagena Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte where she later returned as Johanna in Stephen Sondheim’s musical drama thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

During her final year at the Opera Academy, Cassandra was able to take leave to perform the iconic role of Christine Daaé in Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera at Det Ny Teater in Copenhagen which was performed in Danish.

After graduating, Cassandra made her debut with The Danish National Opera/Den Jyske Opera, as Blonde in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail whose tour was cut short due to the corona pandemic. Fortunately, Cassandra returned to the company in 2023, to sing Papagena and make her role debut as First Lady in a family-version of Mozart’s Magic Flute which toured throughout Denmark and Germany.

Cassandra has been a regular face at the Copenhagen Opera Festival where she has given concerts and sang roles in their staged productions such as Musetta in Puccini’s La Boheme directed by Natascha Metherell, Lucia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, and as Tilde in a new written opera Nordkraft by Signe Lykke based on the book of the same name by Jakob Ejersbo. As no stranger to new written work, Cassandra has performed several new pieces. In 2015, Vadstena Akadamien in Sweden invited Cassandra to create the role of The Poet in the world premiere of Son of Heaven, by Moto Osada. At Pulsar Music Festival, she performed Stabat Mater, a chamber opera by Frederick Mabalot Bayani, and has recorded projects Evening Prayers and Terroir by composer Nick Martin. In 2017 she was featured soloist for the 150th anniversary celebration of The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Niels Rosing-Schow’s Nu og Efter, commissioned for the occasion and was conducted by Michael Schønwandt.

Cassandra’s has made solo guest appearances with some of Denmark’s leading ensembles in repertoire such as Bach’s Johannespassionen with Aalborg Symfoniorkestret, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Copenhagen Philharmonic, and Handel’s Messiah with Camerata Øresund. She has been a featured Young Artist at Hindsgavl Music Festival in Bach’s soprano solo Wedding Cantata where she performed with Concerto Copenhagen led by Alfredo Bernardini. She has performed solo cantatas and concerts at Næstved Early Music Festival including a program led by gambist and conductor Jordi Savall. She has appeared with Copenhagen Soloists in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Mozart’s Requiem and has been a guest vocalist at Uhørt Music Festival and performed on Avalon stage during Roskilde Music Festival with a successful cross genre collaboration with OperaRap: Where Opera Meets Rap in collaboration with DJ Noize and Copenhagen Opera Festival.

Cassandra made her American concert debut in 2018 during The Bach Choir of Bethlehem's Bach Festival in Pennsylvania where she performed and recorded Bach’s B minor mass, Cantata 21 'Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis' and Handel's 'Ode on St. Cecilia's Day' with Analekta Records. 

The hinderance of the pandemic on performance life was palpable and although difficult, created alternative opportunities for collaboration. Opera Hedeland created a short-film version of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro where Cassandra sang the role of Susanna. Operettekompangniet toured with their own production Hjerter i Valsetakt where Cassandra was the Chamber Maid. Opera Salon created their own sing-through bar-version of Verdi’s Rigoletto where Cassandra had the opportunity to sing through the role of Gilda together with a full cast of colleagues in front of a live audience.

Last season Cassandra made her soloist debut with Aalborg Symphony Orchestra and the Danish National Radio for their Fantasymphony II production and played Crown Princess (now Queen) Mary in the musical Margrethe which premiered at Gamle Scene.