About Darryl Edwards
Darryl Edwards is an international leader in voice performance training. Professor (Voice Studies) at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music, he confidently creates pathways with performing artists and audiences in new and traditional ways.
Founder of the Centre for Opera Studies & Appreciation [COSA] and the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy (COSI), he has expanded them globally into the Centre of Singing Arts. With University of Toronto courses such as those entitled Maximizing the Artistic Mind, Vocal Arts on STage (VAST): Music, Meaning, Marketing & Media, and COSA’s Arias After Work! Performance Series, he is recognized as an innovator in teaching, learning, and performance.
In 2025, Darryl Edwards received the King Charles III Coronation Medal, nominated by the Toronto Children’s Chorus to honour his international leadership in voice performance training.
With the Doctor of Musical Arts degree (Michigan University), as well as degrees in music and education (Western University), he has created performance and teaching experiences in the USA, China, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, Syria, Lebanon, Brazil, New Zealand, Norway, and the UK.
Darryl Edwards’ voice students have appeared with major companies and orchestras across Canada, the United States and Europe (Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, New York City Opera, Philadelphia Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, Bavarian State Opera – Munich, Zurich Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre). Among these they are also distinguishing themselves with voice professorships at the Mount Allison University, Dalhousie University, the University of Alberta, and the University of British Columbia, and as artistic administrators in renowned organizations across Canada.
As a tenor, Darryl Edwards performed to critical acclaim in oratorio, recital, and opera in England, Germany, France, Italy, China, Corsica, the United States, and across Canada. His performing engagements have included Britten’s War Requiem with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Bach and Handel with the Filharmonie Hradec Králové and The Czech Boys’ Choir, the title role in Mozart’s Idomeneo in Mulhouse, France, Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Mozart’s Requiem with the Pesaro Philharmonic and Chorus in Italy, Handel’s Messiah with the Elmer Iseler Singers, and Mozart concert arias for tenor with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. In 2017, he gave the North American premiere of Colin Matthews’ tenor and chamber orchestra transcription of Gustav Mahler’s Lieder eine Fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) with conductor Uri Mayer, and the Faculty Artists’ Ensemble at the University of Toronto.
Critics praise him as a “rich-voiced, cultured tenor who mastered the high notes effortlessly” (Coburg Tageblatt, Germany), and an “effective communicator who expressed the text with sensitivity and fervour” (Hamilton Spectator). His recordings and broadcasts include performances with American National Public Radio (NPR) (Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with the Illinois Chamber Orchestra), Canadian Music Centre (Centrediscs) (Harry Somers’ The Fool) the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC Radio 2) in Kodály’s Psalmus Hungaricus with the Calgary Philharmonic and Chorus.
Dr. Edwards celebrates his accomplishments and his compelling work with young artists in cascades of remarkable performing events and outcomes in https://darryledwards.ca, https://cosacanada.org, and https://music.utoronto.ca/