Praised for her sparkling stage presence and beautiful voice, Janet Catherine Dea’s rising career has taken her across Canada and to Europe. Two thousand and seven started off with a bang with Miss Dea jumping in for an ailing colleague with less than 24hrs notice to perform in Salute to Vienna’s Gala New Year’s Day performance at Toronto’s Roy Thompson Hall. Other performances this past season include a return to Thunder Bay Symphony in Britten’s Les illuminations de Rimbaud, and Opera Galas with the Toronto Philharmonia, and York Symphony, Lester Trimble’s Four Fragments from the Canterbury Tales (for soprano, clarinet, flute and piano) with the Aubergine Chamber Ensemble (Toronto).

She also performed solo recitals “Ain’t it a Pretty Night” and “I’m Just a Broadway Baby” with Brahm Goldhamer (Toronto). Miss Dea performs regularly with eclectic harpist Kristen Moss Theriault. This duo is currently touring “Sleeps the Noon in the Deep Blue Sky: Folksongs for Voice and Harp” throughout southern Ontario and will be recording their debut CD in the spring of 2008. In May of 2008 Miss Dea will perform songs by Debussy, Joseph Marx and Stefano Donaudy with renowned Munich-based pianist, Tomoko Okada, who will be making her Toronto Recital debut.

Other career highlights include a return to her hometown as Mabel in Edmonton Opera’s sold out performances of The Pirates of Penzance, and Christmas Pops concerts with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. With the Thunder Bay Symphony she performed “La Scala to Broadway,” and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. Miss Dea sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Boris Brott Festival (Hamilton), Musetta in La Bohème with Opera York, and Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate with Canadian Sinfonietta.

She performed Carmina Burana with The Toronto Choral Society and Gounod's Messe Solenelle (St. Cecilia) with the Ottawa Valley Festival. A favourite guest soloist with conductor Kerry Stratton she has performed a number of classical and pops programs with the Toronto Philharmonia and the Huntville Festival of the Arts. Miss Dea's orchestral repertoire includes Beethoven IX and Mahler IV (Edmonton Symphony), and Turina's "Canto a Sevilla" (McGill Symphony).

Hamilton and Kitchener audiences saw, Janet Catherine Dea as Mrs. Hayes in Opera Ontario's Susannah. Other opera roles include the title role in Thaïs with Opera in Concert (Toronto), Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, and Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor with JHS Opera (Toronto), Violetta, in La Traviata and Mimi, in La Bohème with both (Summer Opera Lyric Theatre, Toronto) and (KomishcheKammerOper, Munich). She also performed Lisa in Opera in Concert's La Sonnambula with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (Robert Cooper, cond.), Tytania in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the title role of Gustave Charpentier's Louise (McGill Opera) under the baton of Timothy Vernon.

In addition to Mabel, her operetta roles include Margot in The Desert Song Gabrielle, La Vie Parisienne, Yum Yum, the Mikado, Josephine, H.M.S. Pinafore, and Giannetta, The Gondoliers.

A lifelong vocal student of esteemed vocal pedagogue Professor Lucile Vilneuve Evans and vocal coach, Robert K. Evans Ph.d. Janet Catherine Dea holds a Master of Music in Voice Performance from McGill University and a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University. She has been the recipient of numerous prestigious scholarships and awards including The Clara Lichtenstein Fellowship (McGill-Montreal), Career Development Grants from The Alberta Foundation for the Performing Arts, for study and auditions in Europe; Winner second place, Metropolitan Opera Auditions (Vancouver), The Edmonton Opera Guild Scholarship, and The Johann Strauss Foundation Scholarship (Edmonton).

In additions to her performing activities, Miss Dea maintains a voice studio in downtown Toronto and is Artistic Director of Muzent Productions, an organization which produces classic vocal music concerts and events.