Michael Hidetoshi Mori has been called “a shot of adrenaline to opera”. As both an artist and administrator, Michael is a leading international voice in socially and artistically progressive opera and music theatre. An acclaimed and award-winning Canadian/American stage director and the General Director of Tapestry Opera in Toronto, he is frequently sought as a speaker, consultant, producer, director and dramaturge. In his role with Tapestry Opera he has commissioned, developed, and premiered many world premieres, guiding them from early concept to full realization. For Tapestry he has cultivated an entirely new and diverse audience base, eliminated a longstanding deficit and dramatically expanded its subscriber and donor base.
He is the current Chair of the Association for Opera in Canada, Canada’s association of professional opera companies. As an energetic executive member of the board of directors, he initiated the association’s first two annual Opera Summits in Montreal and Vancouver, bringing together universities, professional companies, and independent artists to take on and discuss the most pressing issues in opera in Canada today. Through these efforts, the association’s membership experienced unprecedented growth and its first major surge in fundraising in ten years.
Michael is the founder of Indie Opera TO, a group of small-to-medium companies in Toronto. A strong believer in Toronto’s ecosystem of opera, he felt the smaller companies could benefit from a forum to share ideas and challenges and discuss resourcing, issues pertinent to the sector and to support one another’s initiatives.
In 2018 he was selected by Opera America to speak and represent Canada at the first annual World Opera Forum in Madrid, and was recently invited to speak on the closing panel of Opera America’s 2020 Annual Conference. He is a frequently sought-after speaker, panel participant and discussion moderator at Opera America. In fall 2020 Michael was tapped by Opera Europa to introduce the all-star lineup of the World Opera Day concert featuring appearances by Ai Weiwei, Peter Sellars, Isabel Leonard and others.
Michael began his journey in opera as a child performer in New York City. He holds a Master’s degree in opera performance from the University of British Columbia with a German minor, and diplomas from Die Wiener Meisterkurse, Vienna, and Die Universität Mozarteum Sommerakademie, Salzburg. A passionate student of language, he is fluent in German and Swiss-German, and conversant in Italian, French, Spanish, Czech and Japanese.
An early interest and aptitude for dramaturgy and directing led him to pursue a career of direction and music direction, leading to mentorships with several notable directors including Tim Albery, Tom Diamond, and Wayne Strongman.
In his freelance career, Michael is the winner of a West Coast Music Award for Classical Music and the 2017 Outstanding Direction Dora Mavor Moore Award for Opera/Musical Theatre. He has been nominated for a JUNO as a performing artist and led Tapestry to be nominated for a JUNO under his artistic direction.
Michael lives in Toronto with his wife Caitlin Coull and their two young daughters. Together Michael and Caitlin share a deep commitment to the artistic and cultural landscape of the city, and a strong social and professional network.