Nadia Chana
Nadia Chana is an angsty writer, a joyful singer, and an assistant professor of ethnomusicology at UW-Madison. She is also a settler of South Asian descent who was born in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta) on Treaty 6 territory where she grew up singing in choirs. These contexts shape almost everything she does, however invisibly. Nadia’s formative training in music includes studying at the Franz Schubert Institute in Baden-bei-Wien and at the Vancouver International Song Institute where she worked with Graham Johnson, Julius Drake, Edith Wiens, Elly Ameling, and other art song luminaries. In 2012, Nadia co-founded the Bicycle Opera Project, a small opera company that continues to bring contemporary Canadian opera to Canadians by bicycle. In more recent years, experimenting with song contexts, Nadia has been interweaving art song performance and reflective group exercises to help people feel their way into loss. She has brought her workshops to diverse audiences ranging from palliative care teams to members of the general public. In 2023 Nadia is delighted still to be singing and with MCP, no less!
