Vivien Illion is a soprano, director, and stage manager from Toronto, Ontario. She is committed to musical storytelling that meaningfully serves audiences and works towards this goal both on and offstage.

In the summer of 2025, Vivien appeared as Mrs. Jenks in Copland’s The Tender Land (Toronto City Opera), sang as a soloist in A Garden Walk (Arcady Ensemble), and worked on an interdisciplinary community play called Belongings as choral director and vocal soloist (Femmes du Feu Creations). She also served as Assistant Director for Mozart’s Così fan tutte (No Strings Theatre).  

Vivien completed her Master of Music in voice and opera at McGill University, where she received a Canada Graduate Scholarships Master’s Award (SSHRC) for her research on singing translations. This culminated in a solo recital exploring several strategies for audience accessibility and engagement: programming contemporary music alongside the inherited repertoire, accessible formatting, and singing in the audience vernacular. During her time at McGill, she and mezzo-soprano Maddalena Ohrbach formed Duo Camellia. This fruitful partnership led to a recital of vocal chamber music by women composers and a production of Svadba, Ana Sokolović’s a cappella chamber opera.

Vivien first discovered her interest in production as a cofounder of Pick-Up Opera, a Toronto-based, outreach-focused collective. This led her to seek out experience in production, as Apprentice Stage Manager for P.J. Prudat’s Otîhêw (Crossroads Theatre), as Assistant Director of Handel’s Semele (Opera McGill), and as Assistant Stage Manager for Britten’s The Turn of the Screw (Opera 5).