The Edmonton Opera’s Board of Directors has announced that Joel Ivany will be the company’s new artistic director.

Ivany, who is the founder of Against the Grain Theatre in Toronto, made his Edmonton Opera debut in 2013 when he directed a new production of “The Tales of Hoffman. He has also directed works for such companies as The Canadian Opera Company, Minnesota Opera, and Vancouver Opera.

“Edmonton is very familiar to me and my family, and I’m incredibly excited and grateful to work at Edmonton Opera right here on Treaty 6 territory,” says Ivany, having moved from Toronto earlier this summer when his wife, Lebanese-Canadian soprano Miriam Khalil, was appointed to the voice program’s faculty at the UofA. “It has many wonderful memories such as my first full opera that I ever directed as well as the various productions that both my wife and I have lucky to have been apart of,” Ivany said in a press statement.

As per his plans for programming, Ivany noted that “The last year and a half has shown us how opera is evolving and morphing into many other outlets. I’m hoping to embrace that change at Edmonton Opera while paying respect to where this art form came from. I think we’re going to embrace all that opera can be in the future.”