STATEMENT: NAC Flags Fly at Half-staff in Memory of Michael Burgess
The National Arts Centre (NAC) will fly its flags at half-staff in memory of Canadian tenor Michael Burgess, who died Monday evening at the age of 70 following a battle with cancer.
Michael Burgess performed with the NAC Orchestra on several occasions. In 1994 he opened the Orchestra’s Pops Series and he headlined the 2003 Black and White Soirée in support of Opera Lyra and the NAC.
"He was the kind of performer who could walk the line between opera and musical theatre, and connect with an audience," said Daphne Burt, Manager of Artistic Planning with the NAC Orchestra. “Our sympathies go out to his family.”
Born in Regina, the eldest of seven children, Burgess spent his formative years in Toronto singing at St. Michael's Choir School. He would go on to attend the University of Ottawa. He played the role of Jean Valjean in more than a thousand performances of Les Miserables at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre and on tour across Canada.
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