English 
French As part of the podcast series, “ArtsAbly in Conversation,” Diane Kolin interviewed Robin Hahn, a soprano opera singer from Vancouver who is also a disability advocate.
Photo credit: Tilly Nelson, Langara College, Vancouver, British Columbia, 2024.
This post presents the resources that she mentioned during the conversation.
Robin Hahn’s Linktree
Find links to all the platforms on which Robin Hahn is active: YouTube, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Ko-fi.
She is also a vocal coach and regularly accepts new students. Contact her for more details.
Visit Robin Hahn’s Linktree page
Robin Hahn speaks about opera
Robin Hahn presents interesting perspectives about her life as an opera singer on her YouTube channel. The description says: “I’m an operatic lyric soprano, chronic illness advocate, and queer YouTuber making educational videos crossing all those spaces. Working to uncover the hidden disabled and LBGTQ+ histories, tales, pathways, and communities in opera and the arts!”
Visit Robin Hahn’s YouTube channel
Video featured at the beginning of the interview
Performance of the classic aria ‘Adieu, notre petite table’ (“Goodbye, our little table”) from Manon by Jules Massenet, by Metropolitan Opera award-winning soprano Robin Hahn and acclaimed pianist Maria Hwa Yeong Jung. Recorded on September 9, 2021, in Vancouver, Canada, for the third performance in Opera Mariposa’s Opera Treats series.
If the video doesn’t play, click on this link to watch it directly on YouTube: Opera Treats – Adieu, notre petite table, Robin Hahn.
Robin Hahn’s upcoming events
The Pirates of Penzance
Off the coast of England, Frederic, a young man of 21, celebrates the end of his apprenticeship to a band of pirates. He believes the pirate way of life is wicked, and that the crew should consider a respectable lifestyle. The Pirate King claims that, compared to a respectable lifestyle, piracy is honest. Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera is packed full of sentimental pirates, blundering policeman, absurd adventures and improbable paradoxes. This particular production is inspired by the hit TV series Our Flag Means Death.
More information about The Pirates of Penzance and tickets
The Old Maid and the Thief
Heroic Opera’s sixth performance is The Old Maid and the Thief by Gian Carlo Menotti. Experience a Hilarious Twist on a Classic Opera! Join us for a captivating evening of opera and comedy with our production of “The Old Maid and the Thief.” Set in a 1939 radio studio, this innovative adaptation brings a fresh and entertaining twist to Gian Carlo Menotti’s one-act opera.
More information about The Old Maid and the Thief and tickets
Hansel and Gretel
Presented by Crescendo Operatic Society. Crescendo Operatic Society offers affordable opportunities for singers to learn about performing in the practical setting of production. In this respect it is a unique organization with weekly rehearsals and several performances a year. The COS program incorporates singing, movement and acting as well as learning various aspects of stagecraft and offering positions in production.
More information about Hansel and Gretel and tickets
Tilly Nelson’s art exhibit “We’re already here, it’s time you realized”
A photo project by photographer and Langara College artist in residence Tilly Nelson, exploring increasing representation of people with disabilities and visual differences in their place of work. The portrait of Robin Hahn was captured by Tilly Nelson. You can admire that picture at the top of this page. The text accompanying the picture can be found on the website of the exhibition, along with the other portraits that were on display at the Langara College gallery until April 15, 2024.
Visit the website of Tilly Nelson’s exhibition
Opera Mariposa
Opera Mariposa is a critically-acclaimed company working to make opera more accessible. As Canada’s first entirely, openly disability-led and run opera company, they are dedicated to creating inclusive opportunities for emerging and underrepresented artists, and have been recognized as “[one of] Canada’s key indie players” (Opera Canada Magazine). Since their launch in 2012, past mainstage productions have been hailed as “well-honed” (Opera Canada), “delightful” (Review Vancouver) and “a stroke of genius” (The Voice), while their present digital offerings have reached audiences around the globe, and their annual Benefit + Awareness events have raised over $128,000 for a variety of charities and healthcare programs.
Robin Hahn is the co-founder and Associate Director of Artistic Planning of Opera Mariposa.
Visit Opera Mariposa’s website
Jacqueline Ko
Jacqueline Ko (she/her) is a multi-award-winning soprano who “knows exactly what to do with an absolutely gorgeous voice” (Review Vancouver). A versatile performance and recording artist whose work spans opera, theatre and film, a few of her notable role highlights include Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Angelica in Suor Angelica, Sharon in Master Class, Lauretta and La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi and the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute. She has been praised for her “definite aptitude” (Opera Canada) as the founding artistic director of Opera Mariposa, and is also an internationally-recognized disability and chronic illness advocate who has raised over $125,000 to date for chronic neuroimmune diseases such as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), with which she has lived since age six. Thanks to her work advancing disability visibility in the arts, in 2019 she was selected to become the first Canadian Ambassador for the Open Medicine Foundation, a global organization whose other representatives include international bestselling authors and Nobel laureates.