Tenor River Guard, hailing from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, boasts an impressive musical journey. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music and an opera diploma from Wilfrid Laurier University, and a master’s degree in opera from the University of Toronto Opera School, where he studied with Wendy Nielsen. River is a 2021 recipient of the Rebanks Family Fellowship and International Performance and Residency Program from the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School. He is an alumnus of the Aspen Music Festival and School and the Opera in the 21st Century program at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Past roles include Lensky in Eugene Onegin (Highlands Opera Studio), Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia (Glenn Gould School), Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi (Canadian Vocal Arts Institute/CVAI), and Miles in Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Proving Up (Aspen Music Festival and School). River has covered the roles of Cavaradossi in Tosca and Sam Polk in Susannah at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. As a 2023–24 Detroit Opera Resident Artist, he covers roles include Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly and Dr. Richardson in Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Breaking the Waves. He performed as Soldat and Harlekin in Viktor Ullmann’s opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis with the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings in February 2024. In May, River will make his debut on the Detroit Opera mainstage in the role of Pasek in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. This summer, River will be a member of the Florentine Opera Summer Studio Ensemble before returning as a Detroit Opera Resident Artist for a second year in September.