A quartet of hosts, including University of Victoria grad Marion Newman, has been hired to lead opera programming on CBC Music following the departure of longtime host, Ben Heppner.
Newman, who is a member of Kwagiulth and St贸:lo First Nations, will take over from Heppner as host of Saturday Afternoon at the Opera on Sept. 11.
Heppner retired last week after holding the position for eight years.
Fr茅d茅ricka Petit-Homme, Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser, and Julie Nesrallah were also hired by the national broadcaster to fill out the classical music and opera programming on CBC Music and CBC Radio One.
Newman, a mezzo-sporano, now lives in Toronto but was raised in Sooke, and much of her family still lives in the area.
Her brother is Kwakwaka鈥檞akw and Coast Salish artist Carey Newman, who teaches in UVic鈥檚 visual arts department. Her niece, 11-year-old Adelyn Sophie Newman-Ting of Victoria, recently won an international award from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for her book on the Kwak始wala language, Finding The Language.
