Canadian mezzo-soprano Ellita Gagner, currently based in Montreal Quebec, has been praised for her “gorgeous, warm tone and winning gamine personality” (Gianmarco Segato, La Scena Musicale). 

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Ellita has performed leading and supporting roles across Canada, including Cendrillon (Cendrillon), L’Enfant (L’Enfant et les Sortilèges), Lysistrata (Lysistrata), Hansel (Hansel and Gretel), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Tisbe (La Cenerentola), and Iphigenia (Disobedience). She has appeared with Opera Nova Scotia, the Brott Festival, London Community Orchestra, Uxbridge Messiah Singers and Orchestra, Chorus Niagara, GoodMess Opera, and Can of Soup Collective.

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​A dedicated performer of contemporary music, Ellita has worked with leading and up and coming composers and librettists. She workshopped the role of Gabby for the Royal Swedish Opera’s Melancholia by Mikael Karlsson and Royce Vavrek, as well as Mimi in scenes from Indians on Vacation by Ian Cusson and Royce Vavrek.​

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Ellita has been fortunate to be a part of several young artist programs in Canada and the United States. She was a Rebanks Fellow at the Royal Conservatory, and an Equilibrium Young Artist with Barbara Hannigan. In the summer of 2024, Ellita attended the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance where she performed Ottorino Respighi’s Il Tramonto with a string quartet. Later in 2024, she participated as a finalist in the Opéra de Montréal National Auditions Gala. The 24-25 season also saw Ellita perform as the Soprano II solist in Bach's B minor mass with Chorus Niagara, perform various recitals with the Royal Conservatory and Alto Solo in the Messiah with the Uxbridge Messiah Singers.

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In 2025, Ellita was a young artist with the Castleton Festival, where she had the opportunity to work with esteemed artists Paul Groves, Michelle DeYoung, Ben Malensek, and Robert Grayson. As part of the festival’s opera scenes program, she performed Octavian in the Presentation of the Rose from Der Rosenkavalier and Béatrice in the trio from Béatrice et Bénédict. 

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She joins the Atelier Lyrique at the Opéra de Montréal this season where she will perform Tetka in Jenufa, cover Mercedes in Carmen, sing Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw and workshop the role of Célénia in La Tragédie d'Atys by Johnathan Dawe. She will also appear in concert singing songs 2 and 4 of Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen as a prelude to the Orchestre Métropolitain's performance of Maher 3 and in scenes staged by Stephen Lawless.

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​She has been a young artist with Brott Opera and Manitoba Opera. She is a graduate of the Opera School at the University of Toronto and the University of Western. She's studied with Dr. Patricia Green, Dr. Lorna MacDonald and Adrianne Pieczonka and currently studies with Laura Brooks Rice and coaches with Martin Dubé and Richard Turp.