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Fundraisers for the Canadian Opera Company and Montreal Museum of Fine Art enchant and entertain. Nolan Bryant reports

The Ensemble Studio Competition is the Canadian Opera Company's trademark event and the centrepiece of Centre Stage, the company's annual gala fundraiser. The yearly event, launched in 2011 by COC general director Alexander Neef, is a must-attend happening on Toronto's fall social calendar; it's an evening that celebrates Canada's emerging operatic voices, a showcase for the talent that the company has unearthed across Canada in the year that's passed.

This year, on Nov. 3, the $5,000 top prize was awarded to Simone McIntosh of Vancouver. She was chosen for the honour from a lineup of seven impressive vocalists, who were selected from 119 participants in nationwide auditions. In addition to competing for the award, the finalists also vie for a coveted spot in the company's Ensemble Studio, a program that, since 1980, has helped launch the careers of over 200 opera singers, including Ben Heppner, who hosted this latest competition, and Ensemble Studio head vocal consultant Wendy Nielsen, who was among the members of the adjudication panel.

A highlight of the night was a surprise performance by American tenor Russell Thomas. In Toronto to star as Pollione in the COC's production of Norma, he took to the stage while the judges were deliberating and sang alongside the COC orchestra conducted by music director Johannes Debus, performing Lamento di Federico from Francesco Cilea's L'Arlesiana and Dein ist mein ganzes Herz from Franz Lehár's Das Land des Lächelns.

After the competition, the COC's devoted patrons enjoyed a reception before making their way back to R. Fraser Elliott Hall for a dinner on the very stage that hosts the COC's performances. Orbs of white orchid hung from the rafters over tables draped in black, where the wine flowed and guests enjoyed a menu by chef David Lee of Nota Bene and Planta. Mining executive Julie Lassonde and Michael Gibbens of Gibbens Capital served as the evening's gala co-chairs and held court at the centre table, later taking to the podium to thank friends and sponsors for their support of the glam fundraiser.

Between courses, there were more surprise performances, this time from those in the Ensemble Studio. At dinner to my right was the charming Myriam Leblanc of St-Lazare, Que., one of the final seven and winner of the people's choice prize, a big stamp of approval given that those in attendance are passionate aficionados of the art form.

Among the opera goers out for the evening: Colleen Sexsmith, who chairs the COC board of directors; members of the Jackman clan including Trinity, Victoria and Consuelo; lawyer Marwan Osseiran; Burgundy Asset Management's Tony Arrell and his wife Anne; members of the Symons family including Mary and Michele; gold investor Pierre Lassonde and his wife Janelle; philanthropist Lisa Balfour Bowen; BMO Financial Group's director of corporate donations Nada Ristich; and COC Life Trustees Council member Earlaine Collins.

On Nov. 5, I headed to Montreal as a guest of the city's Museum of Fine Art for its annual fundraising ball. The event was one of the best I've ever attended. A record 930 guests were there – nearly double the attendees of similar events in other Canadian cities – and it proved to be a perfect mix of big givers, young movers and scene regulars.

The event is referred to as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Ball (or more casually the Museum Ball or Le Bal du Musée). Accordingly, guests arrived in ball-worthy attire: full-length gowns, furs, serious jewels, and on the gents, cummerbunds, bow-ties and patent shoes. The bright young things that flooded the dance floor and injected a big dose of capital "F" fun into the event were not treated as second-rate ticket holders there to help fill a room, but rather as Young Philanthropists. They rose to the occasion, cutting a rug alongside the more established givers.

This latest ball was particularly special since it offered a first look for many at the new Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavillion for Peace. Designed by Atelier TAG, it is a beautiful addition to the already expansive museum. The pavillion is a major legacy project for the art-collecting couple who donated $25-million to build it and 100 of their old master paintings to help fill it. Spanning six levels and housing 750 works from the Middle Ages to today, there's ample room for education and programming initiatives. Its opening marked the beginning of Montreal's 375th anniversary celebrations.

The pavillion was the backdrop for a cocktail reception that kicked off the evening, themed "Give Peace a Dance." A multi-course dinner from chef Laurent Godbout was served in some of the museum's more familiar gallery spaces, each one decorated for the evening by an artist as an expression of peace. Names like singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright, actress Karine Vanasse and author Kim Thuy were asked to write about peace, and those writings served as inspiration for eight visual artists to create the ball's dining rooms. Denyse Ostiguy and Véronique Dussault acted as artistic directors of the project, which featured concepts from artists including Elisabeth Picard. Interested in architecture, she illustrated a poem by Wainwright by creating a starry space filled with three-dimensional triangular shapes that were accented by blue lights. Catherine Bolduc, whose work focuses on installation and public projects, took Boucar Diouf's words and filled a dining room with projections of still-life images that moved like shadowgraphs.

Among those in attendance for the sold-out happening, which raised an impressive $1.2-million in support of the museum's programming and acquisitions: the ball's co-presidents Michael D. Penner, chairman of the board of Hydro-Québec; Brian J. Porter, president and chief executive officer of Scotiabank; and Marie- Hélène Sicard, executive vice-president, marketing and strategic planning, Sodexo North America; the ball's steering committee co-chairs Johanne Champoux and Claire Webster; the museum's general director and chief curator Nathalie Bondil and Geneviève Goyer-Ouimette, curator of Quebec and Canadian contemporary art; Scotia Wealth Management's Jacques Maurice and his wife, Dominique Bertrand; Michaela Sheaf-Penner, wife of event co-chair Michael; chair of the Transcontinental Inc. board Isabelle Marcoux; fashion designer Denis Gagnon; Joe Battat and his wife Erin of Battat Contemporary; curator Mary Dailey Desmerais; Sobey Art Foundation director Rob Sobey; singer and TV type Mitsou Gelinas; the museum's foundation director Danielle Champagne; and Minister of Canadian Heritage Mélanie Joly.