Marie France Koua

2026 · Université de Montréal

Master’s in classical voice performance

My dearest Marie France,

Six years ago… who would have thought that slightly crazy “YES” to music would take you this far?

Self-taught at first, then trained from Côte d’Ivoire to France and on to the Université de Montréal, your VOICE gradually became your PATH. A career change, and above all years of work, discipline and determination.

There were the sacrifices no one sees, the doubts, the “no”s, the failures, the questioning… But also the victories, the stages, the encounters, the doors that opened and the deep joy of flourishing in what you chose. You did not just hold on: you grew.

You also discovered the realities of the opera world: its codes, its prejudices, its inequalities, those moments when work and talent do not always speak first.

But you refused to let that define your path or limit your ambitions. So you worked. Again and again.

This degree does not reward a perfect road. It marks a journey built with perseverance and bears witness, above all, to the woman and artist you became along the way.

So stay hard-working and kind. Keep learning, daring, dreaming big… And if your journey can make others want to dare in turn, then the road will have served that purpose too.

To my family, my friends, my mentors, my audience, to those who support me in the shadows and to everyone my voice touches: THANK YOU.

And above all, thank God.

What comes next? It has already begun…

Musically, Marie France Eba Koua, M.Mus.