I was awarded £750 by the Tait Memorial Trust in 2006, just as I embarked on my first year of post-graduate studies specialising in piano accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
This award felt like a welcome from a community of like-minded antipodean ex-pats: it made me feel like I was in the right place, and that pursuing my musical studies was worthwhile. I deeply appreciated this as I was so far from my family and trying to manage the precarity of student life and the breathless pace of London.
With the help of this award, my one year programme became seven years of intensive study and performance in London. During that time I performed all around the UK and further afield, at venues including the Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Purcell Room, Snape Maltings, the Slovakian Philharmonic and Amsterdam’s Het Concertgebouw, and Sydney’s Angel Place Recital Hall. During this period I also performed often with other Tait Awardees, including singers Derek Welton, Seija Knight and Eleanor Greenwood. I performed at the Paxos International Music Festival in Greece from 2009-2013, and from 2010-2013 was Artistic Director.
I recently returned to live in London after completing doctoral studies at the University of Toronto, where I researched the contemporary implications of singing Lieder in English translation. My studies in Canada followed a year spent as resident collaborative pianist at the Banff Centre in the Canadian Rockies, where I had the chance to perform with dozens of musicians from across the world. This included a performance as soloist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and recitals with cellist Gavriel Lipkind, pianist Ronan O’Hora and Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew.
Please see my website for further information or news of future projects or to get in touch. I thank the donors past and present for their support and encouragement of young artists like myself as we navigate the very many challenges and joys of this vocation.
Following the acclaimed release of Alastair White’s (Tait Awardee 2021) ‘fashion-operas’ ROBE and WOAD, the Tait Memorial Trust is delighted to announce the forthcoming release of RUNE, in collaboration with the Divine Art team, Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival, UU Studios and designer house Ka Wa Key. RUNE is the third in the series of recordings (and actually the fourth of White’s operas including WEAR, still to be recorded). This exciting new work will be available to view here until the 28th February with our Tait family by permission of the composer.
Due out in Summer 2022, the album is a live recording of RUNE’s world premiere at the Hackney Round Chapel in 2021, which critics called “perfect” (Vogue Italia), “blockbuster…explosive” (Opera Magazine), “spectacular in every sense of the word” (Caroline Potter) and “unquestionably my highlight…a melding of physical and metaphysical, of quantum mechanics and spatial manifestation” (Mark Berry, Boulezian, Seen and Heard International).
RUNE is a vast cosmological fantasy created in collaboration with the London fashion house Ka Wa Key, featuring an ensemble of three grand pianos conducted by Ben Smith. Smith performs alongside other star pianists Joseph Havlat and Siwan Rhys, as well as the “especially impressive” (The Guardian) Patricia Auchterlonie and the “fierce, fearless and cerebral” (The Guardian) Simone Ibbet-Brown. It is recorded and produced by Chris Tanton.
On a planet where history is forbidden, a young girl dares to tell her story. A voyage across galaxies and millennia, hers is a tale of the archipelagos of Khye-rell and their matterwork, through transdimensional canals and sealanes to the RUNE of the universe’s origin. This song, her story — through the very act of being told — will have consequences beyond imagining…
“Unquestionably my highlight. Glittering, lyrical, highly logical, yet capricious…a melding of physical and metaphysical, of quantum mechanics and spatial manifestation.” – Mark Berry, Seen and Heard International
“Genuinely original…Fashion-opera has enormous capacity as a progressive genre; it is ambitious, uncompromising, unapologetically Marxian, positively vibrating with queer potentiality and never ever trite.” – George K. Haggett, TEMPO “A perfect combination of show and costume” – Alberto Calabrese, Vogue Italia Re-opening theatre doors with a grand fashion-opera spectacle, RUNE is a vast cosmological fantasy from the team behind the award-nominated ROBE (“excellent” – BBC Music) and WEAR (“spellbinding” – Boulezian) — featuring an ensemble of three grand pianos, contemporary dance with interactive sculpture, and high fashion by Ka Wa Key.
On a planet where history is forbidden, a young girl dares to tell her story. A voyage across galaxies and millennia, hers is a tale of the archipelagos of Khye-rell and their matterwork, through transdimensional canals and sealanes to the RUNE of the universe’s origin. This song, her story — through the very act of being told — will have consequences beyond imagining…
Music Director: Ben Smith Film: Hannah Lovell Camera: Barry Hoffman and Damien Naimad Sound: Chris Tanton
Piano: Joseph Havlat Piano: Siwan Rhys Piano: Ben Smith
Dancers: Ryan Appiah-Sarpong Max Gershon Shakeel Kimotho Thomas Page
Words and Music: Alastair White Director: Gemma A. Williams Director: Jarno Leppanen Fashion: Ka Wa Key Sculpture: Sid the Salmon
Hair: Maria Kovacs, Readytowearhairdressing Assisted by: John Harte, Chris Harris-Gibbs and Evelina Lundgren Makeup: Michelle Strain, AOFMPro, using Dermalogica Assisted by: Alina Antofe, Laura Hahnel, Matilda Jose and Richa Khatana
Alastair White’s Fashion-Operas
Biography for Alastair White
Alastair White is a New Zealand/Scottish composer and writer.
Described as “spellbinding” (Boulezian), “beautiful” (730 Review), “virtuosic” (Winnipeg Free Press), “deftly manic (American Record Guide) and “passionately atonal” (Gramophone), his work is characterised by a lyrical complexity which draws influence from technology, science, politics and materialism. Recent projects include the fashion-operas WEAR, ROBE (Métier Records February ’21) and WOAD; a string quartet for the Altius Quartet’s album Quadrants Vol. 3 (Navona Records); the documentary opera A Boat in an Endless Blue Sea; WORK: movement through a series of arbitrary partitions for .abeceda; and The Drowning Shore, a Scots-Yiddish cantata.
Shortlisted for a Scottish Award for New Music twice (in 2019 and 2020) and a Creative Edinburgh Award (2019), Alastair has created work for the opera festivals Tête-a-Tête and Opera in the City, the international poetry festival STanza, UKNA City Takeover, Compass Presents, The Scottish School of Contemporary Dance and The Scottish Poetry Library.
His music is supported by Help Musicians UK, the Hinrichsen Foundation, Marchus Trust, The Tait Memorial Trust, Goldsmiths Graduate Fund, and Music Research Committee.
Alastair was a founding member of the Edinburgh-based bands White Heath (Electric Honey) and Blank Comrade (Red Wharf), and has worked as a session pianist and producer. He is currently undertaking a PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London with Roger Redgate and Lauren Redhead, where he organised the interdisciplinary conference on New Materialism Futures of the Real. He publishes and speaks internationally on his research interests, which include the development of an original materialist philosophy, ‘Contingency Dialectics,’ and its methodological implications in Fashion-Opera.
Last year we produced a gala concert in the Exhibition Hall, Australian High Commission to celebrate and honour the great Australian conductor Richard Bonynge AC CBE. The concert was generously sponsored by Elspeth Turner-Laing. Richard’s contribution to the performing arts over his long career is incalculable…we were delighted to honour him in this way. The profits from the concert were added to a new fund for an annual Tait Award to be named the Richard Bonynge Award for an outstanding young Australian or New Zealand artist studying in the UK.
Richard Bonynge AC CBE
The sizable award has been generously augmented by a grant from The Linbury Trust,* the charitable arm of the Sainsbury family, we thank Lady Sainsbury CBE most sincerely for her support and encouragement; and a generous charitable donation from the former Chair of The Royal Ballet School, David Norman. Thank you David.
In consultation with Richard Bonynge, our Music Board, and the Leanne Benjamin Awards Board (Ballet) we decided to give the inaugural scholarship to young Australian dancer, Liberty Grace Fergus. Liberty has been offered a place to join the Upper School, The Royal Ballet School in September. She has dedicated her life to ballet and is soon to graduate from the Lower School, The Royal Ballet School, White Lodge.
On Tuesday 25th May we hosted our first live recital at St Paul’s Knightsbridge featuring Australian soprano, Miriam Allan, our first live concert in 14 months. After the recital a formal presentation to Liberty was made by the Australian High Commissioner, His Excellency the Hon George Brandis QC. We thank him most sincerely for making the presentation personally and for introducing our concert with Miriam.
We were honoured that our Patron, and Chair of our Ballet Board, Australian dancer and former Principal of The Royal Ballet, Leanne Benjamin AM OBE was able to join us. Her support and advice throughout the selection process has been invaluable.
Liberty Grace Fergus
Liberty started dancing in the womb, a very active baby! She took classes at the local ballet school aged 2 and a half. After moving to The Ballet School, Notting Hill at 6, her teacher Vanessa Donkin suggested she audition for a Junior Associate place at The Royal Ballet School and she was successful! She attended classes every Saturday for 3 years at Covent Garden and loved every minute. As a JA aged 9 she won the Royal Academy of Dance Sallie Lewis Award.
Aged 10 she was selected to perform with the Australian Ballet in Graeme Murphy’s, Swan Lake at the London Coliseum theatre and also with The Bolshoi Ballet Company in Le Corsaire at the Royal Opera House. Both experiences made a huge impression on her and drove her passion for ballet further. She was also invited by The Royal Ballet School outreach team to go on tours to schools outside London to introduce and demonstrate ballet to other young children who may not consider taking it up.
Liberty was offered a place at White Lodge from year 7 and has spent a very happy 5 years training with the Royal Ballet School. She performed with The Royal Ballet company in the Nutcracker for 3 consecutive years.
She was awarded a scholarship to attend the English National Ballet School summer intensive course in 2019 and also received a scholarship to attend the Yorkshire Ballet Summer School for 2 years.
Liberty’s dream has always been to continue her training at The Royal Ballet Upper School and she is thrilled that she has been offered a place.
*The Linbury Trust was established by Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover KG, and his wife Anya, Lady Sainsbury CBE, the former ballerina, Anya Linden. The Linbury Trust made its first grant award in 1973 and since then has awarded grants of almost £200million.
Australian soprano Lauren Fagan sings ‘Sleep’ by Sergey Rachmaninoff
With the full, and generous support of the Australian High Commissioner we were given permission to film several concerts in July 2020 in the beautiful surroundings of the Exhibition Hall of the Australian High Commission, London. The concert series was sponsored by Australian international logistics company, Voyage Control.
New Zealand – Tongan tenor, Filipe Manu sings ‘La Ricordanza’ by Bellini
Hosted, and with the full support of the High Commissioner, His Excellency the Honourable George Brandis QC, the ‘High Commissioner – outstanding Australians & New Zealanders in Performance Series’ of online concerts was a major step forward for our Tait Tuesdays at Home series. The series Musical Director was Australian international conductor, Jessica Cottis in concerts featuring outstanding performing artists from Australia & New Zealand from Opera, Musical Theatre and the Concert platform.
The four concerts were:
Joseph Tawadros AM – The Art of the Oud – Joseph Tawadros AM
Stars of Covent Garden in Recital – Lauren Fagan, Kiandra Howarth, Filipe Manu & Samuel Sakker accompanied by Sergey Rybin.
Leslie Howard & Friends – Quintets – Morgan Goff, Leslie Howard, Naoko Keatley, Bridget O’Donnell, and Tim Walden
Golden Age of Musical Theatre – Embla Bishop, Corinne Cowling, Morgan Cowling, Jeremy Kleeman, Josie Lane, Brenton Spiteri, Chad Vindin
Financial Assistance for Artists affected by the COVID-19 crisis:
The Tait Memorial Trust has established an Emergency Relief Fund for Australia/New Zealand Artists to assist our talented young artists who overnight lost 6 months or more of work.
We are all thrilled for 2019 #TaitAwardee Kiandra Howarth for winning this years AUD$30,000 Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Bel Canto Award and Foundation#BelCantoAward which was recently announced in Sydney. Kiandra was also awarded the AUD$1000 Audience Choice Prize, and was also placed third in the Elizabeth Connell Prize for Aspiring Dramatic Sopranos, winning $5000. The Gold Coast-born soprano holds the distinction of being the first finalist to ever participate in both competitions, Kiandra is a former member of the Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Young Artist Programme,
Kiandra secured her Bel Canto Award win with a performance of Dove sono from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Ch’il bel sogno di Doretta from Puccini’s La Rondine. In the Elizabeth Connell Prize, the soprano sang Das war sehr gut, Mandryka from Strauss’ Arabella and Senza Mamma from Puccini’s Suor Angelica.
Second place in the Bel Canto Award was awarded to New Zealand soprano Eliza Boom who won the AUD$10,000 Richard Bonynge Award, while Australian soprano Michelle Ryan received the AUD$5000 DECCA Award & the Tait Memorial Trust Award for placing third.
Earlier this year Kiandra and fellow Tait Awardee, Krystal Tunnicliffe, piano delighted our Tait Friends singing, “We’ll Gather Lilacs” by Ivor Novello at our annual Friends event at Stoke Lodge, the official residence of the Australian High Commissioner, London. We thank the High Commissioner, His Excellency the Hon George Brandis QC most sincerely for inviting us into his home for such a special occasion.
To learn more about the Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation please click here
Chloe Keneally has been a Tait Awardee since joining the English National Ballet School in 2016. She is completing her third year which is flying to a close. As an exciting development opportunity for Chloe, the English National Ballet School nominated her to compete in the 2019 BBC Young Dancer competition. This is held every two years and this year will see five talented young South Asian, contemporary, ballet and street dancers dance for a place in the Grand Final in May. Each dancer will perform three pieces, two solos and a duet, which showcase versatility and individuality. A panel of expert judges will choose a winner.
We look forward to seeing how Chloe progresses. Look out for her in the final for the ballet category which will be shown on BBC 4 on the 3rd May. Fingers crossed we get to see her in the Grand Final on the 18th May on BBC 2. Stay tuned!
We are delighted to confirm that Lauren Fagan is to be the Australian representative in the 2019 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.
To be selected as your nation’s representative is a great honour, we are thrilled for her
Twenty singers from 15 countries have been chosen for this summer’s competition.
The contestants come from 15 countries – three Russians, two each from South Korea, Ukraine and USA, and others from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, England, Guatemala (for the first time), Mexico, Mongolia, Portugal, South Africa and Wales.
Lauren was supported by the Trust in 2013 & 2014 during her studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Her award was funded by Michael Whalley OAM & Karen Goldie-Morrison.
To learn more about how to support a young artist from Australia or New Zealand please contact James
The reviews are in for the world premiere of ‘The Monstrous Child’ by Gavin Higgins and Francesca Simon, a new production directed by Timothy Sheader and designed by Paul Wills, at the Linbury Theatre, The Royal Opera House. We are thrilled to see that #TaitAwardee, and Chair of the Tait Music Board, Jessica Cottis has received such glowing reviews for her work. Brava Jessica, we are so proud of you.
Isla Baring OAM, Chairman of the Tait Trust
“I had tickets for the opening night of The Monstrous Child, and it was sensational! Jessica Cottis was brilliant the way she handled this modern music, the incredible production, and the singers in this new opera. Bravo to Covent Garden at the newly refurbished Linbury Theatre. The reviews say it all! We are so proud of Jessica who is really making her way Up!! I am sure.”
“Jessica Cottis directs members of the Aurora Orchestra with incisive clarity, deploying her forces strategically, always mindful of the singers who must project Simon’s text without the help of surtitles. It’s no small praise to say that you hardly lose a word.”
Connor D’Netto set to shine in home state, in a year of major works!
We are thrilled to share this wonderful news about our 2017 -2019 Tait Scholar at the Royal College of Music. 25-year-old Brisbane-born composer – Connor D’Netto, was unveiled last week as this year’s Composer-in-Residence for the internationally famed Australian Festival of Chamber Music (AFCM) – and the youngest in the 29-year history of the event!
Under the leadership of acclaimed pianist and Artistic Director Kathryn Stott, the AFCM this year will feature five world premieres and five Australian premieres from composers around the world, and 40 of the best chamber musicians on the planet – including 15 international artists, five of whom are performing in Australia for the first time, and with D’Netto as the Composer-in-Residence, also at the festival for the first time
Taking over Townsville for 10 days of world-class music-making from Friday 26 July to Sunday 4 August, the AFCM will celebrate music from over 80 composers, 21 of whom are alive today. World premieres by D’Netto and fellow Australian composer Jessica Wells will feature.
AFCM’s 2018 promotional video
While D’Netto is making his AFCM debut, his music isn’t! Last year Australian musicians Claire Edwardes and Karin Schaupp premiered his vibraphone and guitar duet Brief Moments, which received a wonderful audience response.
“Over the moon is an understatement! It’s such an honour to be taking up this residency, one that has been held by some of Australia’s most celebrated composers whom I admire greatly. It’s such an incredible opportunity to work with so many of the world’s best soloists and chamber musicians, and I’m also really looking forward to working with the students at the Winterschool.”
Currently based in London studying his Master of Music at the Royal College of Music, D’Netto is proudly Brisbane born and bred – having lived at Wishart until his move to the UK capital in 2017.
And he is excited about the year ahead, one which sees world premieres of his works around the globe. Already he has composed a new piece for leading Australian songstress Katie Noonan for her upcoming album with the Australian String Quartet, The Glad Tomorrow, which sets the searing poetry of Australian writer and activist Oodgeroo Noonuccal to music (the album was recorded a few weeks ago and will premiere during the Queensland Music Festival in July).
Connor is also co-writing a ballet with fellow musician Matthew Lomax in London called Non-Place. A 50-minute work for dancers, chamber orchestra, electronics and visuals, inspired by French anthropologist Marc Augé’s writings on transience, anonymity and out-sense of individuality in public spaces, it’s a collaboration with London’s Central School of Ballet. To premiere on April 26 at the Britten Theatre, the score will be performed by chamber orchestra Cats Cradle Collective and conducted by António Breitenfeld Sá-Dantas – with both Matthew and Connor performing the electronics and visuals.
As for his musical muses and mentors, D’Netto says it’s a moving feast!
“If you asked me a couple of years ago, I’d have said the likes of John Adams and Steve Reich, a few years before that I’d say Barber, Bartok, Stravinsky, and before that it would have been some musical theatre composers, Jason Robert Brown for example, and film composers like Hans Zimmer. Now? Having fairly recently worked with Bang On A Can, I’m incredibly inspired by the work and works of Julia Wolfe, David Lang and Michael Gordon. Other contemporary composers include Unsuk Chin, Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, Kaija Saariaho and Donnacha Dennehy.”
“I also get as much from “popular” music artists as I do “classical composers” – from artists like Troye Sivan, Haim, Local Natives and CHVRCHES, to Sufjan Stevens, Blood Orange and Knower, bands like Palm, Grizzly Bear, Radiohead and Foals, and electronic artists like Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Autechre, Floating Points and Rival Consoles. And of course, where would I be without my composition teachers over the years, Stephen Stanfield, Robert Davidson and William Mival.”
ABOUT CONNOR D’NETTO
Connor D’Netto is a composer of contemporary classical music, described as “the model contemporary Australian composer” by ABC Classics. His music has been commissioned and performed across Australia and the world and in July this year, it will star at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music.
In 2017, he was selected for a fellowship with the prolific New York new-music collective Bang On A Can. His music was featured at Bang On A Can’s Summer Music Festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts (MASS MoCA), having travelled to the USA to take part in a three-week residency with the ensemble.
Two years before that, he was named winner of Chamber Music Australia’s Australian New Works Award, with his winning work, String Quartet No. 2, becoming the set work in the finals of the 7th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition at the Melbourne Recital Centre. He has also been awarded an APRA Art Music Fund Award 2018, the Brisbane City Council’s Lord Mayor’s Young and Emerging Artists Fellowship 2018, a Brisbane Arts and Cultural Innovation Award 2017, the Percy Brier Memorial Composition Prize 2016, and the Donald Tugby Musicology Prize and Scholarship 2015.
He is also the artistic director, producer, and co-founder of the Brisbane-based contemporary classical concert series “Argo” and in 2018, was shortlisted as a finalist in the APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards in the “Excellence by an Individual” category for his artistic direction of Argo throughout its 2017 Concert Season.
As a performer, Connor is one half of “We Are Breathing” alongside American cellist Ben Baker. After the pair met in July 2017 when both were artists-in-residence at the MASS MoCA, they sought to collaborate on a project bringing together their various musical backgrounds spanning classical, folk and electronic music, their love of diverse musical styles from minimalism, electronica, alt-rock and jazz, and their drive to create art that breaks down the barriers between genres and audiences.
Connor is a trained classical bass, also a talented photographer, videographer and visual-artist, creating and shooting not only material for his music, but also for a number of other artists and musicians. He has a Bachelor of Music (Honours), graduating with First-Class Honours in 2016 from the University of Queensland. Connor is a Tait Trust Scholar at the Royal College of Music, where he is completing his Masters, with his studies further supported by the Australian Music Foundation Award, the Brisbane City Council Lord Mayor’s Young and Emerging Artists Fellowship, the Tait Performing Arts Association, a Churchie Foundation Scholarship, The Julian Baring Award and by the Big Give Campaign at RCM.
International Artists of the 2019 AFCM
Roberto Carrillo-Garcia (Double Bass++)
UK
Australian debut
Rachael Clegg (Oboe)
UK
Australian debut
Alexandra Conunova (Violin)
Moldova
Australian debut
Amy Dickson (Saxophone)
UK
Returning Artist
Liza Ferschtman (Violin)
Holland
Australian debut
Pavel Fischer (Violin)
Czech
Returning artist
Martin Kuuskmann (Bassoon)
Estonia
AFCM debut
Yura Lee (Violin)
USA
AFCM debut
Wu Man (Pipa)
China
AFCM debut
Johannes Moser (Cello)
Canada
AFCM debut
Charles Owen (Piano)
UK
AFCM debut
Kathryn Stott (Piano)
UK
Artistic Director
Jennifer Stumm
USA
Australian debut
Ruth Wall (Harp)
UK
AFCM debut
Australian Artists of the 2019 AFCM
Lotte Betts-Dean (Mezzo-Soprano)
AFCM debut
(London)
Timothy Constable (Percussion)
Returning
(Sydney)
Connor D’Netto (Composer-in-Residence)
AFCM debut
(Brisbane/London)
Aura Go (Piano)
AFCM debut
(Melbourne)
Ben Jacks (Horn)
Returning
(Sydney)
Elizabeth Layton (Violin)
AFCM debut
(Adelaide)
Christopher Moore (Viola)
Returning
(Melbourne)
Neal Peres de Costa (Harpsichord)
Returning
(Sydney)
Timo-Veikko Valve (Cello)
AFCM debut
(Sydney)
Sally Walker (Flute)
AFCM debut
(Melbourne)
Arcadia Winds (Wind Quintet)
AFCM debut
(Melbourne)
David Reichelt (Oboe), Kiran Phatak (Flute), Lloyd Van’t Hoff (Clarinet) and Matthew Kneale (Bassoon)
Australian String Quartet
AFCM debut
(Adelaide)
Dale Barltrop (Violin), Francesca Hiew (Violin), Sharon Grigoryan (Cello) and Stephen King (Viola – has been to AFCM previously)
Ensemble Liaison
AFCM debut
(Melbourne)
David Griffiths (Clarinet), Svetlana Bogosavljevic (Cello) and Timothy Young (Piano)
Dates and Ticket Details
General public tickets, passes and holiday packages go on sale on Monday 25 February.
AFCM Friends have been able to purchase tickets since 3 December. The AFCM Friends program is new to 2019 – join now at afcm.com.au/friends.
Australian Festival of Chamber Music: 26 July – 4 August 2019 | Townsville, North Queensland
AFCM principal partners include; Queensland Government through Tourism and Events Queensland and Arts Queensland, and Townsville City Council. The multi-award-winning Australian Festival of Chamber Music is recognised as a major event on the Tourism and Events Queensland calendar. The Queensland Government is proud to support the Australian Festival of Chamber Music through Tourism and Events Queensland as part of the It’s Live! in Queensland events calendar. Queensland, just the place to experience Australia’s best live events.
For more information, artist interviews or imagery etc, please contact Kath Rose for the AFCM on 07 3357 9054 or 0416 291 493 or email kath@kathrose.com
We are delighted to announce that #TaitAwardees, Lauren Fagan, and Samantha Clarke are to sing major roles in Opera North’s production of La Boheme later this year. Lauren is to sing Mimi, Samantha the role of Musetta.
Lauren Fagan
Lauren was generously supported by a grant from Trust donors, Michael Whalley OAM & Karen Goldie-Morrison for the duration of her advanced operatic studies in 2013 and 2014. This financial support assisted with her fees at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama where she was a member of the prestigious Opera Course. After graduation Lauren was offered a coveted place in the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House which gave her two years of training as a junior principal.
A review of her recent appearances as Alcina with the Handel Festspiele, Karlsruhe, Germany.
“Unusually for Europe, the two main roles were sung by Australians, up-and-coming soprano Lauren Fagan and the more established countertenor, David Hansen. Fagan was a convincing sorceress from the very start, with a strong rich soprano, inducing sympathy in “Ombre pallide” as her shades desert her, spitting venom in the trio “Non è amor” and finally collapsing as all conspire to defeat her. ” Sandra Bowdler, 25 February 2019. Bachtrack.com
Samantha Clarke
Samantha is a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music and is supported by a grant from Tait donor, The Thornton Foundation and is currently in her second and final year at the Opera School at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
Samantha is also supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, and was recently awarded the Nora Goodridge Developing Artist Award from the Australian Music Foundation
Samantha is a Baroness de Turckheim Scholar at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
“There was no lack of chemistry between him and Samantha Clarke as a pure-toned and vulnerable Anne Trulove. Her Act 1 aria “Quietly night” (with Ana Docolin’s beguiling bassoon) and florid cabaletta (with a fabulous closing top C) were both wonderful – her traversal from despair to determination utterly convincing.” David Truslove, 06 September 2018 | Bachtrack.com
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