The 2012 Melba Scholars are:
Lauren Fagan
Dame Nellie Melba Scholarship
Patrick and Vivian Gordon Award
Sydney born Soprano Lauren Fagan obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration in 2008.
She recently won a Full Scholarship into the Artist Diploma of Opera at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London beginning in September 2012.
She has developing experience as a soloist performing for The Opera and Arts Support Group, Artsong NSW, Opera on the Beach, Joan of Arc – Voices of Light Oratorio, Carols in the Domain, World Youth Day Opening Ceremony and Australian Idol Grand Finals.
In 2011, Lauren won the Female Voices and English Art Song sectiona in the City of Sydney Eisteddfod. She was a finalist in the National Operatic Aria Final in Canberra (2009) and a finalist in the Joan Sutherland Richard Bonynge Vocal Scholarship (2011).
Lauren was awarded The Dame Nellie Melba Scholarship – Patrick and Vivian Gordon Award in 2011 and 2012.
Siobhan Stagg
Amelia Joscelyne Memorial Scholarship
Siobhan obtained a Bachelor of Music (Honours) at the University of Melbourne in 2009. She is developing extensive experience as a soloist with the Peninsula Summer Music Festival Academy Orchestra, La Compania, Latitude 37, the Melbourne Art Song Collective, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and the Choir of Trinity College, University of Melbourne.
Siobhan has also performed in a range of operatic roles and has appeared at the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival and in the Murray River International Music Festival in her hometown of Mildura.
She was awarded the Amelia Joscelyne Memorial Scholarship from the Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust in 2011. Siobhan has also won a scholarship to study in Graz, Austria at the AIMS summer school.
Samuel Sakker
Margaret Schofield Opera Scholarship
Sydney born tenor Samuel Sakker completed a Bachelor of Music (Vocal Performance) degree in 2008 at the Queensland Conservatorium where he performed lead roles in The Magic Flute, Les Mamelles de Tiresias, L’Enfant et les Sortileges, Orpheus in the Underworld, the Australian music Encounters series and the Conservatorium’s 50th Anniversary Celebrations. During his time at the conservatorium Samuel also performed as a soloist for the Queensland Music Festival’s quarter centenary celebration of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, the Cathedral Project’s fusion installation work Orpheus and as a soloist for many of Brisbane and northern New South Wales’ musical societies.
In 2006 he made his debut performing in the Opera Queensland Chorus and performed in their productions of Roméo et Juliette, Lucia di Lammermoor, Madama Butterfly, Nabucco, The Barber of Seville, Turandot and understudied in The Magic Flute.
2008 saw the beginning of Samuel’s engagement with Opera Australia in the full-time chorus as well as understudying and performing roles for the company. He performed as a soloist in Capriccio, Candide in the Domain, the chamber opera .Gabriel by Robert Bradshaw, the world premiere of Bliss in Sydney including its northern hemisphere premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival and at the 2011 New Year’s Eve Gala. He also covered roles in Manon, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bliss, La Fanciulla del West, Rigoletto and Partenope.
Samuel performed as the tenor soloist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in their London Calling 2009 concert season, recorded by Melba Records. That same year, he was a finalist in the Australian Singing Competition where he received the Foster Audience Vote Award, the Royal Northern College of Music Award and the Universal Records Prize.
Samuel was the second place winner in the 2010 More Than Opera German-Australian Opera Grant and has been a scholarship recipient with the Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust in 2011 and again in 2012.
Recent highlights include performing the role of Trin in Opera Queensland’s production of La Fanciulla del West and a debut as Fenton in West Australian Opera’s production of Falstaff.
Samuel’s 2012 engagements include the Young Servant in WAO’s Elektra and Don Ottavio, Don Giovanni in OzOpera’s regional tour for Opera Australia.
Janet Todd
Beleura-Tallis Opera Scholarship
Janet Todd is a young Melbourne Soprano. She completed her Bachelor of Music at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University in 2009. The same year Janet was equal runner up in the Herald Sun Aria. In 2010, she won the Opera Foundation Australia AIMS Award as well as the AIMS Sundell Study award.
Janet has been fortunate in being the recipient of the Beleura-Tallis Opera Scholarship through the Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust in 2010, 2011 and again in 2012.
Last year Janet made her professional debut with Victorian Opera as Pamina in The Magic Flute. In June she was the Soprano Soloist (Faure’s Requiem), in The Australian Ballet’s double bill Elegy. In August, again for Victorian Opera, Janet performed Lieschen in Bach’s Coffee Cantata in The Baroque Triple Bill in which she was described by reviewers as having “stolen the night”. Later that month, Janet was very well received in the role of Marsinah in Kismet with The Production Company.
Janet’s most recent appearance was with VO in Richard Gill’s delightful pantomime, Cinderella.
Hannah Dahlenburg
Melba Opera Trust Scholarship
Mel & Nina Waters Award
Hannah Dahlenburg, soprano, completed her Bachelor of Music at the University of Melbourne in 2010.
She has performed a range of operatic roles including in L’Orfeo, Acteon, The Magic Flute and in the premiere performance of Stuart Greenbaum’s Nelson. She has also performed extensively as a soloist and ensemble singer with Capella Giulia, the Choir of Trinity College (Melbourne) and the Tallis Scholars. Hannah has broadcast with 3MBS FM.
Hannah has won several scholarships and is now a recipient of a 2011 Dame Nellie Melba Trust Scholarship. She is a member of the 2011 Performance Program at the Opera Studio, Melbourne, on the 2011 Henkel family Scholarship.
Stacey Alleaume
Amelia Joscelyne Reserve Scholarship
Ruskin Family Opera Award
Soprano Stacey Alleaume holds a Bachelor of Music (Music Performance) degree from The University of Melbourne and completed her studies in the Performance Program at The Opera Studio Melbourne in 2010.
Stacey won the Australian Youth Aria (2009), was Runner-Up of The Herald Sun Aria competition (2010 and 2011) andwas the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Aria (2011), and the international winner of the prestigious Waiariki Institute of Technology New Zealand Aria (2011). She was a scholarship recipient with the Dame Nellie Opera Trust in 2010 and this year is studying on the Amelia Joscelyne Reserve Scholarship and the Ruskin Family Opera Award.
Her operatic roles include Gossip (Noye’s Fludde), Reindeer (Snow Queen), Eurydice (Orpheus in the Underworld), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Laetitia (The Old Maid and the Thief), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and Silly Goat (Figatroll).
Currently a principal artist with Oz Opera (Opera Australia), Stacey performed the role of Gretel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel for their Victorian School’s Company in a six-month tour in 2011. She is delighted to be performing the role of Pamina in their production of The Magic Flute in 2012.
Brenton Spiteri
John & Elizabeth Wright Smith Scholarship
Brenton Spiteri is a Melbourne-born lyric tenor. He completed studies at the Melbourne University Conservatorium of Music and is the 2012 recipient of the Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust’s John and Elizabeth Wright-Smith Scholarship.
Whilst studying at the Conservatorium, Brenton was awarded several prizes including the Dame Nellie Melba Prize, the Murray Ormond Vagg Scholarship, the Mona McCaughey Scholarship and the Muriel Cheek Scholarship. Other awards include the Hedy Holt Memorial Prize as a finalist in the National Liederfest 2009 and the Opera Society Young Artist Scholarship, runner up 2010.
Brenton has performed the role of Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and sung in the premiers of two new Australian works: David Chisholm’s Kursk: An Oratorio Requiem and Angus Grant’s Contact. He is also a casual chorus member for Opera Australia and recently performed in the Melbourne season of Les Pêcheurs de Perles. He has sung for Victorian Youth Opera, Opera Australia, Lyric Opera of Melbourne, Opera Downunder and the Consort of Melbourne.
Kyla Allan
Melba Opera Trust Scholarship
Kyla completed a Bachelor of Music at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2011. In her first year she was awarded the Michelle Robinson Scholarship for the most outstanding first year classical vocal student.
Kyla appeared as both a soloist and ensemble member in a diverse range of performances with the WAAPA classical voice department. In 2011 she played the role of Baba the Turk in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. Also that year she performed as a soloist in Rossini’s Stabat Mater.
Other performances credits include Rossini’s Petit Messe Solennelle (2009), Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites (2009), Songs from the Stage (2010), WAAPA in the Park (2010), Bravissima! (2010), Opera Scenes – Masquerade (2010), the WAAPA Showcase (2010), Tippet’s A Child of our time (2010), Purcell’s The Faerie Queen (2010) and Songs for all Seasons (2011) and Strauss’ Die Fledermaus (2011).
In 2011 Kyla performed in a recital at the Stuart and Sons Piano factory in Newcastle accompanied by internationally renowned vocal coach and accompanist Sharolyn Kimmorley AM.
For 2012 Kyla has been awarded a Melba Opera Trust Scholarship from the Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust.
Tiriki Onus
Harold Blair Opera Scholarship
Tiriki Onus has been involved in the arts from a very young age. His two main disciplines were visual arts, music and singing, both of which he studied throughout his high school years.
A chance meeting with soprano Deborah Cheetham in 2008 re-introduced Tiriki to the world of opera. In the past three years he has featured in dozens of performances in Melbourne and interstate. His first professional operatic role was creating Bill in the Mooroopna premiere of Deborah Cheetham’s Pecan Summer in October 2010, which he reprised in September 2011 for the Melbourne 3-day run of Pecan Summer.
Tiriki Onus has recently completed the third year of his Bachelor of Music Performance at Melbourne University and is continuing his training through the inaugural 2012 Harold Blair Scholarship with the Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust.