New Zealand soprano, Nicola Waite, graduated from Victoria University and in 1982 won the inaugural Marianne Mathy Award, which led to three years study in Milan. On her return to Australia in 1986, she was the ESSO Young Artist at Opera Australia. Her most recent roles for that company have included; Leonora in La Forza del Destino, Leonora in Il Trovatore , Liu in Turandot and Gilda in Rigoletto.

Since her return from living in Amsterdam, Miss Waite has repeated her performance of Leonora with Opera Australia for Opera in the Park as part of the 1998 Sydney Festival. Other performances included Wagner's Wessendonk Lieder with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra which was followed by participation in the State Opera of South Australia's production of Wagner's Ring Cycle as Freia in Das Rheingold, Heimwige in Die Walkure and Third Norn in Gotterdammerung.

In 1997, Miss Waite performed Heimwige in concert performances of Die Walkure under Edo de Waart and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, followed by Gilda for the State Opera of South Australia. Later in the year she returned to Wellington for her debut as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and again as Leonora for Opera New Zealand. This was preceeded by performances of the title role in Victoria State Opera's new production of Aida.

In New Zealand, Miss Waite has performed with all the main opera companies in seasons of Violetta in La Traviata , the title role in Tosca, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera and Marguerite in Faust. Her European debut was as Violetta in The Netherlands and her British debut as Leonora. This was followed by Gilda for the Macedonian Opera Festival and Heimwige in Frankfurt Opera's Ring Cycle.

Her career in concert work has been extensive. Recent performances have included Wagner's Wessendonk Lieder with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, Verdi's Requiem in Brussels with the Nationale Orchestre de Belgium under Yuri Siminov, Gorecki Symphony No. 3 with the Netherlands Ballet, Beethoven with the Rotterdam Philharmonic conducted by Rozhdestvensky and Strauss' Four Last Songs for both the Sweelinck Orchestra in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw and Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra. Other noted performances have included the Brahms Requiem for The International Choral Festival in Sydney, Michael Tippett's A Child of Our Time both for the New Zealand Festival and the Ulster Symphony Orchestra , Mahler's Symphony No. 8 for the Brisbane Biennial, Fricka in McKenzie's The Sun God's Return for The Royal Gala at Covent Garden and a number of Opera Galas in Wales , Scotland and New Zealand.

Please direct enquiries to:

Patrick Togher Artists'  Management

Tel. (02) 9319 6255