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- 2007 OPERA AWARDS WINNER
- Roland
Gridiger, CEO, Music & Opera Singers Trust Limited is delighted to
announce the 2007 winner of the Australian Singing Competition‘s Opera
Awards is bass baritone James Homann from New South Wales. James
was selected by the panel of high-profile practitioners: conductor
Vladimir Kamirski and singers Deborah Riedel and Donald Shanks OBE AO.
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- Last year
it seemed likely that the Opera Awards would fade for lack of a major
sponsor for the main prize. Enter stage right a patron by the name of
Di Bresciani who, with her Youth Music Foundation of Australia, has been
quietly assisting musicians over a number of years. Thanks to her, and
her enthusiastic Board, the Opera Awards lived to see another day
offering the $25,000 YMFA Scholarship. James was also awarded
the Armstrong-Martin Scholarship - $4500 presented by the
Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust for overseas study; the Haas
Award - $2500 cash grant presented by Music & Opera Singers Trust
Ltd bringing his total prize money to $32,000 and the Editorial
Resources Prize - a professionally produced résumé.
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- James
studied at The Australian Institute of Music in Sydney for a Diploma of
Music Theatre, a Bachelor of Music majoring in Classical Voice
Performance and then a Masters Degree in Music. He has reached the
Finals of several prestigious competitions, including the 2006 Mathy
Awards where he was a major prizewinner and he won the 2006 McDonalds
Operatic Aria in the Performing Arts Challenge. James appears regularly
in concert, has performed roles for Rockdale Opera Company and Oz-Opera
Schools tour and was a member of a barbershop quartet The Harbour-Side
Four. As an Emerging Artist with Co-Opera in 2006 he sang the title
role in Don Giovanni, Germont in La Traviata, Sharpless
and minor roles in Madama Butterfly, and an original Australian
work called The Portrait.
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- You can
hear James perform as special guest artist at the Australian Singing
Competition’s Mathy Awards Finals on Monday 5th November at
7.30pm in the Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He
will be accompanied by the Australian Opera & Ballet Orchestra under the
baton of Richard Bonynge. Tickets available at City Recital Hall 8256
2222 or 1300 797 118 or
www.cityrecitalhall.com ($37; $30 concession and groups of 10 incl
GST; booking fees may apply).
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