Fiona Campbell (mezzo-soprano)

Last updated

Fiona Campbell OAM is an Australian operatic mezzo-soprano. In January 2023, she was appointed creative director of the Perth Symphony Orchestra after she had worked as state manager in Western Australia for Musica Viva. [1] Campbell has worked with dozens of Australian and international conductors and orchestras, and with other soloists in chamber groups. Her repertoire, on stage and in recitals, ranges from Renaissance music to contemporary works of the 21st century, from oratorios, opera, French art songs, to musical theatre and cabaret. [2] The Australian 's Martin Buzacott called her "the best mezzo-soprano in Australia right now" in his review of an English-language production of Cinderella, or Goodness Triumphant for Opera Queensland in 2013. [3]

Contents

Career

Daughter of working-class Glaswegians who settled in Western Australia, Campbell learned piano and wanted to be a conductor. When her singing teacher at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) suggested in her second year of studying a professional career, she switched. [4] She graduated from WAAPA as a Master of Music in 1995 with a thesis, Peggy Glanville-Hicks' Opera Sappho, A Critical Examination. [5] In 1994, she won the 1994 ABC Young Performer of the Year Award and the Australian Opera Awards. [6] In 2011, she won the Limelight Award for Best Solo Performance. [7] After several years in Britain with the Glyndebourne Chorus, she filled in for Susan Graham on José Carreras' tour of Japan and Korea and appeared then as his special guest artist in Australia (2008–2010). [8]

Following her and countertenor David Walker's performances for Pinchgut Opera in Vivaldi's 1716 oratorio Juditha triumphans , which they also recorded, and Cavalli's 1644 opera Ormindo , she and Walker released the album Baroque Duets in 2011, conducted by Neal Peres Da Costa. [9] Campbell self-released the solo album Love + Loss in 2012, featuring the cantatas La Lucrezia (1708) by Handel, Bella madre de fiori (1680s) by Scarlatti and Arianna a Naxos (1789) by Haydn. [10] In 2020, she performed in a recording of Ross Harris' Symphony No. 6 by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Antony Hermus. [11]

Campbell is a founding member of Katie Noonan's Australian Vocal Ensemble (AVÉ) [1]

In October 2022, she performed with Sara Macliver in the world premiere of Elena Kats-Chernin's Ave Maria by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pietari Inkinen. [12]

Campbell is a presenter at ABC Classic. [7]

In the 2024 Australia Day Honours, Campbell was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for "service to the performing arts through music". [13]

Private life

Campbell is married to Brendon Ellmer, general manager of the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia, and they have a son and a daughter. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janet Baker</span> English mezzo-soprano

Dame Janet Abbott Baker is an English mezzo-soprano best known as an opera, concert, and lieder singer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lorraine Hunt Lieberson</span> American mezzo-soprano

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson was an American mezzo-soprano. She was noted for her performances of both Baroque era and contemporary works. Her career path to becoming a singer was unconventional – formerly a professional violist, Lieberson did not shift her full-time focus to singing until she was in her thirties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peggy Glanville-Hicks</span> Australian composer and music critic

Peggy Winsome Glanville-Hicks was an Australian composer and music critic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinchgut Opera</span> Musical artist

Pinchgut Opera is a chamber opera company in Sydney, Australia, presenting opera from the 17th and 18th centuries performed on period instruments. Founded in 2002, Pinchgut stages two operas each year in Sydney's City Recital Hall. It also performs concerts in both Sydney and Melbourne.

Richard John Mills is an Australian conductor and composer. He is currently the artistic director of Victorian Opera, and formerly artistic director of the West Australian Opera and artistic consultant with Orchestra Victoria. He was commissioned by the Victoria State Opera to write his opera Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1996) and by Opera Australia to write the opera Batavia (2001).

Sara Macliver is an Australian soprano singer, born and raised in Perth, Western Australia. Macliver is a versatile artist, appearing in operas, concert and recital performances and on numerous recordings. She is regarded as one of the leading exponents of Baroque repertoire in Australia, and lectures in Voice at the UWA Conservatorium of Music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacqueline Dark</span> Australian operatic mezzo-soprano (1967/1968–2023)

Jacqueline Lisa Dark was an Australian operatic mezzo-soprano who appeared mainly with Australian companies, for a while as a member of Opera Australia. She was known for her voice in leading roles, including world premieres, but also for her stage presence and "a unique sense of comic timing".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taryn Fiebig</span> Australian opera soprano (1972–2021)

Taryn Fiebig was an Australian soprano, a principal soprano of Opera Australia who also performed internationally. She appeared in many Mozart roles such as Susanna and Zerlina. The versatile singer also performed in Baroque opera, Italian repertoire, contemporary opera, operetta and musical theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beverly Wolff</span> American mezzo-soprano

Beverly Wolff was an American mezzo-soprano who had an active career in concerts and operas from the early 1950s to the early 1980s. She performed a broad repertoire which encompassed operatic and concert works in many languages and from a variety of musical periods. She was a champion of new works, notably premiering compositions by Leonard Bernstein, Gian Carlo Menotti, Douglas Moore, and Ned Rorem among other American composers. She also performed in a number of rarely heard baroque operas by George Frideric Handel with the New York City Opera (NYCO), the Handel Society of New York, and at the Kennedy Center Handel Festivals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teddy Tahu Rhodes</span> New Zealand baritone opera singer

Teddy Tahu Rhodes is a New Zealand operatic baritone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betty Allen</span> American singer (1927–2009)

Betty Allen was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who had an active international singing career during the 1950s through the 1970s. In the latter part of her career her voice acquired a contralto-like darkening, which can be heard on her recording of Sergei Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky with conductor Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. She was known for her collaborations with American composers, such as Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, David Diamond, Ned Rorem, and Virgil Thomson among others.

Emma Matthews is an English-born Australian lyric coloratura soprano, noted for operatic roles, but also popular on the concert stage. A Principal Artist with Opera Australia, Matthews has received more Helpmann Awards than any other individual artist, nine Green Room Awards, the Mo Award and the Remy Martin Australian Opera Award.

Royal Melbourne Philharmonic (RMP) is a 120-voice choir and orchestra in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1853, and is reportedly Australia's oldest surviving cultural organisation. The Royal Melbourne Philharmonic is Australia's oldest musical organisation that has been continuously existing for over 150 years. Among its programmes, there have been large-scale concerts celebrating classical composers including Bach, Mendelssohn and Beethoven. The Royal Melbourne Philharmonic is managed under the direction of Andrew Wailes, the artistic director of the orchestra.

Caitlin Hulcup is an Australian mezzo-soprano, who has performed both in Australia and internationally, particularly in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Coote</span> British mezzo-soprano

Alice Coote OBE is a British mezzo-soprano. Known internationally for her performances in opera playing both female and male roles, and her recitals with piano and concerts with orchestra, Coote has performed extensively across Europe, North America and Asia. Her repertoire ranges from early and baroque music to contemporary works, and includes works which have been especially written for her. She was appointed OBE in the 2018 Birthday honours for services to music.

The ABC Young Performers Awards is a classical music competition for young people that ran annually from 1944 to 2015, and again from 2017. It is generally considered the most prestigious Australian classical music competition not restricted to a single instrument.

Katy Abbott is an Australian composer. Abbott writes music for orchestra, chamber ensemble and voice. Her work reflects her interests in contemporary Australian cultures and often explores notions of home, place, humour and connection.

Jennifer Condon is an Australian conductor.

Fiona Janes is an Australian mezzo-soprano and arts administrator. She began her operatic career as a principal artist with Opera Australia in 1988 and resigned in 2005, disappointed with her role in the organisation. She has worked in the UK and Europe as well as Australia, and in 2010 she became the general manager and artistic director of the Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation. She has won various awards and made a several recordings, including DVDs for Opera Australia.

Beth Taylor is a Scottish operatic mezzo-soprano, who has performed mainly in Europe. At the Oper Frankfurt, she performed a title role in Rossini's Bianca e Falliero.

References

  1. 1 2 Maddy Briggs (2 December 2022). "Perth Symphony Orchestra appoints new Creative Director" . Limelight . Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  2. ↑ Greg Keane (March 2015). "A vocal spark of energy" (PDF). AE News. Australia Ensemble . Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  3. ↑ Martin Buzacott (8 July 2013). "Theatrical wonder let down by the music" . The Australian . Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  4. 1 2 Steve Dow (14 May 2011). "A Handel on history". The Sydney Morning Herald (feature article). Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  5. ↑ Fiona Campbell (1995). Peggy Glanville-Hicks' Opera Sappho, A Critical Examination (Thesis). Edith Cowan University.
  6. ↑ Samantha Vega (23 April 2013). "Rising Mezzo-Soprano Fiona Campbell Playing at Chatswood City and Penrith". BroadwayWorld . Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  7. 1 2 "Fiona Campbell". ABC Classic . Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  8. ↑ "2022 Biographies – Fiona Campbell (mezzo-soprano)" (PDF). Queensland Symphony Orchestra . Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  9. ↑ Melissa Lesnie (28 July 2011). "Baroque Duets (Fiona Campbell; David Walker; Ironwood)" . Limelight (reviewed: Vexations840 (2011) Cat. No. 840-1101). Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  10. ↑ Graham Strahle (21 January 2012). "Love and Loss (Fiona Campbell)" . The Australian . Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  11. ↑ Ross Harris: Symphony No. 6 / Face at Discogs
  12. ↑ Will Yeoman (8 October 2022). "Sibelius' Second Symphony (West Australian Symphony Orchestra)" . Limelight . Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  13. ↑ "Ms Fiona Campbell". Australian Honours Search Facility. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.