New Zealand Aria - Deborah Riedel

Australian born soprano Deborah Riedel studied at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music in Sydney where she won several major singing awards enabling her to continue her studies in Europe.

Operatic work in Australia includes Leonora Il Trovatore, Mimi La boheme, Violetta La Traviata, the four heroines Les contes d’Hoffmann, Marguerite Faust, Donna Anna and Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni, title roles in Maria Stuarda, Tosca and Norma for Opera Australia; Leila Les Pêcheurs de perles, Micaela Carmen and Marguerite Faust for the Victoria State Opera; Marguerite for Opera Queensland, and Tosca for the State Opera of South Australia. She made her US debut in 1994 as Amina La Sonnambula for the San Diego Opera and has since performed Donna Anna, Adina L’elisir d’amore, Violetta, Alice Ford Falstaff for the company. Further US engagements include Donna Anna at the Metropolitan Opera and Ellen Orford Peter Grimes and Donna Anna for the San Francisco Opera.

In Europe Deborah has performed Teresa Benvenuto Cellini, Marguerite for the Grand Théâtre de Genève; Teresa for the Opéra National de Paris; Countess Le nozze di Figaro for Opéra de Montpellier; Donna Elvira Don Giovanni for Opéra de Bordeaux and Aix en Provence; Leonore Fidelio for Opera de Tours and Opera Rheims; Teresa for Opera di Roma; Violetta for De Nederlandse Opera; Donna Anna for the Bayerische Staatsoper and Wiener Staatsoper; Mimi, Donna Elvira and Freia Das Rheingold for the Royal Opera Covent Garden, and Marschallin Der Rosenkavalier and Tosca for Welsh National Opera.

Deborah appears frequently as a concert artist in Australia and has sung with all of the State Symphony Orchestras, the Australian Pops Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and at the Melbourne Festival. Engagements include Strauss' Vier letzte lieder with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Ah perfido and Ninth Symphony with the SSO under Edo de Waart, Jonas Sendung with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Neeme Järvi, Poeme pour Mi with the SSO and Simone Young, Gala Concerts in Melbourne and Sydney under Richard Bonynge and guest soloist with Jose Carreras on his Australia wide tour. In Europe her numerous concert engagements include Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Mark Elder, Britten’s War Requiem in London and with the Czech Philharmonic and Gerd Albrecht, Tippett’s A Child of our Time with the LSO and at the BBC Proms with the New York Philharmonic under Sir Colin Davis, Missa Solemnis with the Czech Philharmonic and Sir Charles Mackerras and Britten’s Spring Symphony in Copenhagen with Donald Runnicles, Poeme pour Mi with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and at the Concertgebouw and Beethoven’s The Accession of Leopold II with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Sir Charles Mackerras.

More recent performances include her highly successful role debut as Sieglinde in SOSA’s new production of Die Walkure for which she was the recipient of a Helpmann Award (recorded by Melba Recordings), performing and recording the title role in Semiramide at the Wildbad Festival in Germany under Richard Bonynge, ‘Best of British’ concerts with the APO at the Victorian Arts Centre, concerts with the Puccini Festival Australia along with an appearance with Opera Australia in their New Year’s Eve Gala under Richard Bonynge. Deborah also sang at the Cayman Islands Festival, returned to Welsh National Opera to reprise Tosca and performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the TSO, Vaughan William’s Sea Symphony with the MSO, title role Turandot for Opera Australia, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera for State Opera of South Australia and a follow up solo recording with Melba Recordings.

2008 highlights will include Opera in the Vineyard, a ‘Wagner Gala’ with TQO and ‘Ode to Joy’ with Sydney Philharmonia.

Recordings include Lehar’s Guiditta and Paganini with Richard Bonynge for Telarc; Zeisl’s Requiem Ebraico and title role in Die Herzogin von Chicago (Bonynge) for Decca Records, and her debut solo CD with Richard Bonynge entitled The Power of Love for Melba Recordings.

New Zealand Aria - Paul Ferris

Australian tenor Paul Ferris has enjoyed an impressively varied career in opera and music theatre. His early musical training was in church choir and later at the Sydney Conservatorium Opera School where he made his operatic debut as Hoffmann.

In 1970 he joined The Australian Opera and sang performances of Rodolfo in La Boheme and Marco in The Gondoliers and later performances for State Opera South Australia in the title role of Cont’ Ory, and in The Excursions of Mr. Broucek and Mayakowski and the Sun.

In 1975 Paul travelled to London for studies and sang British premieres of Hadyn’s La Vera Costanza and Cavalli’s Giasone as well as performances of Don Jose in Carmen, Alfredo in La Traviata, Fenton in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Ferrando in Cosi fan Tutte and The Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia.

Following a successful audition for Richard Bonynge, Paul returned to Australia as a principal tenor with The Australian Opera where he went on to perform a wide range of roles in opera and music theatre many in partnership with Dame Joan Sutherland. His roles included Almaviva, Belmonte, Tamino, Don Ottavio, Edgardo, Cassio, Rinuccio and Fenton.

Paul has appeared with all the major opera companies throughout Australia including Victoria State Opera, State Opera South Australia and Lyric Opera Queensland. Roles have included Lorenzo in Fra Diavolo, Alfredo in Die Fledermaus, Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Edwin in Gypsy Princess, Tom in Voss by Richard Meale, Roberto in Le Villi and Ruggero in La Rondine in New Zealand and Dr. Caius with San Diego Opera.

Throughout his career Paul has also appeared in a wide range of concert works in London, Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne many with his wife Deborah Riedel and often in collaboration with conductor Richard Bonynge.

New Zealand Aria Under 21 Section - Timua Brennan

Permanently based in Rotorua, Timua has just finished a Masters of Music with First Class Honours at Waikato University, Hamilton. After singing locally for many years, she was “discovered” in a singing competition and encouraged to seek professional voice training in 1999.

She is a regular performer at Rotorua’s Opera in the Pa, twice winner of the Regional Section at the Lockwood Aria competition in Rotorua. Bruce Greenfield, foremost New Zealand accompanist and vocal coach, says she is “another unique NZ voice – coupled with a real performance presence and ability to communicate”.

In November 2003, Timua performed in Wellington for the first time at St Andrew’s on The Terrace. Timua attended the two week singers course to Italy in May 2003. This led to invitations for her to return in April 2004. Timua has just recently returned from a two week tour of Italy, she performed in Rome, Sicily and Tuscany.

She performed as a special Guest Artist for Sir Howard Morrison in the Christchurch Town Hall in July with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. In September 2004, she travelled with Gillian Whitehead as part of an ensemble to the Indonesia Arts Festival to perform works by this New Zealand composer.

New Zealand Aria Under 21 - Robert Wiremu

Robert is on the academic and performance faculty at Auckland University where his area of expertise encompasses vocal technique, vocal repertoire and the accompaniment of song, with the unique advantage of maintaining a dual career as teacher and performer. Robert completed his initial studies at Victoria University of Wellington in 1993, studying classical singing with Emily Mair. He continued his studies at Auckland University with the late Mrs Beatrice Webster, MBE.

Robert has represented NZ nationally, as a member of all three national choirs: the NZ Secondary Students’ Choir, the NZ National Youth Choir and Tower Voices NZ. He represented NZ internationally as a member of the World Youth Choir. Recently, Robert was responsible for training the Opera Factory chorus for the inaugural concert of the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation concert.

On the operatic stage, Robert’s repertoire ranges from grand outdoor spectacles (Alan Smythe’s productions of Aïda and Carmen and Gareth Farr’s So Far for the Auckland Festival launch), to chamber opera to repetiteur for NBR New Zealand Opera and Opera Factory. He has sung with a number of accomplished singers and conductors. These include Anton Armstrong, Rodney Eichenberger, Andre Thomas, Carl Tanner and Marvin Keenze, Sally Burgess, Sarah Walker, Julian Reynolds and Jane Glover, and eminent kiwis Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Dame Malvina Major, Jonathan Lemalu, Isabel Cunningham, Hayley Westenra, Patricia Wright, Helen Medlyn, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, and Sir Howard Morrison.

New Zealand Aria Conductor

Stephen Mould was born in Sydney and studied piano and composition at the NSW Conservatorium of Music. In 1985, he moved to London and continued conducting and composition studies at the Royal Academy of Music and studies at English National Opera. During this time he also worked as an orchestral and choral conductor and as a freelance repetiteur in London and Marseille. In 1990, Mr Mould won an Australian Singing Competition award for operatic studies and returned to Europe working as a conductor and musical assistant in a number of houses in Germany, Belgium and Norway. He was engaged as an assistant at the Theatre de La Monnaie, Brussels and, in 1992 was appointed to the music staff of Opera Frankfurt as assistant to the Music Director. During this time in Europe, he also took part in several summer festivals and was associated with the music conservatoriums in Würzburg and Frankfurt. In 1996, he returned to Australia and joined the staff of Opera Australia. Since his return, Mr Mould has undertaken engagements for the Sydney Festival, the Melbourne Festival, Symphony Australia and the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. In 1998, he assisted on SOSA’s production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle and conducted La Bohème for Opera Australia in 1999. In 2000, he conducted Simon Boccanegra for the national company and The Stars of Opera Australia concert with the SBS Youth Orchestra. Stephen Mould is currently Head of Music at Opera Australia and, in recent seasons has conducted the following opera for OA: The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, Signor Bruschino, La Voix Humaine, Rusalka, The Gondoliers and The Pirates of Penzance. For the Sydney Symphony, he conducted Swing into Spring, an opera gala for The Queensland Orchestra and Verdi’s Requiem for Willoughby Symphony Orchestra. Mr Mould recently returned from Macau where he conducted Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci for the Macau International Music Festival. In 2008, he will conduct Carmen, The Makropulos Secret and My Fair Lady for Opera Australia and make his American debut conducting Madama Butterfly for Baltimore Opera Company.