Artists

One of Australia’s leading concert pianists, Coady Green is acknowledged as a major talent on the international concert circuit, having been described as “accurate and exhilarating…” and “a virtuoso pianist with sensitivity, intelligence and charm”, (Musical Opinion, London) with “a strong and versatile technique capable of the most delicate coloring and tonal brilliance, rising to the challenges of extreme virtuoso demands with relish” (The Advertiser, South Australia).

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In 2005, Coady relocated from Melbourne to London after winning almost all the most prestigious awards and prizes that his native Australia had to offer including a Winston Churchill Fellowship and numerous awards from the Australia Council of the Arts. During his eleven years in London, he frequently performed at all the major UK venues and established a prominent teaching career, including teaching posts at Goldsmiths College, The University of London and at the Royal College of Music, London. He was twice the recipient of a Geoffrey Parsons International Prize (2008, 2012). He established the successful International Liszt Society Piano Prize in London and is regularly on major competition juries in Australia and abroad. He regularly performs in major concert venues and at festivals throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and America and is a frequent guest lecturer at numerous leading international tertiary institutions. His ensemble Duo Eclettico with saxophonist Justin Kenealy is one of the most active saxophone and piano duos in the country and has won numerous awards. He is currently preparing the 2024 release of the premiere recording of the complete Anton Rubinstein piano etudes and preludes for British label Toccata Classics, and two recordings of Australian works for saxophone and piano with Kenealy for Tall Poppies. He is recording the complete piano and chamber music of Linda Kouvaras, also for Toccata Classics.

He is passionate about new music, and commissions several major new works from Australian composers each year. He was the recipient of major grants from the Australian Council for the Arts for new commissions in both 2020 and 2021. He was the recipient of a PPCA – Australia Council Partnership Award in 2023. He teaches and lectures at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, The University of Melbourne. Coady is the current Staff Chair of the University of Melbourne’s Pride in Action Network committee, the main voice for the University on issues relating to the LGBTIQ+ community. He is on the board for Melbourne’s iconic gallery and theatre, fortyfivedownstairs.

Livia Brash is an Emerging Artist with Melbourne Opera where she this year covered the role of Eva (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) in their historic performance at the Royal Exhibition Building under the baton of Anthony Negus, and made her debut in the title role of Rusalka for Boroondara Art's Opera in the Park. 

In 2024, she covered Musetta (La Boheme) for Melbourne Opera, and was praised for her "full, rich rounded soprano" (Classic Melbourne) singing the role of La Zelatrice in Suor Angelica, a production that won the 2024 Opera Chaser Award for Outstanding Opera in Concert. That year, Livia was also featured as a "Young Star of Australian Opera" at the Sydney Carols in the Domain for an audience of 50 000 people and broadcast live on national television. She was previously based in Germany for five years, where she was a member with Düsseldorf Lyric Opera, appeared as Sieglinde in Dramatic Voices Berlin's film of Die Walküre and was sponsored by the Wagner Society NSW.

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Livia attended the prestigious Georg Solti Accademia in Italy, where she was under the tutelage of mentors such as Maestro Richard Bonynge AC CBE. During her time in Europe, she performed the title role of Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda as part of the London Bel Canto Festival with the London City Philharmonic Orchestra and appeared in recital in London. She was set to make her debut in title role of Verdi's Aida at the WIN Entertainment Centre Stadium in Australia (cancelled)

In addition to her significant stage experience, Livia has also won several awards from Australia's most prestigious singing competitions. She won the Opera Foundation for young Australians Dalwood-Wylie AIMS Award, and the AIMS Sundell Award, which allowed her to receive tuition at the Vienna State Opera. She was also a finalist in the Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge Bel Canto Competition two years in a row, coming third and second place respectively, as well as being named a finalist in the IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition. 

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Livia holds a Masters of Music Studies (Opera) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where she was the recipient of the Geoffrey Rothwell Scholarship and the Joan Bonamy Scholarship. She completed a Bachelor of Music (Classical Voice) from the Australian National University.

Alex is an emerging lyric tenor, vocal ensemble singer, and director who specialises in the performance of very new and very old music. When Alex isn't directing Divisi Chamber Singers, you can find them singing up and down the East Coast with the Consort of Melbourne, Luminescence Chamber Singers, and most recently the Song Company Emerging Artist program. Alex completed their Honours degree in Vocal Performance at the University of Melbourne and hopes to continue to perform as both a soloist and ensemble professional. Alex is particularly passionate about creating opportunities that enable young musicians to perform and have their works performed. They work regularly with new composers and prioritize programming young Australian composers.

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When Alex isn't singing you can find them at the harpsichord, trying to write some code, climbing up plastic rocks, or attempting to catch a fish!

Originally from Tasmania, Breanna Stuart is a soprano based in Melbourne, Australia. In 2022, Breanna made her professional debut in the role of Ianthe in Lyric Opera of Melbourne’s Green Room Award winning production of IPHIS. Her other theatre credits include La Sorella Infermiera in Suor Angelica (Melbourne Opera), Hairy Girl in The Grumpiest Boy in the World (Victorian Opera), First Lady in Die Zauberflöte (Melbourne Conservatorium of Music), and Foreign Woman in The Consul (Australian Contemporary Opera Co.). Most recently Breanna participated in the 2024 Master Course in the Interpretation of German Lied at the Franz-Schubert-Institute in Austria. 

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Breanna was a 2023/2024 member of Opera Scholars Australia and was awarded first prize in both their 2024 Art Song Competition and 2024 Aria Competition. She is also a current Richard Divall Developing Artist with Melbourne Opera.

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In 2023 Breanna graduated from a Masters of Opera Performance at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. Her other qualifications include a Bachelor of Music (Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, 2021), an AMusA in Classical Voice (2018), and a Diploma of Music (University of Tasmania, 2018).

Jess Aszodi is an artist, writer, educator and performer. Her mezzo voice has been praised for its “utmost security and power” (Chicago Tribune) and been described as one of the “finest actress-singers in the country” (The Age). Her unusual range, both in terms of colour and pitch - make it possible to perform repertoire across genres and voice types, where she creates bespoke techniques and concepts from project to project. She has built up a truly idiosyncratic set of embodied knowledges, from cycling while singing, to choreographically affected song, and a not small number of extremely extended vocal techniques. Her favourite thing is challenge.

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Jess’ work crosses between opera, experimental music, improvisation, composition, and music theatre. Her favourite repertoire occupies a deep range and full gambit of colours like Berio’s Folksongs, Ligeti’s Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedűvel or Boulez' Le Marteau sans maître. She has twice been nominated for the Australian Greenroom Awards as ‘best female operatic performer’ - in both the leading and supporting categories. Her operatic roles include Eve (Stockhausen’s Dienstag aus Licht), Socrates (Satie’s Socrates), Aminta (Mozart’s Il re pastore), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Sesto (Guilio Cesare), Popova (Walton's The Bear), Rose (Elliot Carter's What Next?) and Echo (Ariadne auf Naxos). 

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She has performed as a soloist with opera houses and ensembles around the world including the London Sinfonietta, Wiener Volksoper, Nederlands Reisoper, Hamburg Staatsoper, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, ICE, Pinchgut Opera, the Tirolean Symphony Orchestra, Victorian Opera, Sydney Chamber Opera, and in the San Diego and Chicago Symphony Orchestras chamber series. Her Festival appearances include the Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide Festivals, Darmstadt, Aldeburgh, Tectonics, Tanglewood, Klangspuren, Beethoven Festwoche, Resonant Bodies, Vivid Sydney, Aspen and BIFEM. A passionate exponent of new work she has performed important premieres by collaborators Liza Lim, Augusta Read Thomas, Dai Fujkura, Anthony Pateras, Jessie Marino, Cathy Milliken, Jenna Lyle, Sam Dunscombe, and Laura Bowler.

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Jess also holds a Doctorate from the Queensland Conservatorium, and continues an artistic research and teaching practice focused on the materiality and politics of embodiment practices in the creation of new vocal performance. She has written articles for several books and journals and teaches workshops on the bodily as well as theoretical applications of her research.

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She takes pleasure in the process of creating thick, touching, thinking, pieces.

Meta Cohen is a composer, sound designer and dramaturg with work spanning music, theatre and interdisciplinary art. Meta’s music has been commissioned and performed in diverse venues across Australia, the UK and the US. In their composition work, Meta often prioritises LGBTQIA+ content where possible. Meta’s music features on Australia’s first queer classical album (Spectrum: Divisi Chamber Singers), and their new queer song cycle a love is a love is a love, commissioned by ABC Classic, was released in June 2023. Other notable works include Caedo, which was awarded in the Leonardo Da Vinci International Composition Competition in Florence and Sim Shalom, which features on an album released by Chandos. Recently, Meta’s work Swerve was a finalist in the 2023 APRA AMCOS/Australian Music Centre Art Music Awards for Work of the Year (Choral), and their piece we was part of the Australian Section’s official submission to the 2023 World New Music Days in South Africa. Meta is passionate about bringing queer, interdisciplinary and sound-driven work to the stage.

Sally Whitwell is a composer and pianist, living and working on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land. Her 5 solo albums on ABC Classic have garnered between them 8 ARIA nominations and 3 wins. She is known particularly for her interpretations of the piano works of American minimalist Philip Glass, her debut album Mad Rush leading to invitations to premiere Glass’s Etudes for Solo Piano at Perth International Arts Festival, Center for the Art of Performance UCLA, and at Next Wave Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music. In a five star review of her recording of Glass’s Etudes in Limelight Magazine, Sally is described as “one of Australia’s finest solo performers”.

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Sally was for many years Principal Pianist with Gondwana Choirs with whom she toured throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia. She has been commissioned to compose for many vocal ensembles including Adelaide Chamber Singers (2020 Composer in Residence), The Song Company, Australian Vocal Ensemble (AVÉ), The Consort of Melbourne, Luminescence Chamber Singers, The Australian Voices, Divisi Chamber Singers, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Moorambilla Voices, and Brisbane Birralee. Many instrumental ensembles and philanthropists have also commissioned Sally to create new works. Amongst them, Phoenix Central Park, Ensemble Offspring, Acacia Quartet, Plexus Ensemble, Homophonic, Emily Granger (harp) and Alicia Crossley (recorders).

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Sally’s latest album release includes a brand new work for guitar and piano, ‘Starwalker’, commissioned by guitarist Matt Withers. In recent times, she has collaborated with the Hush Foundation, National Institute of Dramatic Arts, Inventi Ensemble, Moorambilla Voices, and The Arts Unit of the NSW Department of Education. Her first opera, Margaret and the Grey Mare, created in collaboration with artist Katy B Plummer and a bespoke artificial intelligence The Grey Mare Chatbot, recently won the APRA AMCOS Art Music Award for Work of the Year: Dramatic as well as $50k first prize in the Fisher’s Ghost Art Award 2024. She is currently working on commissions from Divisi Chamber Singers, Southern Cross Soloists and Art Song Canberra.

Kevin March is an award-winning composer whose, works have been performed in Australia and internationally by leading performers and companies such as: Nicole Car, Étienne Dupuis, Opéra de Montréal, Pacific Opera Victoria, Edmonton Opera, One Ounce Opera, PLEXUS, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, Ironwood Ensemble, Halcyon, The Arcko Ensemble, the ASTRA Chamber Music Society, Brave New Works, the New York City Opera, Gino Quilico, Stefan Cassomenos, Sarah Curro, and others.

His newest work La Noche Oscura, was composed for Nicole Car, Étienne Dupuis, and Jayson Gillham on the occasion of their 2019 Australian recital tour and was performed in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, and Brisbane.  His most recent song cycle, Songs of Remembrance and Resistance, was premiered on One Ounce Opera's 2nd Ounce of Fresh Squeezed Art Song in November, 2017 and was nominated for Outstanding Original Composition in the 2018 Austin Critics Table Awards.

His opera, Les Feluettes (Lilies), commissioned by Opéra du Montréal premiered in May 2016 to sold-out audiences, standing ovations, and rave reviews (see website for details).  Its second production, with Pacific Opera Victoria in April 2017 and third production with Edmonton Opera in October 2017 saw more full houses, standing ovations, and glowing reviews. In total since its premiere, Les Feluettes has been seen by approximately 20,000 opera goers and has received more than a dozen glowing reviews. The Montréal production was nominated for a coveted Opus Award and the Edmonton production received two Sterling Award nominations.

His works have been included in the Metropolis New Music Festival (Melbourne) and the 7th Sydney Biennale. Awards include first prize in the 3MBS National Composer Awards for his orchestral work Kambarang and the Dorian La Gallienne Prize for Ophélie, composed for Halcyon.

Kevin, along with excerpts from his song-cycle Mythweaver, was one of three composers featured in the ABC National documentary Modern Muses: The Greeks and New Music. Numerous performances of his works have been broadcast on ABC and 3MBS radio. Ouvre-moi la Porte, commissioned for Neal Perez de Costa and Daniel Yeadon, was broadcast on ABC Classic FM's Sunday Live.

Select works are available through Wirripang and the Australian Music Centre. Sea-blue Bird, composed  for Halcyon's 15th anniversary concert series 'Kingfisher,' has been recorded by Halcyon and is available on their CD Kingfisher: Songs for Halcyon.

Kevin holds a Master's and a Doctorate from the University of Michigan where his principal composition instructors were William Bolcom, William Albright, Michael Daugherty and Curtis Curtis-Smith. In Australia he has been mentored by notable Australian composers Richard Mills, Gerard Brophy, Maria Grenfell, and Paul Stanhope.  

Evan Bryson is a queer artist and writer of fiction, comics, and poetry. They are interested in historiography, remembrance, and narrative explorations of nonfiction, and more broadly in

structure, information, and decline. They live and work in Australia. They work within genre fiction and in more experimental modes, often blending nonfiction and fiction and emphasising the ways these are divided and combined, and always considering the history inherent to any story.

Alyson is a queer-identifying director who has made work in Australia, the UK and the US since the late 1980s. From 2000-2022 she was artistic director of wreckedAllprods, a queer performance assemblage based in Melbourne, Australia but working between Australia and the North of Ireland.

Alyson is currently a Professor in Theatre at the Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne, where she teaches dramaturgy and directing. She holds a PhD in theatre from the University of Melbourne and has published widely on queer dramaturgies and performance. She is currently writing a book for Bloomsbury, ‘Doing Theatre in a Queer Way: Affective Approaches to Contemporary Performance’.