Opera singer to hit top note

Opera singer Panayiota Kalatzis hopes that her performance this Wednesday night will get her through to the finals of one of Australia's most prestigious singing competitions.

The 23 year old from Brisbane is one of 10 semi-finalists who will perform in the Australian Singing Competition at the Independent Theatre in North Sydney.

Panayiota Kalatzis will perform Oh! Quand je dors by Franz Liszt, and Anne Boleyn by Libby Larsen from the song cycle The Last Words of the Wives of Henry the VIII.
"I am really excited about this competition and have been studying really hard," she says.

"I have discovered a genuine love of atonal music and find the dramatic context of a song really drives my performance."
Kalatzis's keen interest in music began as a young child, when she took up singing lessons at her local primary school.
This led her to perform in various local competitions including music festivals, eisteddfods, and the Paniyiri Brisbane Greek festival.

She went on to study at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, performing in various productions including Mozart's Die Zauberflote (2004), Ravel's L'Enfant ET les Sortileges (2006), Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (2007) and Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (2007).
In 2008 she played the role of Hermia in Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and later this year she will sing the role of the Israelite Woman in the Conservatorium's operatic realisation of Handel's oratorio Saul.

The Australian Singing Competition awards the The Marianne Mathy Scholarship, established through a bequest made in the will of Marianne Mathy-Frisdane, a distinguished teacher who trained many Australian singers.

In 1981, the Music Board of the Australia Council, along with the Trustees of Marianne Mathy Estate, created a scholarship honouring Marianne Mathy.

If Kalatzis makes it through the semi-finals, she will perform in the finals concert at His Majesty's Theatre, in Perth, in November.

Booking enquiries for the Semi Finals Concert on Wednesday 2 September: www.theindependent.org.au or ph: (02) 9955 6580.