Anna Dowsley Wins 2019 Opera Awards
Congratulations to mezzo-soprano Anna Dowsley who is the winner of the 2019 Opera Awards conducted by the Music and Opera Singers Trust (MOST). Anna receives the YMF Australia Award of $30,000 and The Armstrong-Martin Scholarship of $4,500. Anna was also presented with the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme Award.
Anna is a principal artist with Opera Australia and in 2019 she reprised some of her favourite roles on stage, including Cherubino, Dorabella and Siebel, again performed alongside Jonas Kaufmann in a concert version of Andrea Chénier and debuted the role of Smeton in a new production of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena. She also made her debut with Pinchgut Opera Company in a Bach and Telemann concert, sang in Sydney Philharmonia Choir’s performance of Bach’s Magnificat and Mozart’s Great Mass, and appeared in Tasmania’s state-wide Arts Festival “Ten Days on the Island” with Van Diemen’s Band.
At the end of 2019, Anna moves to Frankfurt, Germany, to begin her career in Europe. She will return to Australia in 2020 to perform in the third of the McVicar Mozart/Da Ponte Opera Australia trilogy, performing the role of Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and again performing with Pinchgut Opera.
The adjudication panel comprising Benjamin Northey (chair), Dr Di Bresciani OAM, Roxane Hislop and John Bolton Wood AM determined the winner at a private session, where each entrant is required to perform and be interviewed about their proposed singing activities and study plan.
