MILDURA soprano Siobhan Stagg has won three major prizes at an international aria competition held in Austria.
Judges said the 23-year-old was set for international stardom.
Siobhan was announced the winner of the Meistersinger Vocal Competition, the orchestra prize and the coveted audience favourite prize last week.
She has spent the last eight weeks studying at the American Institute of Musical Studies Summer School in Graz, Austria as part of an Opera Foundation Australia scholarship.
“An international competition like the Meistersinger can be a good way to break into the European opera scene,” she said.
“Several agents were on the panel and in the audience, so I now have somewhere to start when I head back over next year.
“It’s good to know I’m on the right path”
Siobhan is studying at the University of Melbourne’s Conservatorium of Music.
She credits a large part of her blossoming professional singing career to the support and practical career training and assistance she has received from organisations such as the Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust, the University of Melbourne and the Opera Foundation Australia.
“I wouldn’t have achieved any of this without the support of a few key parties – particularly the Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust, which laid the groundwork in my training and nurtured my professional development,” Siobhan said.
“The support of Opera Foundation Australia has also been pivotal in my success as they supported my first venture into the international opera scene.”
For more of this story, purchase your copy of Monday’s Sunraysia Daily 22/08/2011.