Possessing a voice “with a deliciously full-bodied tone, rich in expression and control” and a “radiant, soaring sound”, Australian soprano Lee Abrahmsen is a multi-award winning soprano both on the operatic stage and concert platform.
Graduating from Melbourne University with an honours degree in Music and a Diploma of Education, Lee pursued a period of voice study and performance opportunities in Europe with Antonio Moretti-Pananti (Florence), Daniel Ferro Vocal Program and Festival (Tuscany), Bel Canto Festival (Holland) and in Australia at the Lisa Gasteen National Opera School.
Her many Australian Awards include the 86th Herald Sun Aria, the 2014 MOST Opera Awards 4MBS Performance Prize; the 2013 MOST Opera Awards Royal Over-Seas League Prize; the 2013 Acclaim Awards Italian Fellowship Award; the 2012 Melbourne Welsh Male Choir Singer of the Year Competition; and the Austral Salon National Scholarship. In 2012 Lee was nominated for a Green Room Award for her performance as Valencienne in Lehar’s Merry Widow for Melbourne Opera. Lee has been heard regularly in performances recorded by ABC Classic FM; and appears on Qantas In-Flight Entertainment singing Richard Strauss Four Last Songs with Omega Ensemble.
Lee has appeared as principal artist with Melbourne Opera, Victorian Opera, Lyric Opera Melbourne, Opera and CoOpera. Roles include: Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Marguerite in Faust, CioCioSan in Madama Butterfly, Mimi in La Bohème, Violetta in La Traviata, Micaëla in Carmen, Elvira in I Puritani, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Leila in The Pearl Fishers, Title role in Stella by Marshall-Hall, Clotilde in Norma, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Suor Infermiera in Suor Angelica, Lisa in La Sonnambula, Fifth Maid in Elektra, Clorinda in La Cenerentola and Olympia in Erwin und Elmire by Anna Amalia.
Recent Concert engagements in Australia include: Richard Strauss Four Last Songs (Chamber version by James Ledger) with Omega Ensemble at City Recital Hall, Angel Place; Richard Strauss’ Elektra singing Fifth Maid with Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House; Mahler’s Fourth Symphony (chamber version by Klaus Simon) with Omega Ensemble at City Recital Hall, Angel Place; Richard Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder with Queensland Symphony Orchestra; Bellini’s Norma singing Clotilde with Victorian Opera; and Berlioz Les Nuits D’ètè with Melbourne Sinfonia.
Concert engagements overseas include: Recitals at St Martin in the Fields (London); Edinburgh International Festival (Scotland); a Recital tour spanning numerous cities in China; and a Recital in Tokyo, Japan for the International Double Reed Society Conference.
Lee’s previous concert and oratorio engagements include Bach’s St John Passion; Berlioz’ Les Nuits D’ètè; Dvorák’s Requiem and Mass in D Minor; Fauré’s Requiem; Handel’s Messiah; Haydn’s Nelson
Mass, Paukenmesse and The Creation; Mark Isaac’s Chamber Symphony; Mendelssohn’s Elijah; Mozart’s Exultate, Jubilate!, Coronation Mass and Requiem; Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle; Saint-Saëns’ Requiem; Schubert’s Salve Regina; Paul Stanhope’s Songs of the Shadowland; Verdi’s Four Sacred Pieces; Vivaldi’s Gloria.
In 2017, Lee makes her company debut with Opera Australia in Le Nozze di Figaro singing the Countess; and appears in recital with Omega Ensemble at City Recital Hall, Angel Place.
Visit www.leeabrahmsen.com for all future performances.
Amir Farid completed a Bachelor of Music (Honours) and Master of Music degree at the
Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne and has been working and
developing under the guidance of Professor Ronald Farren-Price. He attended the Australian National Academy of Music where he studied with Rita Reichman, Geoffrey Tozer and Timothy Young.
In 2009, he graduated with distinction as a Scholar supported by the Gordon Calway Stone Memorial Award at the Royal College of Music London, studying with Andrew Ball.
He has performed concerti with the Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Melbourne
Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, Australian Youth Orchestra, Melbourne Youth and ANAM Orchestras, including Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.
As a chamber musician, Amir is pianist of the Benaud Trio winning the Piano Trio prize at the 2005 Australian Chamber Music Competition, and with whom he undertook a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. As an accompanist, he was winner of the prize for best pianist at the 2006 Mietta Song Recital award, and the 2007 Geoffrey Parsons Award.
In 2013 he was awarded the inaugural Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust Repetiteur scholarship.
Amir is the recipient of various awards and scholarships, including the 2006 Australian National Piano Award Australian Music Foundation, the Ian Potter Cultural Trust, the Royal Overseas League, the Swiss Global Artistic Foundation, the Tait Memorial Trust and the University of Melbourne’s Donovan Johnson Memorial Scholarship.
