Australian soprano Siobhan Stagg is a gifted young artist at the outset of an exciting international career. The great Christa Ludwig has described her voice as “one of the most beautiful I’ve ever heard.”

Since joining the Deutsche Oper Berlin as a young artist in 2013/14, Siobhan has made a string of important international debuts, with operatic engagements at the Salzburg Festival, Hamburg State Opera, Berlin State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Grand Theatre de Geneve, Dutch National Opera, Opera de Dijon and Royal Opera House, London.

As word of Siobhan’s talent spread across Europe, her big break came in January 2015 when she was chosen to step-in for Brahms’ Requiem with Christian Thielemann and the Berlin Philharmonic for three sold-out concerts and a live worldwide broadcast. Siobhan was praised for her heavenly vocal qualities, ‘reminiscent of the incomparable Gundula Janowitz.’ You can read the reviews here, or watch a sample of Siobhan’s acclaimed performance on youtube. 

Siobhan is increasingly in demand as an opera and concert artist, working with conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Thielemann, Simone Young, Donald Runnicles, Jeremie Rhorer, Christian Curnyn, Stephen Layton and Kent Nagano. See Siobhan’s schedule for a list of upcoming performances.

Upon completing her formal studies in June 2013, Siobhan was immediately taken into the Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project where she performed the roles of Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte für Kinder. She also sang the role of Saint Catherine in a crticially-acclaimed concert performance of Braunfel’s Jeanne D’Arc with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Manfred Honeck.

Following her time in Salzburg, Siobhan joined the Deutsche Oper Berlin as a young artist where she made her debut singing the Woodbird (Siegfried) and Woglinde (Das Rheingold) in the Ring Cycle conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. After early success with roles including Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and Sophie in Werther, Siobhan was invited to stay on at the Deutsche Oper Berlin; the theatre which has now become her ‘artistic home’ and base between guest engagements. Over the next two seasons in Berlin, Siobhan will sing Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier and Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail as well as reprising her signature role as Pamina. 

During her first season as young artist in Berlin, Siobhan also made her debut at the Hamburg State Opera as Cordelia in Aribert Reimann’s Lear, conducted by Simone Young and now released on DVD. The same year, Siobhan sang Woglinde in REIN GOLD at the Staatsoper Berlin and performed with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra under Maestro Alfred Eschwe. The following season (2014/15) Siobhan was re-invited to the Hamburg State Opera to sing Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail with conductor Kristiina Poska. She performed the role of Dede in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place with Kent Nagano and Ensemble Modern, and created the role of Marzelline for a new production of Fidelio in Geneva. In an extraordinary turn of events, Siobhan was flown to London to play the title role in Keith Warner’s production of Orpheus (Luigi Rossi) for the Royal Opera House, which was held in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe (London) in October 2015. Read the rave reviews here.

Siobhan has had success in several major singing competitions, most recently the 2014 Belvedere Singing Competition where she won the Prize of the International Media-Jury, and the 2014 International Mozart Competition in Salzburg, where she was also awarded the Special Prize for Best Interpretation of a Strauss song. A sample of Siobhan’s prize-winning performance is now available on youtube.

Meanwhile Siobhan’s star continues to rise in her native Australia. She was nominated for Best Australian Artist in the 2015 Limelight Awards – VOTE NOW. While still a student in 2013, her debut Lieder-album ‘Hymne à l’amour’ was nominated for Best Classical Album in the Australian Independent Music Awards. Siobhan is in demand with all the state symphony orchestras and performs annually as part of the Melbourne Recital Centre’s ‘Local Heroes’ concert series.

In 2013 Siobhan won First Prize in the Stuart Burrows International Voice Award in Wales. In 2012 she was awarded First Prize and the Audience Choice Award in the Mietta Song Competition in Melbourne and won the Italian Opera Foundation Award in Sydney. In 2011 she won the jury’s First Prize and the Audience Choice Award at the Meistersinger Vocal Competition in Graz, Austria, as well as MWMC ‘Singer of the Year’ competition in Melbourne.

Siobhan graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Music (Honours)(2009) and Master of Music Performance (2012) before earning her Master of Advanced Vocal Technique from the Wales International Academy of Voice in Cardiff (2013). She also studied privately in New York, Austria and Italy. Her studies were generously supported by scholarships including the Australian International Opera Award (2012), Amelia Joscelyne Memorial Scholarship from the Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust (2009-2012), Italian Opera Foundation Award (2012), Tait Memorial Foundation Prize (2012), Opera Foundation Australia’s AIMS Award and AIMS Sundell Study Prize (2011), Acclaim/Rotary Sleath Lowrey Vocal Scholarship and B’nai Brith Harold Fisher Prize (2011) and several other scholarships from the Faculty of Music and Trinity College at the University of Melbourne (2007-2012).

Siobhan is a versatile recording artist and features on La Compania‘s critically-acclaimed new release, ‘Ay Portugal’. She sang two tracks on the 2011 ARIA-nominated debut album of baroque trio, Latitude 37, and recorded the lead vocal in a contemporary soundscape by Felix Riebl (frontman of The Cat Empire) for broadcast during Sydney’s 2012 Australia Day fireworks celebration on Darling Harbour. Prior to pursuing her solo career, Siobhan was a choral scholar with the Choir of Trinity College, touring with them to Germany, Hong Kong and the UK (2010), USA and New Zealand (2008), Malaysia and Singapore (2007). She is soloist on several of the choir’s albums released through ABC Classics. She also sang with the Consort of Melbourne. Siobhan was a founding member of the Melbourne Art Song Collective (MASC), the Consort of Melbourne and youth opera initiative Opera Down Under. Whilst a student, Siobhan completed a Certificate III in Media (Broadcasting) and has worked as a producer at 3MBS radio station in Melbourne.

For details of Siobhan’s upcoming engagements, please see the events page. Read what the critics think of Siobhan’s performances on the reviews page. For further information, please contact us.

(c) Biography not to be reproduced without authorized permission from siobhanstagg.com.au. All details correct and current at October 2015.