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Ms Emma Matthews

Senior Lecturer

Staff Member Details
Telephone: +61 8 6304 6408
Email: e.matthews@ecu.edu.au
Campus: Mount Lawley  
Room: ML2.116  

Emma is a Senior Lecturer and the Head of Classical Voice and Opera Studies, at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

Background

Australia’s most highly awarded soprano, Emma Matthews has received seven Helpmann Awards, nine Green Room Awards, the Mo Award, the Remy Martin Australian Opera Award, and Limelight Awards for Music personality of the Year, 2010, Best Performance in an Opera,2012 and Australian Artist of the Year, 2016. She has performed regularly with Opera Australia, all the state opera companies and the major Australian symphony orchestras and festivals.

Her operatic repertoire includes the title roles in The Cunning Little Vixen (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden) , Lulu, Lakmé, Lucia di Lammermoor and Partenope ; Violetta ( La Traviata ), Gilda ( Rigoletto ), Cleopatra ( Giulio Cesare ) , Juliette ( Roméo et Juliette ) , Marie ( La Fille du Regiment ), Konstanze ( Die Entführung aus dem Serail ), Amina ( La Sonnambula ), the four heroines ( The Tales of Hoffmann ), Leila ( Les Pecheurs de Perles)

Career highlights include singing Violetta (La Traviata) in the inaugural Handa Opera on the Harbour, Lulu, with Simone Young, performing Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and Ismene ( Mitridate ) for Sydney Festival, and her three solo recordings: Emma Matthews in Monte Carlo (Deutsche Grammophon/ABC Classics), Mozart arias (ABC Classics) and recently release: Agony and Ecstasy (ABC Classics).

Professional associations

  • 2017 - Semi Finals Adjudicator, ASC
  • 2016 - Heats and Finals Adjudicator, Sydney Eisteddfod
  • 2016 - Became Director of the Artists Development Programme for MOST, ASC
  • 2016 - Joined the Board of ASC
  • 2014 - 2016 - Finals Adjudicator, ASC
  • 2014 - Heats and Finals Adjudicator - Lady Fairfax New York Scholarship, Vienna Award, Opera Foundation
  • 2013 - National Adjudicator, Australian Singing Competition

Awards and recognition

National and International Awards

  • ABC Young Performing Awards
    • 1993 - Vocal finalist ABC
  • 1996 - Remy Martin Opera Award
  • Helpmann Awards
    • Best Female Lead in an Opera:
    • 2004 Lulu
    • 2006 Lakme
    • 2007 The Love of the Nightingale
    • 2010 La Sonnambula
    • 2011 Partenope
    • 2012 La Traviata
    • Best Female in a Supporting Role
    • 2008 Zdenka (Arabella)
  • Limelight Awards
    • 2010 Music Personality of the Year
    • 2012 Best Performance in an Opera; Violetta, La Traviata, HOSH, OA 2016 Australian Artist of the Year
  • Order of Australia Award
    • 2023 King's Birthday Honours; Member (AM) In the General Division

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Music Performance, Edith Cowan University, 1993.

Research Outputs

Creative Arts Research Outputs

  • Matthews, E., Oehlers, J., Grabowsky, P., Vizard, S. (2018). The Space Between. Melbourne Arts Centre.

Research Projects

  • 'The Big Sea' Creative Development, Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, Arts U-15 K Grants Program, 2021, $14,995.
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