Winning Year: 1983

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Sydney, Fiona Janes has had a distinguished career performing extensively in both Australia and Europe since winning numerous important singing competitions, scholarships and awards. Most notably; the 1983 Joan Sutherland Scholarship, the 1986 Australian Singing Competition, the inaugural 1991 Remy Martin Scholarship, the 1995 Vienna State Opera Award & Bull Fellowship. She joined Opera Australia as a Principal Artist in 1988 and since then has performed all the major mezzo repertoire including: Adalgisa in Norma (Helpmann Award nomination), Angelina, the title role in La Cenerentola (MO Award nomination), Donna Elvira and Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Mercedes in Carmen, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Green Room Award nomination), Sesto in both Julius Caesar & La Clemenza di Tito, Isabella in Litaliana in Algieri, Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Annio in La Clemenza di Tito and Mistress Quickly in Falstaff, receiving a Green Room Award for both Adalgisa and Angelina. She has also appeared in Opera Australia's Bellini Gala & New Year's Eve Gala with Simone Young, A NYE Gala with Richard Bonynge and 50th Anniversary Gala in 2006.

Other performances have included; Siebel in Faust for Victoria State Opera and Opera Queensland, Nero in Agrippina at the Buxton Festival, U.K., Rosina for Netherlands Opera, English National Opera and Welsh National Opera, Second Lady in The Magic Flute and Meg in Falstaff for English National Opera, Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito for Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Idamante in Idomeneo for Flanders Philhamonic in Antwerp, Margherite in Damnation of Faust for Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Lyric Opera of Queensland, Ascanio in Les Trojans for London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Colin Davis, Angelina at the Semperoper Dresden and Opera New Zealand, and Scitalce in Meyerbeer’s Semiramide for the Rossini Festival in Germany with Richard Bonynge. She has also worked for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Scottish Opera era.

Fiona has sung extensively in concert with such orchestras as the Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Australian Chamber Orchestra, West Australian Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony, Queensland Symphony, Adelaide Symphony, Sydney Philharmonia, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, London Symphony, the London, Flanders, Bournemouth and Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestras, the National Orchestra of Spain in Madrid, New Zealand Symphony, and at the Edinburgh Festival with Sir Charles Mackerras. Her repertoire includes; Verdi Requiem, Dream of Gerontius, Mahler's 2nd Symphony, Beethoven 9th Symphony, Mass in C and Missa Solemnis, Mozart Requiem, Rossini Stabat Mater, St Matthew Passion, Schubert Mass in A Flat and Coronation Mass, Handel's L'Allegro il Penseroso and Messiah, Berlioz Romeo et Juliette and Stravinsky's Pulcinella. In 2004 she was invited to perform at Australia House in London for the Tate Foundation, conducted by Richard Bonynge in the presence of H.R.H. Prince Charles.

Fiona appears in the Opera Australia video productions of Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, 50th Anniversary Gala and on the ABC/TAO Bicentennial CD. Other recordings include: Donizetti's Parisina (Opera Rara), Stravinsky's Pulcinella (Naxos), William Vincent Wallace’s Lurline (Naxos) and Meyerbeer's Semiramide (Naxos) both with Richard Bonynge. She was recently invited to join the Committee of the Joan Sutherland Society of Sydney, is a member of Pacific Opera's Council of Patrons, gives Masterclasses and is a regular adjudicator for all the major singing competitions throughout Australia.