The Opera Awards (Australia) feature some of the most respected and longest-running awards and opportunities available to professional Australian opera singers. The main emphasis of the awards is to enable recipients to pursue overseas study and to assist in the further development of language, voice and music skills in the context of the global operatic and classical singing industry. In recent years, the Opera Awards has featured the YMF Australia Award and Armstrong-Martin Scholarship. Entrants must have performed at least two principal roles with a recognised professional opera company in the two years prior to judging. There is no age limit. An adjudication panel determines the winner at a private session, where each entrant is required to perform and be interviewed about their proposed singing activities and/or study plan.
In 1986 MOST® acquired management of the Armstrong-Martin Scholarship in association with the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust. MOST® created the Opera Awards (Australia) in 1986 to 'house' this prestigious award, which from 1987 was first awarded to a professional opera singer.
As the Australian Singing Competition evolved, it split into two streams: one for singers under the age of 26, the other for professional opera singers. Since 2001, the professional stream has been its own, privately judged, competition: the Opera Awards. The premier prize is the YMF Australia Award, valued at $30,000.
The YMF Australia Award is the major prize of the Opera Awards. The YMF Australia Award is made possible by the generosity of Dr. Di Bresciani OAM, and the Board of YMF Australia.
Dr. Di Bresciani OAM
