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Maria Okunev

Performer's Story

A graduate of Sydney Conservatorium (2001), Maria then completed a Master of Creative Arts degree (2006). In 2004, she was a Vienna International Opera contest semi-finalist and, in 2005, represented Australia in Japan at the Shizuoka International Opera competition. She was a finalist in the 2006 National Aria competition, Canberra, and in the 2007 National Covent Garden Opera Award and Audi German Operatic Award. A Goethe-Institut artist scholarship took her to Berlin in 2007 and she is a finalist in the 2008 Opera Foundation Italian and German awards. Maria is a young artist with the Pacific Opera company, and sings with the Opera Australia chorus. Her operatic roles include Rosina in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Self in Katrina Pring’s The Impossible Body, Guadalina in Offenbach’s La Perichole, Musetta in Puccini’s La Boheme, and Madam Silberklang in Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor. Oratorio performances include A Child is Born, George Palmer; Midnight Mass, Matthew Orlovich; and Gloria, Vivaldi. In 2008, Maria will be performing in live broadcasts for 2 MBS FM, recordings and recitals. She is Director of Music, Australian Youth Choir, and a voice lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Open Academy.