A crowdfunding campaign is raising money to help the Australian tenor recover from the debilitating condition.

Julian Gavin’s name will ring bells for opera aficionados. A regular with Opera Australia and many of the nation’s other major companies, Gavin was a firm favourite of audiences and production teams across the country. His Royal Opera House, Covent Garden debut in 1996 as Don Carlos in Verdi’s epic of the same name, taking over for Roberto Alagna, put the Australian tenor on the map internationally. Based predominantly in London, but consistently working across the globe, Gavin was thriving in the opera world, singing at the best houses, and performing under top conductors.

But during the second half of 2010, things stopped going to plan. The tenor was forced to withdraw from his last Australian engagement in 2011, portraying Dick Johnson in Opera Queensland’s production of The Girl of the Golden West, citing a “serious illness,” although no specific details of his condition were available at the time.

In an article published on Norman Lebrecht’s Slipped Disc website, Gavin has now opened up about his struggles with an Acquired Brain Injury (ABI), and the onset of symptoms that, in hindsight, revealed the diagnosis. As he went about juggling the heavy workload that comes with the job of an international opera singer, Gavin began noticing small issues – memory loss, exhaustion, fatigue – that eventually escalated to hospitalisation, causing an extended leave from performing. Dealing with the crushing diagnoses, Gavin describes the trauma of not only being hit with a difficult prognosis but realising, concurrently, that there were new limitations on a career that was in full swing. 

Julian Gavin during treatment in London.

In the five years since he left the opera spotlight, he says the that he has “desperately missed my colleagues and artistic creativity that is part and parcel of a positive rehearsal period.” The fact that Gavin has been able to continue with his teaching and mentoring is a “privilege” he is particularly thankful for. Fortunately, his story as an artist, a teacher and role model, is far from over. Gavin is currently writing a book, and he mentions that teaching is “a deep responsibility to pass on what I know of an authentic and living tradition”, offering hope that his teaching will continue as his condition slowly improves. 

Fellow Opera Australia stalwart Jane Ede, has set up a crowdfunding campaign to help support Gavin and his family, as he begins to “emerge from the worst of the difficulties”. Having worked with Gavin closely over his time at Opera Australia, Ede said she was “profoundly moved” by Gavin’s words, and endeavours to secure donations to help get the talented tenor back on his feet. Donations have already begun flooding in from colleagues and opera lovers internationally.

You can read more about the funding campaign here.