Before heading for pastures new, the singer talks coping with anxiety, paying the rent and people he’d love to work with.

Born Tasmania
Studied University of Melbourne
Likes Bad cinema, history, food
Dislikes Eggplant, hot weather, haircuts

What drew you to singing as a profession?

From as far back as I can remember I have been obsessed with classical music. Before I knew anything about the sounds that I was hearing, the composers, or the history behind the music, I would just listen to the radio for hours each day. As a kid I would sing along to symphonies and sonatas and eventually I realised that opera could be my way of connecting to the music I was so passionate about.

As a young singer, did you originally sing in a more conventional voice type?

Like a lot of countertenors, I started off as a baritone. My home town in Tasmania didn’t really have an active opera scene, so I started off singing quite a lot of musical theatre. Still as a baritone, I auditioned and was luckily accepted into the Melbourne Conservatorium. It wasn’t until about a month before I got to Victoria to study that I made the change...