Four young singers, the 2018 winners of Opera Australia’s Regional Scholarships, impressed an audience at the company’s headquarters on Friday with a programme of hits from the opera and musical theatre repertoire.

The recital was the culmination of a week of intensive coaching for high school students Bonnie Staude (from Spencer Park, WA), Declan Ross (from South Johnstone, QLD), Maddie Stephens (from the Gold Coast) and Leah Bateman (from Alice Springs), who performed to an audience of family, friends, sponsors and Opera Australia artists and staff – not to mention OA Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini and CEO Rory Jeffes.

Opera Australia’s Regional Scholarship winners: Declan Ross, Bonnie Staude, Maddie Stephens and Leah Bateman. Photo © Keith Saunders

“This project is absolutely core to Opera Australia’s mission,” said Jeffes before the recital. “It represents the future of opera in Australia which is why it’s so important that we keep investing in our remote and regional touring programmes, bringing opera to communities all across Australia. Since 2014, the Regional Scholarship and OA’s Regional Children’s Chorus, have engaged with over 1,600 young people around Australia. Past scholarship participants have gone on to achieve great success:...