S p r i n g, 2 0 2 2 - S o l o i s t s
Mario Dobernig - Conductor
Mario is the Artistic Director and Conductor for Victoria Chorale and the Art of Sound Orchestra. His dynamic conducting has delighted audiences and attracted many singers to the choir. Recent performances include Mozart vs Salieri at the Melbourne Recital Centre, Requiems by Gounod and Duruflé, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, Brahms’s Requiem and Alto Rhapsody; Beethoven’s Mass in C, Symphony No. 1, Eroica and Pastoral Symphony.
Australian performances with other musical groups include conducting at Hobart’s MONA FOMA and festival appearances with Electronic Dance Music Producers. Mario’s international work includes conducting annually in Europe and leading the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra in Doha.
Yi Wang - Violinist
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Yi was born in Sichuan, China and started learning violin at the age of five with his father, who is also a violinist. Yi studied at Beijing Central Conservatory before travelling to London to continue his post-graduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music with Yfrah Neaman.
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Yi came to Australia in 1997 to join the Australian Chamber Orchestra. He was Principal First Violin with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra from 2001 – 2007; he also performed with the TSO as Acting Concertmaster. In 2008, he moved to Melbourne to join Orchestra Victoria as Principal Violin.
Yi has played with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the City of Granada Symphony Orchestra, the Welsh National Opera and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. As soloist he has given recitals in London, Beijing, Sydney, Melbourne, Weimar, Hobart, Suffolk (UK) and Hangzhou (China). He is a founding member of the Melbourne-based Waratah String Quartet, and is also a champion table-tennis player!
Victoria Chorale proudly presents our Spring concert with The Art of Sound Orchestra and conductor Mario Dobernig, 5pm September 17 at Hawthorn Arts Centre.
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Haydn’s glorious Spring and Summer from The Seasons, which many love even more than The Creation.
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Vaughan-Williams’ transcendent The Lark Ascending, an absolute audience favourite, featuring Yi Wang, renowned principal violinist of Orchestra Victoria.
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Mozart’s sublime Kyrie K341.
Acclaimed lyric soprano, Joanna McWaters, has been performing for over 25 years both in Australia and overseas. Whilst primarily appearing on the operatic stage, she regularly performs in concert and has been engaged as a soloist with most of Adelaide’s leading choirs. Her concert repertoire includes Beethoven Mass in C, Faure Requiem, Handel Messiah, Haydn Nelson Mass, Haydn Harmoniemesse, Mozart Mass in C minor, Mozart Requiem, Mozart Vesperae solennes de confessore, Orff Carmina Burana, and Vivaldi Gloria.
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Joanna is a graduate of the Elder Conservatorium, University of Adelaide and has been the recipient of scholarships to undertake post-graduate studies in both Taiwan and Luxembourg, where she achieved a Grande Distinction in Opera Performance. She was an inaugural James & Diana Ramsay Foundation Emerging Artist for the State Opera of South Australia and is an inaugural graduate of the Lisa Gasteen National Opera Programme.
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Regularly praised for her singing and acting talents, her diverse roles include the title roles in Madama Butterfly and Tosca, Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute), Nedda (I Pagliacci), Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Maria (West Side Story), Cupid (Orpheus in the Underworld), Owl/Forester’s Wife (Cunning Little Vixen) and recently, The Beggar Woman (Sweeney Todd) for the State Opera of South Australia.
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World premiere performances include Lily Brayton (At the Dome Room at 2 o’clock), and Dolly Pickles in George Palmer’s operatic adaption of Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet, both to high critical acclaim. Joanna also performed the Australian Premiere of Jake Heggie’s solo opera At the Statue of Venus.
Christopher Busietta was born in Melbourne, Australia and studied at the Melba Conservatorium of Music. He has spent the last thirteen years performing as a tenor soloist in Germany before returning the Australia this year.
He began his professional work in Australia in 2004 as a soloist in concert and oratorio with local choirs and orchestras in Melbourne, and as a professional chorister with Opera Australia and Victorian Opera. He then went on to become a principal tenor with Opera Australia's (OzOpera) primary schools company, touring Rossini's Barber of Seville and Cinderella as well as singing leading roles for Lyric Opera of Melbourne and iOpera.
After winning the 2009 German Australian Opera Grant, he relocated to Germany, singing principal roles with Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden (ensemble member in 2009/10), Theater Augsburg (ensemble member from 2010-2017), Stadttheater Bremerhaven (ensemble member from 2018) as well as performing as a guest artist with Theater Aachen, Landestheater Niederbayern, Theater Magdeburg, Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz (Munich) and Oper Frankfurt.
Amongst the many operatic roles in his repertoire are Nemorino (L'elisir d'amore), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola), Don Ottavio, (Don Giovanni), Alfred (Die Fledermaus), Pedrillo (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Belfiore (La Finta Giardiniera), Witch (Hänsel und Gretel), Basilio (Le Nozze di Figaro) and der Steuermann (Der Fliegender Holländer).
Amongst other music theater roles, he has also performed as Marius in Les Misérables, Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, Freddy in My Fair Lady, Woof in Hair and Curt in Blues Brothers - the latter two shows broke Theater Augsburg's box-office records at the open-air theatre (Freilichtbühne).
In 2017, he won the Augsburger Theaterpreis (Theatre Prize) for Opera.
He graduated from the Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music in 2006. He also holds a Bachelor of Computer Science from Monash University (Clayton).
He writes original folk, rock and classical music and performs his pieces under the name, Blue Macaw and also creates original content for his YouTube channel about opera called Tenor with a Tea.
Christopher Richardson - Bass-Baritone
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Christopher Richardson holds a Bachelor of Music majoring in Classical Vocal Performance from the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music. He is a recipient of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Aria Award, ‘The Frances MacEachron Award’ at The Oratorio Society of New York’s Solo Competition at Carnegie Hall, New York and studied at the Lisa Gasteen National Opera School (on scholarship awarded by the Wagner Society of NSW).
Christopher has appeared with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Perth Symphonic Chorus, Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, Festival of Voices Hobart, The Choir of St James King Street Sydney, St Andrews Cathedral Choir Sydney, Sydney University Graduate Choir, Newcastle University Choir, Canberra Choral Society, and Allegri Ensemble.
On the Opera stage, Christopher has appeared with Pinchgut Opera, Opera Queensland, and Handel in the Theatre, Canberra.
Christopher’s performances this season will include Brahms A German Requiem as guest soloist with The Song Company, Hayden Nelson Mass and Handel Coronation Anthems with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Messiah at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney and with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis conducting.
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Recent engagement highlights include The Enchanted Island (10 Days on the Island Festival, Tasmania), The Genius of J S Bach at Melbourne Recital Centre; Beethoven Mass in C for Victoria Chorale, and Fauré’s Requiem with Perth Symphonic Chorus. Christopher also features on, “Real and Right and True” (Calvin Bowman) released on the Decca label.