Arts in the Valley

presents

ARIANA RICCI - soprano

with

NATALIA RICCI - piano

Performing songs and arias by Handel, Mozart, Wolf, R Strauss, Poulenc, Quilter, Britten, Offenbach and Bellini.

Saturday 29 August 2.30-4.30pm

A hausmusik concert at

Serenata

5 Keoghs Road, Kangaroo Valley

The private home of Professor Robert Constable AM & Dr Jane McKellar

About Ariana Ricci:

Ariana Ricci is a young Australian soprano, praised for her “engaging acting skills” and “crystalline vocal quality” (T.Wong, The Music Trust, 2023).

She has worked previously with Pinchgut Opera on their Eternal Light programme in August, 2024. In September, 2026, Ariana will be featured as principal artist in Pinchgut Opera’s Coffee and a Dead Canary in mid-September 2026. Ariana has also performed as a soloist with ensembles such as the Muffat Collective, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Willoughby Symphony Orchestra, and the Opera Australia Orchestra, with conductors such as Stephen Layton MBE, Tahu Matheson, Erin Helyard, and Nicholas Milton AM.

Her list of recent credits includes the modern opera ʻBallsʼ (L.Karpman) with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Marin Alsop. Other notable roles include Gretel - Hänsel und Gretel (Humperdinck), Le Feu - LʼEnfant et les Sortileges (Ravel), Margery - The Dragon of Wantley (Lampe), Spring/Nymph/First Woman - The Fairy Queen (Purcell), First Witch - Dido and Aeneas (Purcell), and Bellezza - Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (Händel).

Ariana has had success in numerous competitions, including as Second Prize winner in the 2025 Lies Askonas Competition, and as a finalist and prize winner in the 2024 IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition, the 2024 Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Scholarship Competition, and the 2023 Demant Dreikurs Scholarship Song Competition.

She has also performed in various masterclasses, including with Sir Thomas Allen, Richard Hetherington, Nicky Spence OBE, Brenda Hurley, Serena Gamberoni, Natalie Aroyan, and Lynne Dawson.

Ariana completed a Master of Performance in 2026, studying under Prof. Janis Kelly at the Royal College of Music, London, as the inaugural Australian Commonwealth Scholar. She completed her Bachelor of Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, supported by the Ted and Susan Meller Memorial Scholarship, under Dr. Anke Hoeppner-Ryan and Dr. Rowena Cowley. She was also awarded the George and Margaret Henderson Scholarship to support her studies in the UK.

In 2026, Ariana won a place in the prestigious International Meistersinger Akademie (IMA), one of Europe’s leading opera and art song programmes designed as a finishing school for the world’s leading young professional singers. This programme comprises coaching, masterclasses and performance experience for emerging professional singers. In addition to the crème of young singers, the annual programme attracts a clientele of leading opera directors, casting agents and artistic administrators from Europe’s leading opera houses. Graduates of the IMA programme usually go on to impressive careers as the next generation of leading professional singers.

Contact the host of Ariana Ricci Concert