Lily Ward in Concert

Lily is returning home for a special performance, and would love you to come along and enjoy an evening of classical song.

She will be performing alongside Jennifer Marten-Smith playing piano and Clare Ramsden playing clarinet.

Lily will be singing for around 45 minutes with a short intermission. 

Lily will be performing German compostions in the first half, 
and the second session will see her perfoming French songs including Debussy and an aria. 

Lily Ward
Lily Ward is a soprano who completed her honours year in classical voice
performance at The Melbourne Conservatorium of Music in 2023. This
followed her study of a bachelor’s degree in Music and Politics, Philosophy
and Economics at the Australian National University in Canberra. Originally
from Hobart, Tasmania, her love of classical voice began with Bel Canto
Australia under the guidance of Susanne Ortusoat the age of 11. 

In 2022, Lily was a semi-finalist in the IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition
and runner-up in the ArtSound fm Young Virtuoso awards. She also won
the prestigious Whitworth-Roach Prize for Classical music at the ANU and
was a finalist in the Melbourne Conservatorium Concerto Aria Competition.
She has performed several operatic roles with National Opera,
Melbourne Opera and the Melbourne Conservatorium. Lily is also a scholar
with Opera Scholars Australia. 

In 2023 she was selected as a developing
artist with the Richard Divall Developing and Emerging Artist
Program where she performed the role of Barbarina in their production
of The Marriage of Figaro.

Jennifer Marten-Smith
At age 12 Jennifer Marten-Smith was invited to study piano with Professor Gediga-
Glombitza at the Musikhochschule in Cologne, Germany.

At age 16 she made her public debut with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra as soloist in
Schumann’s A minor Piano Concerto, having previously recorded the Rimsky-Korsakov Piano
Concerto with this orchestra. Two years later she again performed with the TSO, playing
Rubinstein Piano Concerto No 4. That same year, Jennifer was the youngest graduate of the
Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music, where she was awarded a high distinction as a double
major in piano performance and accompaniment.

Other concertos in her repertoire include works by Beethoven, Brahms, Dohnányi, Haydn,
Hummel, Mozart, Saint-Saëns and Tchaikovsky, and she has appeared as soloist with the
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Niedersächsisches Staatsorchester Hannover.
Jennifer has performed as solo pianist throughout Australia and Europe and was a member
of chamber groups Trio Médard (Germany) and The Kettering Piano Quartet (Australia).
In 1989 she began work as a repetiteur with the State Opera of South Australia, after which
she joined the Victorian State Opera Young Artist Programme. From 1997 to 2001 she was a
full-time member of the music staff at the Staatsoper Hannover, Germany, subsequently
working as music staff at Opera Australia for the next 11 years, before returning to her
beloved city of Hobart.

Jennifer is in demand as a soloist, accompanist, teacher, vocal coach and chamber musician.

Clare Ramsden
Clare began learning clarinet at age 6, and studied at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium
before transitioning into a career in Psychology. She is currently Executive Director of
Allied Health and Clinical Neuropsychologist at the Tasmanian Health Service.
Clare resumed playing clarinet in 2020 and now studies with Andrew Seymour.
She plays with a number of orchestras and chamber groups including Hobart Chamber Orchestra,
and Australian Discovery Orchestra.