This year's Sydney Opera Society is a very special entitled An Die Musik, the lied Franz Schubert composed in March 1817 for solo voice and piano, with text from a poem by his friend Franz von Schober. The rich program will include Russian arias and songs, some German arias and songs, some Italian and French arias and some duets. Our guest artists are two of the most promising Australian Artists: Ellen McNeil and Kent Macintosh accompanied by renowned pianist Katherine Day.

Ellen McNeil - Soprano

Ellen McNeil is a young soprano who holds a Master of Music Studies (Opera Performance) and a Bachelor of Music Performance from the Sydney
Conservatorium of Music. During her studies, she performed the title role in the Opera School’s innovative filmed production of Massenet’s Cendrillon. Additionally, she attended Lyric Opera Studio Weimar and was selected as a soloist for the Thüringer Symphoniker’s Opera Galas.

As a Young Artist with Pacific Opera, Ellen was the inaugural Wagner Society in NSW Jane Mathews AO Memorial Scholarship recipient. During her time with Pacific Opera, Ellen appeared as a soloist for Willoughby Symphony Orchestra’s Last Night of the Proms, in Jane Rutter’s Lunchtime Concert and for the Australian Premiere of Paul Carr’s Requiem for an Angel. She also performed the roles of Suor Angelica, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly and Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Most recently, she made her Sydney Opera House Concert Hall debut as a soloist with Sydney Philharmonia Choir’s Mendelssohn’s Elijah.

Kent McIntosh - Tenor

Born in Auckland, Kent began his professional musical life as a full time French Horn player in the RNZ Navy Band. He studied music in Wellington, Sydney and at the Canberra School of Music, where he graduated M.Mus in 2001.

Roles include Tamino and Monostatos in the Magic Flute, title role: Albert Herring, Quint: The Turn of the Screw, (Canberra) Servant/Chauffeur: Capriccio, Registrar: Madama Butterfly (Opera Australia). Highlights as Oratorio soloist include Messiah, Israel in Egypt, St John Passion, Monteverdi Vespers, Bach B minor Mass, CPE Bach and JS Bach Magnificats, Elijah, The Creation, and Puccini’s Gloria. Kent has given numerous recitals in the ACT, Sydney, Melbourne, Regional NSW and NZ. He has performed in concert with both Opera Australia and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra. Kent has been broadcast twice in recital on ABC Classic FM. Kent has performed with the Opera Australia chorus on over 3000 occasions.

Katherine Day

Founder and Director of "Musik To You", Katherine Day has more than three decades of piano teaching experience from kinder to PhD level.
Katherine holds degrees from the University of Melbourne and a Post Graduate Diploma in Advanced Solo Studies from the prestigious Royal College of Music, London.
She has taught at the Royal College of Music, the University of Melbourne, the ANU Open School of Music, King David School, Lauriston Girls’ School, Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar, the Young Regional School of Music, St Columba’s, and Parade College.

Light refreshments will be served at the end of the concert.