ARIA CO

Melanie Adams - Soprano

Melanie has appeared with Opera Australia, Oz Opera and Victorian Opera where she completed the Developing Artist Program.

Upon winning the National Liederfest Major Scholarship at the age of 21, Melanie has appeared as a finalist in the Herald Sun Aria where she was awarded the Encouragement Award, The Australian Youth Aria and the Robert Salzer Vocal Scholarship.

Roles include Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro and Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia, Blonde in The Abduction from the Serail and Elisa in Il Re Pastore. She joined Opera Australia’s Victorian Schools Company, performing the roles of Gretel and The Witch in Hansel and Gretel and The Queen Of The Night in the company’s schools touring season of The Magic Flute. For Victorian Opera, she has covered the roles of Eurydice in Orphee, Poppea in The Corronation of Poppea and Zerlina in Don Giovanni and performed the roles of Naiad in Ariadne auf Naxos and Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw.

Melanie Adams’ concert engagements have included appearing as guest artist with the Victorian Male Voice Welsh Choir, The Lieder Society of Victoria, The City of Boroondara in the Opera in the Park and the Art after Dark concert series at the National Gallery of Victoria. She has appeared as Soprano Soloist in Carmina Burana at the Iwaki Auditorium,in Messiah with the Bendigo Symphony Orchestra and as a Bach soloist at St Johns Melbourne. Melanie appeared in Opera Australia’s 50th Birthday Celebration Concert at Cruden Farm, in the Morning Melodies series at the Victorian Arts Centre and was a Principal Artist in Victorian Opera’s Sing your own Messiah and Sing your own Magic Flute. Melanie’s performances at the Melbourne Recital Centre have included a solo recital  Nocturne in conjunction with Victorian Opera.

Melanie Adams is a graduate with a Bachelor degree in Music Performance of the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) where she was the inaugural recipient of the Ross Hartnell Memorial Scholarship.

In 2011, Melanie is engaged to sing Soprano II with The Bach Choir of Melbourne at the Melbourne Town Hall in the Magnificat in April

Jessica Aszodi - Soprano (Director)

Aria Co's Director Jessica Aszodi is one of Australia's best up-and-coming young clasical vocalists.

She is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and of Victorian Opera’s artist development program. A highly versatile artist, Jessica’s practice covers a wide range of genres from opera to the experimental.

She has appeared as a soloist with the Victorian Opera, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Royal Melbourne Philharmonic, Macau International music festival, Speak percussion, Melbourne International Biennale of Exploratory Music, The Song Company, Melbourne Recital Centre and in the Melbourne International Arts Festival. Her operatic roles include Eve (Stockhausen’s Dienstag aus licht), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Echo (Ariadne auf Naxos), Aminta (The Shepherd king) and Clorinda (Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda).

Recent highlights include singing the role of Popova for Victorian Opera’s production of Walton’s The Bear and a recital with Marshall McGuire at the Four Winds festival. A passionate exponent of new and unusual repertoire Jessica has performed with some of Australia’s foremost new music ensembles and has premiered works by many Australian and international composers.

Awards received include the Eric and Margot Cooper travelling scholarship and the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Aria.

Hana Crisp - Soprano

Soprano Hana Crisp holds a Bachelor of Music Performance with First Class Honours at the University of Melbourne.  A highly versatile artist, Hana enjoys performing opera, oratorio, art song, chamber music and contemporary music. 

Hana has featured in many productions, including The Beggar’s Opera (OzOpera), The Seven Deadly Sins (with the Australian Youth Orchestra) and One Final Oration (a chamber opera written by David Chisholm).  Her concert repertoire includes the Australian premiere of Heinrich von Herzogenberg’s Die Passion, Mozart’s Requiem, Schumann’s Requiem, Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Christmas Oratorio, Vivaldi’s Magnificat, and Pergolesi’s Magnificat.  Whilst studying, she performed in a series of Bach cantatas with the VCA Orchestra.  She has also featured numerous times as a soloist in the 3MBS Live at the Convent series.  

Hana appears regularly with groups such as Astra Chamber Music Society and e21 vocal ensemble – with whom she performed ‘Love and the Art of War’ for the 2009 Utzon Music Series.  She has also toured schools in regional NSW as a guest member of The Song Company.  Hana has been the recipient of many awards, including the Mabel Kent Singing Scholarship, the Athaneum Vocal Soloist Award and the A.E. Floyd Memorial Scholarship.  In 2009 she won the National Liederfest, where she also received the Alan McArthur Memorial Award for best ensemble of voice and piano with Amanda Hodder and she was a semi-finalist in the 2008 and 2010 Mietta Song Recital Award.

Peter de Jager - Keyboards

The winner of the 2011 Australian International Chopin Competition, Peter de Jager is active around Melbourne as a soloist and chamber musician on piano and harpsichord (often in the same concert). He plays both standard and contemporary repertoire, and has performed many of his own compositions, often with the assistance of friends from the Australian National Academy of Music, where he studied from 2005 to 2008.

His harpsichord work is varied, ranging from orchestral and chamber continuo playing, to solo repertoire, be it contemporary, baroque, or arrangements of popular music. Peter participated in the 2009 and 2010 Lucerne Festival Academy, where he was accepted from applicants worldwide, playing under the baton and artistic direction of Pierre Boulez in contemporary orchestral, ensemble, and piano duo repertoire.

He was the recipient of the Lyrebird Music Society's annual commission for 2010, which culminated in the premiere of his new work, Elegy-Trio. His love of working with singers has led to being Musical Director of two amateur musical theatre productions, with hopefully more to follow, and he is company pianist for the contemporary vocal ensemble Aria Co. In 2011, Peter will enter his third year of a Bachelor of Music from the University of Melbourne, specializing in composition.

Matthew Thomas - Bass-baritone

Matthew Thomas has a broad and diverse background in the arts. He holds undergraduate qualifications in advertising and art history, a Masters of Music from the Canberra School of Music and an Advanced Diploma of Opera from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

As a soloist, he has sung or understudied roles with companies including Opera Australia, Victorian Opera, Opera Queensland and Tokyo Experimental Opera.

In 2011 he is a member of Victorian Opera’s Developing Artist Program.

He regularly sings as a soloist in concerts and oratorios and has appeared with Sydney Philharmonia Choir, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Bach Choir the choral societies of the Universities of Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and the Australian National University. He has also sung as a guest artist for the Schubert Society of Sydney, Royal Military Band Duntroon, Exaudi Choir and the Arko Symphonic Project.

In 2008 he made his international concert debut singing extracts from the Messiah with the Ho Chi Minh Symphony.

He has been a finalist in several national singing competitions including in 2009 as one of 8 finalists in the Opera Australia Young Artist Auditions. Matthew was the 2005 ACT recipient of the Young Australian of the Year Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the arts.