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2007
Helen Hill – mezzo soprano
Natsuko Yoshimoto - violin
Daryl Barclay - tenor
Carmela De Losinno - soprano
Daniel Gare - baritone
Helen Hill
 A graduate of the Victorian College of
the Arts Opera Studio, Helen has performed in both
national and regional opera companies such as the
Australian Opera, Eastern Metropolitan Opera and
Melbourne City Opera. Her roles include Clarice
(Prokofiev’s Love of three Oranges), Zita (Puccini’s
Gianni Schicchi), Principessa / Abbess (Puccini’s Suor
Angelica), La Frugola (Puccini’s Il Tabarro), Marcellina
(Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro), Ruth in Pirates of
Penzance (Sullivan) and Praskowia (Lehar’s The Merry
Widow).
As a chorus member Helen has sung in
Tosca, Il Trovatore, Carmen, Marriage of Figaro, I
Pagliacci and La Traviata. .With a strong background in
choral music, Helen has sung with the Melbourne Chorale,
Gloriana (co-founder) and the Faye Dumont Singers in
both soloist and chorister capacity. Helen is a regular
church soloist and recitalist. Her repertoire includes
the alto solos in Messiah (Handel), Gloria (Vivaldi),
Choral Fantasia (Beethoven), Stabat Mater (Pergolesi),
Vespers (Rachmaninov), Requiem (Mozart), Requiem
(Verdi), O Pulchritudo (Menotti) and Sea Pictures (Elgar).
With colleagues she has performed in the
Apollo Bay and Port Fairy Music Festival on a number of
occasions as well as in private and corporate functions.
As well as performing the Rachmaninov Vespers with
Melbourne Chorale in Perth in November 2003, Helen
performed the role of La Frugola in Il Tabarro (Puccini)
with Melbourne City Opera. A recital containing Elgar’s
Sea Pictures in March 2004 and Melbourne and country
Victoria performances of Requiem (Mozart) as alto
soloist in April with the Victoria Chorale followed.
Helen participated in a period concert in Clunes in
September, performed Ruth in Pirates of Penzance (MCO)
with excellent reviews in November and finished off the
year as a guest soloist in Carols in Canterbury.
Engagements in 2005 included Messiah in
Melbourne and Castlemaine at Easter, Marcellina (cover)
in The Marriage of Figaro in June, La Traviata and
regular concerts and carols for the remainder of the
year. In 2006 Helen was the alto soloist in Missa O
Puchritudo (Menotti) for the Italian Festival, performed
the role of Praskowia for MCO’s The Merry Widow (Lehar)
and is looking forward to revisiting the Rachmaninov
Vespers for Melbourne Chorale 40th birthday concert and
being the mezzo soloist in the Requiem (Verdi) in
November with the Preston Symphony.
Natsuko Yoshimoto
 Natsuko Yoshimoto studied violin at the Yehudi Menuhin School from the age
of 11 and was taught by Lord Menuhin and Wen Zhou Li. She received
scholarships at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and
the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
Natsuko won the
Gold Medal in the 1994 Shell / London Symphony Orchestra competition
and performed at Buckingham Palace in the presence of the Queen.
Natsuko is in demand as both a chamber musician and
soloist. She has appeared at major international festivals
and with orchestras including the Philharmonia (UK), London and
Tokyo Symphony Orchestras and most recently with Orchestra Ensemble
Kanazawa under Iwaki Hiroyuki.
Natsuko most recently performed with the
HSO in the 2006 June 17th and 18th concerts, performing
the Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor.
Natsuko was a member of the Australian String Quartet
from 2001 to 2006 when together with James Cuddeford and Jeremy
Williams who were also members of the Australian String Quartet,
joined with renowned American cellist Peter Rejto to perform
throughout Australia and overseas as the Grainger Quartet.
Daryl Barclay
 Geelong
born tenor Daryl Barclay is a former pupil of the great
Australian soprano Dame Joan Hammond. His first
experiences of music theatre were with the local Gilbert
& Sullivan and Light Opera Company in the late 1970s and
early 1980s.
Over the past twenty-five years, Daryl has performed
a number of leading roles in opera, including Rodolfo in
La Bohème and Nemorino in L’Elisir d’amore. In 2003 he
performed the role of Alfredo in a production of La
Traviata by The Melbourne Opera Company.
His experience
on the concert platform and in oratorio is also
extensive and includes numerous performances of Handel’s
Messiah and Mendelssohn’s Elijah. This year he will add to the list the tenor solo in
Verdi’s Requiem. Daryl’s overseas performances include a
solo recital in Dublin in 2001. He has performed with
many different companies and orchestras including the St
Francis Choir Melbourne, the Australian Army Band
Melbourne and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
In recent years, Daryl has also been engaged as
Italian, French and German coach by the Melbourne
Chorale. In 2004 he was Italian language coach for the
Andrea Bocelli Concert at Rod Laver Arena. Currently, he is Choral Director at St Kevin’s
College Toorak, and teaches voice at Mazenod College
Mulgrave and at Corpus Christi Regional Seminary in
Carlton.
He holds six different tertiary qualifications
including the Licentiate in Singing and a Masters degree
in Theology, and this year hopes to complete his
doctoral thesis on the place of singing in secondary
education.
Carmela De Losinno
 Melbourne
born soprano, Carmela De Losinno is a graduate from the
Victorian College of the Arts and Monash University. Carmela has been a member of Opera
Australia since 1998 and has studied and given concerts
in both Germany and Italy.
She has performed operatic
roles ranging from Santuzza, ( in Mascagni’s, Cavalleria
Rusticana), Suor Angelica, ( in Puccini’s Suor
Angelica), to Blanche,(in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the
Carmelities), Nancy, (in Britten’s Albert Herring) and
Mercedes, (in Carmen), among others.
Recent performances include: a season
of the comic opera, ‘Postcards from Carlton” with MTO
and the ’Puccini Festival Australia’ production of ‘Le
Donne di Puccini’ at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Oratorio
performances include: Elijah with the Amadeas Chamber
orchestra and with the Heidelberg orchestra and Messiah
with the Heidelberg Choral Society.
Carmela has also won several vocal
competitions and was a finalist in the City of Sydney
MacDonalds Aria. She performs regularly in concert,
festivals and recitals around Australia and is in
constant demand for corporate events. Carmela has released her first CD of
Italian songs and arias, titled ‘Il Bacio’.
Daniel Gare
 Daniel
holds a Bachelor of Music Performance from Melbourne
University, as well as an Associate Diploma in Opera and
Music Theatre from the Victorian College of the Arts.
Daniel has worked regularly with the
former Victoria State Opera and Opera Australia, as an
ensemble member and later performing and understudying a
variety of principal roles. This included the role of
“Roo” (understudy) in the premiere of “The Summer of the
Seventeenth Doll”, Frederic (understudy) in “Lakme”, the
Sergeant of the Archers in “Manon Lescaut” and the
Gaoler in Tosca among others.
In 2000 and 2001, Daniel played the role
of Marcello in Puccini’s “La Boheme” for the South
Australian based company, Co-opera, touring regional
NSW, South Australia and Tasmania.
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