Tobias Cole
Encyclopedia
Tobias Martin Piers Trevor Cole (born 7 August 1971) is an Australian countertenor
and leading artist with Opera Australia
.
. Aged eight, he joined the choir
of St. James Church
, Sydney, as a treble. As a boy soprano
, Cole sang with The Australian Opera
(in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
and Tosca
) and with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
. He was later appointed head chorister of St James’ choir and the Chapel Choir of Newington College. As a teenager, Cole toured Europe with the Chapel Choir of Newington College in 1986/87.
having studied singing, composition, conducting and musicology
. Awarded the 1994 Churchill Fellowship, sponsored by Dame Roma Mitchell
, to continue his vocal training with Ashley Stafford at London’s Royal College of Music
and to also further his studies in Early Music
. He later received a Queen's Trust Achiever Award for operatic studies in London. In 2002, he was the first countertenor to win Opera Foundation Australia’s Metropolitan Opera
Young Artist Study Award and spent three months in New York at the Met.
Cole has performed with companies including:
Countertenor
A countertenor is a male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of a contralto, mezzo-soprano, or a soprano, usually through use of falsetto, or far more rarely than normal, modal voice. A pre-pubescent male who has this ability is called a treble...
and leading artist with Opera Australia
Opera Australia
Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the The Arts Centre in Melbourne...
.
Early life
Cole was born in Leiden, the Netherlands while his father was working at the University of Leiden as a radio astronomer. In 1976 he commenced his education at Newington CollegeNewington College
Newington College is an independent, Uniting Church, day and boarding school for boys, located in Stanmore, an inner-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
. Aged eight, he joined the choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
of St. James Church
St. James Church, Sydney
St James' Church is an Anglican church in King Street in Sydney, Australia. Consecrated on 11 February 1824, the church was designed by the transported convict architect Francis Greenway during the governorship of Lachlan Macquarie, and is part of the historical precinct of Macquarie Street...
, Sydney, as a treble. As a boy soprano
Boy soprano
A boy soprano is a young male singer with an unchanged voice in the soprano range. Although a treble, or choirboy, may also be considered to be a boy soprano, the more colloquial term boy soprano is generally only used for boys who sing, perform, or record as soloists, and who may not necessarily...
, Cole sang with The Australian Opera
Opera Australia
Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the The Arts Centre in Melbourne...
(in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream (opera)
A Midsummer Night's Dream is an opera with music by Benjamin Britten and set to a libretto adapted by the composer and Peter Pears from William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream...
and Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
) and with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs is Australia’s largest choral organisation. It presents its own annual concert series in the Sydney Opera House and City Recital Hall, as well as acting as chorus for the Sydney Symphony....
. He was later appointed head chorister of St James’ choir and the Chapel Choir of Newington College. As a teenager, Cole toured Europe with the Chapel Choir of Newington College in 1986/87.
Tertiary education
Cole is an honours graduate in music from the University of SydneyUniversity of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
having studied singing, composition, conducting and musicology
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
. Awarded the 1994 Churchill Fellowship, sponsored by Dame Roma Mitchell
Roma Mitchell
Dame Roma Flinders Mitchell, AC, DBE, CVO, QC was an Australian lawyer, judge and state governor. Mitchell was the first Australian woman to be a judge, a Queen's Counsel, a chancellor of an Australian university and the Governor of an Australian state.Roma Mitchell was born in Adelaide in 1913,...
, to continue his vocal training with Ashley Stafford at London’s Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
and to also further his studies in Early Music
Early music
Early music is generally understood as comprising all music from the earliest times up to the Renaissance. However, today this term has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises,...
. He later received a Queen's Trust Achiever Award for operatic studies in London. In 2002, he was the first countertenor to win Opera Foundation Australia’s Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
Young Artist Study Award and spent three months in New York at the Met.
Performance career
Cole has sung with choirs and vocal ensembles including:- The Song Company
- The Australian Chamber Singers
- Sydney Chamber Choir
- Choir of St. Paul's Cathedral
- The Llewellyn Choir (CanberraCanberraCanberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
) - Canberra Choral SocietyCanberra Choral SocietyThe Canberra Choral Society is a symphonic choir in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. It performs regularly with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra...
Cole has performed with companies including:
- Opera AustraliaOpera AustraliaOpera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the The Arts Centre in Melbourne...
– Title role in Giulio CesareGiulio CesareGiulio Cesare in Egitto , commonly known simply as Giulio Cesare, is an Italian opera in three acts written for the Royal Academy of Music by George Frideric Handel in 1724...
, Eustazio in RinaldoRinaldo (opera)Rinaldo is an opera by George Frideric Handel composed in 1711. It is the first Italian language opera written specifically for the London stage. The libretto was prepared by Giacomo Rossi from a scenario provided by Aaron Hill. The work was first performed at the Queen's Theatre in London's...
, Nireno in Cesare and, most recently, as Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream - Queensland Orchestra – St John PassionJohannes PassionThe St John Passion , BWV 245, is a sacred oratorio of Johann Sebastian Bach from the Passions. The original Latin title Passio secundum Johannem translates to "The Suffering According to John" and is rendered in English also as St. John Passion and in German as Johannespassion...
- Sydney Philharmonia ChoirsSydney Philharmonia ChoirsSydney Philharmonia Choirs is Australia’s largest choral organisation. It presents its own annual concert series in the Sydney Opera House and City Recital Hall, as well as acting as chorus for the Sydney Symphony....
– MessiahMessiah (Handel)Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
and Carmina BuranaCarmina Burana (Orff)Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935 and 1936. It is based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana... - Chicago Opera TheaterChicago Opera TheaterThe Chicago Opera Theater is an opera company that was founded as the Chicago Opera Studio in 1974 by Alan Stone to give vocal students performance experience, although it has grown into a professional opera company...
– Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s DreamA Midsummer Night's Dream (opera)A Midsummer Night's Dream is an opera with music by Benjamin Britten and set to a libretto adapted by the composer and Peter Pears from William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream...
, Apollo in Death in VeniceDeath in Venice (opera)Death in Venice is an opera in two acts by Benjamin Britten, his last. The opera is based on the novella Death in Venice by Thomas Mann. Myfanwy Piper wrote the English libretto. It was first performed at Snape Maltings near Aldeburgh, England on 16 June 1973.The astringent score is marked by some...
, Ottone in L'incoronazione di PoppeaL'incoronazione di PoppeaL'incoronazione di Poppea is an Italian baroque opera comprising a prologue and three acts, first performed in Venice during the 1642–43 carnival season. The music, attributed to Claudio Monteverdi, is a setting of a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello... - West Australian OperaWest Australian OperaWest Australian Opera is the principal opera company of Western Australia and is based at His Majesty's Theatre in Perth.The company formed in 1967 and works in close association with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. As of 2008, the Chairman is Erich Fraunschiel and Artistic Director is...
– Medoro in OrlandoOrlando (opera)Orlando is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel written for the Royal Academy of Music . The Italian-language libretto was adapted from Carlo Sigismondo Capece's L'Orlando after Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, which was also the source of Handel's operas Alcina and... - Opera QueenslandOpera QueenslandOpera Queensland is an opera company based in Brisbane, Queensland. The company was founded with funding from the Queensland State Government in 1981, then under the name Lyric Opera of Queensland, after the Queensland Opera Company was closed in December 1980.It is after Opera Australia the second...
– Nireno - English Bach Festival – Fairy QueenFairy QueenThe Fairy Queen was a figure from English folklore who was said to rule the fairies. Fairy Queen may also refer to:*The Faerie Queene, a poem by Edmund Spenser*Fairy Queen , an Indian steam locomotive...
- Queensland Symphony OrchestraQueensland Symphony OrchestraThe Queensland Symphony Orchestra is an Australian orchestra, based principally in Brisbane in the state of Queensland.The QSO played its first concert on 26 March 1947, with the orchestra consisting of 45 musicians, conducted by Percy Code. John Farnsworth Hall was recruited from the Sydney...
and Adelaide Symphony OrchestraAdelaide Symphony OrchestraThe Adelaide Symphony Orchestra was founded as a 17 player radio ensemble in 1936, in Adelaide, South Australia. The orchestra reformed in 1949 as the 55 member South Australian Symphony Orchestra. It reverted to its original and present title, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, in late 1974, and...
– Messiah - London Handel Festival – Ulisse in DeidamiaDeidamiaDeidamia may refer to:* Deidamia , from Greek mythology.* from Greek mythology, another name for Hippodamia, wife of Pirithous.* Deidamia I of Epirus, wife of Demetrius Poliorcetes* Deidamia II of Epirus, last ruler of the Aeacid dynasty....
- Australian Brandenburg OrchestraAustralian Brandenburg OrchestraThe Australian Brandenburg Orchestra is an Australian period instrument orchestra specialising in the performance of baroque and classical music.The musicians play from original edition scores on restored or reproduced instruments of the 18th century...
– Noel! Noel! - Pinchgut OperaPinchgut OperaPinchgut Opera is a chamber opera company in Sydney, Australia, presenting opera from the 17th and 18th centuries performed on period instruments. Founded in 2002, the company's goal is to present operas not widely known and worthy of a wider audience...
– Athamas in Semele
Conducting career
- Oriana Chorale, Canberra
- University of CanberraUniversity of CanberraOver the years the Stone Day program has gradually become larger and larger, taking up a whole week and now Stonefest is one of Australia's most popular music festivals. The first foundation celebrations were held in 1971. In 1973 Stone Day celebrations were held over two days, which was expanded...
Choir - Canberra Choral SocietyCanberra Choral SocietyThe Canberra Choral Society is a symphonic choir in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. It performs regularly with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra...
Recordings
- Semele – ABC ClassicsABC ClassicsABC Classics is the classical music record label within the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It is internationally recognised as Australia's premier classical music label, with a catalogue of more than 500 titles...
- The Renaissance Players – Walsingham Classics