L-plates for local opera singers
UNLIMBER those vocal chords and practise your breathing, the Central West Vocal Academy is now open.
Whatever your music, whatever your age; rock, pop, musicals, country or classical, Central West Vocal Academy will help you sing your favourite songs better and the staff are welcoming students of all ages and stages in both Wellington and Dubbo.
Wellington-born Hugh and Irish-born Anne Marie Francis recently made a massive tree change, relocating to this region from the northern hemisphere after having successfully combined teaching commitments with performance careers on the stages and concert halls of London, Paris and New York amongst others.
Both singers, Anne Marie and Hugh met while studying at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music in the UK in 2002.
Anne Marie subsequently spent three years as Company Principal at English National Opera in London singing many major roles, while Hugh spent two years on The Royal Opera Covent Garden’s Young Artists Programme.
They have since enjoyed freelance solo careers singing and performing on many of the classical music world’s greatest stages.
Anne Marie grew up on a farm on the beautiful West Coast of Ireland near Louisburgh in County Mayo, about an hour’s drive north of Galway. She previously studied in Dublin and worked in Human Resources before taking a career break to concentrate on singing full time.
Hugh worked in sales and marketing for the aviation industry, studying singing privately in Sydney and competing in Eisteddfods, before heading to Manchester. His great grandfather, Herbert Ramsay, was the first person to sing Waltzing Matilda at the North Gregory Hotel in Winton in Queensland in April 1895. Later this year Hugh will sing the role of Loge in the forthcoming Opera Australia Wagner Ring Cycle in Brisbane.
Tutors don’t get much better qualified than that, so whether you’re 16 or 60, wanting to audition for a role in your high school musical, brush up that song from your youth, or recently retired and looking for something new, this could be the sliding door you’ve been wanting to walk through.
Solo, group and online classes are available. For further information email: