Pinchgut Opera Announces New Taryn Fiebig Scholar

Perth-born tenor Louis Hurley has been named as the first Humanity Foundation Taryn Fiebig Scholar. The Humanity Foundation is a Melbourne-based private philanthropic organisation which will become a key supporter of the Taryn Fiebig Scholar program.

This new partnership will see the expansion of the current program to include a second scholar, who will be known as The Humanity Foundation Taryn Fiebig Scholar. Coinciding closely with the first annversary of the death of the popular soprano Taryn Fiebig, Director of The Humanity Foundation, Talya Masel, an opera director and close personal friend of Fiebig, was seeking a meaningful way to honour her dear friend and continue her legacy. “I could think of no other way to celebrate the extraordinary craft of performing that was Taryn’s hallmark than via this partnership with Pinchgut Opera,” Talya explains. “Her love of imparting her skills to students
was the great joy of her life. This scholarship program embodies all of these things and more, and I am very excited to work with Pinchgut in helping prepare the next generation of opera singers through the work and memory of Taryn.”

Louis Hurley was selected for this recognition by Pinchgut Opera’s artistic team, in consultation with Talya. The Perth-born, Sydney-based tenor will participate in the two-year program, alongside existing Taryn Fiebig Scholar, Chloe Lankshear. The Scholar program involves
participation in Pinchgut Opera productions, development sessions with directors, language coaches and principal singers, and other opportunities.

Louis Hurley completed a Bachelor of Music and Graduate Diploma of Music at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), and completed a Master of Music at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London as a Hazell Scholar.

In 2022, Louis will make a number of debuts including Messiah with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, 1st Prisoner (Fidelio) with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the tenor solos in Haydn’s ‘Nelson Mass’ with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. For Pinchgut, Louis performed the role of Acis in Handel’s mini-opera Acis and Galatea at UKARIA (Adelaide Festival), a role he will reprise at the Four Winds Festival in April, and in May/June he appears as Tibrino in Cesti’s opera Orontea.

On hearing that he had been awareded this scholaship, Hurley said, “I am absolutely over the moon, and so looking forward to the next couple of years with everyone at Pinchgut Opera. It is of course made all the more special to be a part of Taryn’s continuing legacy. She was such an encouraging figure to me as I was making my transition out of university, and was just the most gorgeous, generous and talented person.” 

Pinchgut Opera announced the Taryn Fiebig Scholar program in April 2021, after the death of the
much-loved Australian soprano, to honour Taryn’s extraordinary abilities, her legacy, and the significant effect she had on Pinchgut Opera. The Scholar program will provide emerging Australian opera singers of special potential with specific development opportunities, focusing on the dramatic, expressive and musical qualities that made Taryn a leading exponent of 17th- and 18th-century opera.