Partners in Song: Katie Stenzel & Stewart Kelly in Recital

Programme

Strauss | Kling!

Strauss | Freundliche Vision

Barber | St Ita’s Vision

Fauré | Les berceaux

Fauré | Après un rêve

Grieg | Ein traum

Grieg | Gruß

Grieg | Lauf der Welt

Copland | Long Time Ago

Poulenc | Les chemins de l’amour

INTERVAL

Strauss | Amor

Strauss | Morgen!

Poulenc | Tu vois Le feu du soir

Poulenc | Je nommerai ton front

Duparc | Chanson triste

Barber | Sure on This Shining Night

Hoiby | The Serpent

Katie Stenzel is a dynamic, coloratura soprano.  Described by Limelight Magazine as possessing “a powerful and perfectly controlled upper range”, she has established herself as an engaging and multi-faceted performer, not only as an opera singer but also as an MC, presenter, and speaker.

Katie has since performed across Australia and internationally with companies including, Opera Australia, Opera Queensland, State Opera of South Australia, Brisbane Festival, The Adelaide Fringe Festival, and the Taipei Drama Festival in Taiwan.

Operatic roles have included The Queen of the Night in The Sopranos, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Lucy in The Belinda in Dido and Aeneas, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Niece 1 in Peter Grimes, Zorah in Ruddigore and others. She has also understudied roles including Euridice and Amore in Orfeo ed Euridice, Kumudha in A Flowering Tree, Rose Maybud in Ruddigore, Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Cunegonde in Candide, and Yum Yum in The Mikado. She has appeared in concert works including Opera Queensland’s Festival of Outback Opera, The Messiah (Handel), Carmina Burana (Orff), The Mysteries of the Macabre (Ligeti), Oratorio de Noêl (Saint-Saëns), and Mahler 4. Katie has appeared on national television for the Lord Mayor’s Christmas Carols, as well as Tourism and Events Queensland.

Katie’s stage charisma has also seen her become a popular host/MC for companies such as Opera Queensland, The Starlight Foundation and more.

Stewart Kelly is a pianist, artistic director and advisor, teacher and entrepreneur.

He is founder and artistic director of Music by the Springs, a chamber music festival held in country Victoria each February and owner of House of Pianos, Melbourne’s premier piano salon.As a pianist he works principally within the worlds of chamber music and art song and collaborates with many of Australia’s finest musicians and singers, performing across Australia at festivals and leading concert series. Recent recital partners include violinists Sophie Rowell, Elizabeth Layton, Francesca Hiew, Markiyan Melnychenko, violists Caroline Henbest and Christopher Moore, cellists Josephine Vains and Blair Harris, bassist Emma Sullivan and singers including Michael Petruccelli, Sam Sakker, Douglas Kelly and Sofia Troncoso.For seven years he presented Stewart Kelly and Friends at Melbourne Recital Centre and his career has taken him across Australia and to performances in the USA, China, New Zealand, Italy and the UK.

Stewart is a passionate educator and has been a member of the music faculty at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School since 2017. He regularly prepares students for diploma and licentiate examinations and for other performance and competition paths. He also works as collaborative pianist for students of leading string and voice teachers and remains a casual staff member of the Melbourne Conservatorium at Melbourne University. He is regularly engaged to give guest classes, masterclasses and as an adjudicator for prizes and competitions.

Stewart was Artistic Director for the Renaissance Tours Festival of Chamber Music in 2022 and directed the Con Brio concert series at HOTA Gold Coast for seven years.

He also enjoys leading music itineraries for Renaissance Tours, Australia’s leading cultural tour company, combining his love of travel and the arts and presenting lectures on the programming.

Stewart is a graduate of the Queensland University of Technology, the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University and the Australian National Academy of Music. He holds a Bachelor of Music with distinction and a Master of Music Studies, obtained while studying under the principal guidance of Gillian Wills, Diane Selmon, Stephen Emmerson and Timothy Young. In recent years he has been mentored by the legendary song pianist Graham Johnson OBE.