The blank canvas where artists can XL
The artists
Ms Toni Lalich OAM
Toni has worked as an accompanist and vocal coach in Melbourne for the past 25 years, performing with professional singers and instrumentalists. She was Company Manager and Vocal Coach for Short Black Opera for 13 years, supporting the development and training of First Nations singers and instrumentalists. Currently, Toni supports arts and cultural programs in regional areas, working for the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival and The Fairley Foundation. In 2019, she received a Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the performing arts, particularly music.
Liane Keegan
Liane Keegan is a Dramatic Contralto with over 40 years experience on the Operatic and Concert Platform. Her career has taken her all over the world, with residencies with many of the leading Opera Houses and Orchestras in Europe, Australia and America . A specialist in Wagner and Verdi roles, Mahler, Elgar, Vaughan Wiliams Concert pieces to name but a few on the Concert platform and many Oratorios specific to the Contralto voice.
Liane is the Artistic Director of XL Arts inc. and the newly formed Ensemble Creatus in Melbourne. Along with teaching singing, Liane is a fully qualified Arts Therapist and Visual Artist who also has a passion for Directing Opera.
Juel Riggall - Mezzo Soprano
Juel holds a BMus/BArts from Melbourne University. Roles include Mrs Anderssen, A Little Night Music, Madame de la Haltier, Cendrillon Flower Maiden in Parsifal, The Green Fairy, Sleeping Beauty for Victorian Opera, Flora Bervoix, Anina, La Traviata, Grimgerde, Die Walkure for Melbourne Opera as well as Turnspit, Rusalka, and Dew Fairy, Hansel and Gretel among others.
Recent engagements include Mezzo Soloist for The Australian Ballet’s production of Anna Karenina, Mezzo soloist for Gounod’s Requiem with Victoria Choral and a member of the female sexted for Melbourne Opera’s The Rise and Fall of Mahagonny. Juel has also been engaged as a guest soloist with Jiangsu Symphony Orchestra in Nanjing as well as a concert tour of China and Singapore with Melbourne Opera and has sung in various productions with Victorian Opera, Melbourne Opera and Opera Australia.
Juel has participated in the prestigious Lisa Gasteen National Opera School and has also received the Acclaim Awards Chief Justice’s Award.
Bethan Ellsmore - Soprano
Bethan Ellsmore is a versatile vocalist with extensive professional experience in opera, music theatre, and cabaret. A graduate of the Queensland Conservatorium with a Bachelor of Music in Performance (Classical Voice), she continued with a Master of Music Studies in Jazz & Contemporary Voice. Notable roles include La Fee in Massenet’s Cendrillon, Cathy in The Last Five Years, and Cosette in Les Miserables. Bethan has toured internationally as Penelope with the Australian cast of Circa’s Helpmann Award-Winning Il Ritorno and with Wilde Applause’s productions of children’s circus and opera. Bethan has created, performed, and toured extensively as a founding member of the acclaimed Brisbane cabaret collective Babushka, starring in Doll at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts and the Matilda Award-winning Happy Ever After at Brisbane Powerhouse. Her solo cabaret work Queen of the Night debuted to excellent reviews at the Queensland Cabaret Festival. Bethan co-produced and performed in the 2014 premiere of electro-opera spectacle Aria Moderna and starred alongside Carita Farrer and Lil Fi in the 21st Women in Voice. More recently, Bethan joined XL Arts singing Euridice in a workshop performance of Cherubini’s Medea.
Naomi Summers - Soprano
Naomi Summers was born in Mount Gambier and relocated to Melbourne to commence tertiary studies. Naomi holds a Bachelor of Music Performance and a Postgraduate Diploma of Music Performance and has furthered her operatic training at the Belcanto Summer Vocal Programme for young dramatic voices in Munich, Germany.
Her operatic role debut was in Dvorak’s Rusalka as the Foreign Princess and has since performed Giulietta and Voice of the Mother in Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann. She has extensive concert and recital experience including Soprano Soloist with the Heidelberg Choral Society in Petite Messe Solennelle; Guest Artist for the Limestone Coast Symphony Orchestra, Royal Melbourne Philharmonic, Melbourne International Singers Festival and Music Lover’s Society. Naomi is an artist with XL Arts inc, performing regularly in operatic and art song concerts and productions.
For more information about Naomi, visit www.naomisummers.com.au