WAGNER'S BIRTHDAY CONCERT
WITH VALDA WILSON, EUGENE RAGGIO,
KATHERINE DAY & THOMAS JOHNSON
FOLLOWED BY HIS BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
2.00pm: Concert with soprano Valda Wilson,
bass baritone Eugene Raggio and
pianists Katherine Day & Thomas Johnson,
in a program of Wagner, Strauss and Brahms,
followed by Wagner’s birthday celebration
with champagne and birthday cake
Venue: the Goethe Institut, Event Hall (upstairs),
90 Ocean Street (cnr Jersey Road), Woollahra
All welcome!
Bottom from left: Katherine Day, Thomas Johnson
1. Attendance at the event
- Please here to register online.
- Tickets are $40 members, $50 non-members and $20 (full-time students) [plus booking fee] - including afternoon tea
- Payment by credit card at the door also possible.
2. Keeping you safe
- Please don’t attend the event if you feel unwell and/or are displaying any of the COVID-19 symptoms.
About Valda Wilson
Valda Wilson is one of the most versatile, exciting and musically curious sopranos of her generation. She is renowned for her ‘full soprano voice, crystal clear, with an elegant vibrato and sparkling clean intonation in every part of the range’ (Weser Kurier, Gerd Klingeberg), and for her ‘subtly nuanced’ [and] ‘utterly convincing acting’ (Musik In Dresden, Oliver Geisler).
Most recently, Valda added the role of Suor Angelica (Il Trittico) to her already extensive repertoire. ‘So intimate, so moving, yet in the depths of tragedy so beautiful in timbre… Suor Angelica unquestionably crowned the evening’ (Saarbrücker Zeitung).
Last season, Valda reprised the role of Violetta (La Traviata) (‘merveilleuse’ – Tania Bracq, Forum Opera), and made role debuts as Micaela (Carmen) and Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus). Her creation of the title role in Sarah Nemtsov’s new opera Ophelia received international attention. ‘An extraordinary performance in terms of acting and singing.’ – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. For her performances of the Beethoven concert aria ‘Ah! Perfido’ and the 9th Symphony with John Nelson and the Bremer Philharmoniker, she was celebrated for her ‘endless legato phrases’ (Weser Kurier). Her rendition of the Wesendonck Lieder by Wagner with Sebastien Rouland and the Saarländisches Staatstheater was similarly praised: ‘Valda Wilson filled the space with her versatile soprano’ (Saarbrücker Zeitung)
In the 2021-21 and 2021-22 Covid-affected European seasons, Valda debuted to critical acclaim in new productions as Leonora (Il trovatore), Alcina (Alcina) and Josepha Vogelhuber (Im weissen Rössl) at the Saarländisches Staatstheater. As a guest, she sang Euridice (Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice) at the New National Theatre Tokyo with Masato Suzuki and Lawrence Zazzo, and Helmwige (Die Walkūre) at the Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen. Valda was the featured soloist in concerts with the Emex Ensemble (Philharmonie Essen), Südwestedeutsche Philharmonie (Konstanz and Darmstadt), Bamberg Symphoniker Ensemble and Percussion Under Construction, and performed a Lied recital for the Moderne Galerie, Saarbrücken.
Valda was supported by the Wagner Society in NSW in 2017 and 2018, and sang for us in October 2017.
About Eugene Raggio
Australian-Maltese Bass Baritone, Eugene Raggio is a graduate of the Elder Conservatorium (Adelaide) and a graduate actor of the Adelaide Centre for the Arts and the International Film School Sydney.
In 2014 Eugene was a young artist with Australian Contemporary Opera Co. He has appeared in the Inaugural Nagambie Lakes Opera Festival Vic and toured with Opera Australia in Victoria/NSW and nationally with Co-Opera. In the EU he has appeared with Berliner Wagner Gruppe, Berlin Summer Festival, Berlin Dramatic Voices; York Trust and Dei Gratia (UK). He has toured the German speaking world with Das Phantom Der Oper (Arndt/Gerber - ASA Events) successive years. Eugene’s repertoire includes: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Lohengrin, Eugene Onegin, Hänsel and Gretel, Gianni Schicchi, Armide, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, La Bohème, Tosca, La Traviata, The Consul and Mozart y Salieri. Eugene is the founding conductor of the Australian Remembrance foundation and Organist/Director of music at the shrine of St Anne. He is completing his debut feature film Trittico.
Eugene is shortly to tour with Opera Australia's new production of La Boheme in the roles of Benoit and Alcindoro.
Eugene was supported by the Wagner Society in NSW in 2015 and 2019, and sang for us in July 2013 and April 2018.
About Katherine Day
Pianist Katherine Day, who has accompanied artists at a number of recent Wagner Society in NSW events, is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and London’s Royal College of Music.
In 1999, she won the VCA concerto competition and finalist in the RCM’s concerto trials 2002. In 2007, Katherine won the Liederfest Accompanist Prize and travelled to the UK to tutor on the 2008 and 2009 Frensham Heights international master course for pianists, assisting master pianist Julian Jacobson. She has performed countless art song recitals, with singers Margaret Haggart, Shu Cheen Yu, Bradley Cooper, Michael Smallwood, David Hobson, and Alteouise DeVaughan.
In 2016, Katherine curated and performed in Canberra's Satie Festival, organising ten pianists to perform the marathon work Vexations at the National Portrait Gallery. This performance received national coverage on ABC TV.
Katherine toured the Eastern seaboard and South Australia in 2017 for Promac Production’s Mikado and La Prima Opera’s Encore, was soloist in Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the National Capital Orchestra and with Melbourne New Orchestra. As an orchestral pianist, Katherine was been Principal Pianist with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra for three years, most recently performing in the Westlake Oboe Concerto with Diana Doherty.
Katherine appears regularly as a concerto soloist, performing the Grieg Concerto in A minor, Mozart Concerto in D minor, Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue, F. X. Mozart Concerto in E flat and Beethoven Concerto in G Major. Katherine is also sought after as a chamber musician, recently performing arias, lieder, duos, and trios in Sydney, Cairns, Port Douglas and Taree. This year has seen her performing with: mezzo soprano Alteouise DeVaughan, sopranos Ellen McNeil and Olivia Swain; cellist William Howard; violinists Kirtley Leigh, Khalida de Ridder, and Linda Gilbert. In February 2023, Katherine appeared as a soloist for Narooma's Montague Artist series and the Sapphire Coast Music Society in February. She performed the same programme in August for the Vivace Berrima Series and St Stephen's Macquarie Street, Sydney. Details of Katherine's future appearances can be found here.
Katherine is a recording artist with MOVE Records and is featured on albums with Shu-Cheen Yu and Peter Sheridan. She is currently working on producing a solo album of miniatures by Krenek, Joachim, Granados and Mozart. She can be heard on recordings for ABC Classic FM and 3MBS FM.
About Thomas Johnson
Thomas Victor Johnson is a vocal coach and pianist based in Sydney, where he is currently a repetiteur with Opera Australia and a vocal coach at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Together with his husband, Paull-Anthony Keightley, he is also the co-founder of vioro.co – a creative consultancy studio.
The recipient of a study scholarship from the Wagner Society in NSW in 2019, and the winner of the Richard Bonynge Accompanists Award at the 2018 Sydney International Song Prize, Thomas is in high demand as an insightful, refined and sympathetic collaborative artist. He is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he studied piano performance and accompaniment with Natalia Sheludiakova.
Between 2019 - 2023 Thomas was on the music staff at Staatsoper Unter den Linden, where he also served as stellvertretender Chordirektor during the 2021/2022 season. In November 2023, he was engaged as a guest repetiteur by Simone Young AM for Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s concert performances of Das Rheingold, featuring Wolfgang Koch as Wotan, Michaela Schuster as Fricka, and Falk Struckmann as Alberich.
Thomas has worked with and played for conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Christian Thielemann, Zubin Mehta, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Antonio Pappano, Simone Young AM, Philippe Auguin, Pietari Inkinen, Thomas Guggeis, Speranza Scappucci, Massimo Zanetti, Renato Palumbo, Carlo Montanaro, Guillaume Tourniaire, Patrick Lange, Andrea Battistoni, Anthony Legge, Tom Woods, Maxime Pascal, Giuseppe Montesano, Jonathan Darlington, Antony Walker, Kristiina Poska, Pietro Rizzo, Benjamin Northey, Tahu Matheson, and Christian Badea.