Samuel Johnson wins German Opera Award

Samuel Dale Johnson's career is flying high

We just learned that 25-year-old Australian barihunk Samuel Johnson, who we introduced to readers this summer, has won the prestigious German Opera Award in Sydney. The baritone prevailed out of a final field of six of Australia's most gifted young singers.

The award from Opera Foundation Australia is valued at $53,000 and also includes the “Swifts” Scholarship, which will allow Samuel to brush up on his German through $3,000 worth of language lessons. He will also be flying to Germany to join the renowned Cologne Opera Ensemble for the 2014/2015 season after being announced as the winner of the 2013 German Opera Scholarship.

Samuel Johnson at the announcement of him winning the 2013 German Opera Scholarship

Johnson is also the  recipient of the 2013 RJ Hamer Opera Scholarship presented by the Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust. He is currently completing his Masters in Operatic Performance, at the Qeensland Conservatorium of Music. He recently performed the role of Nick Shadow in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, a Queensland Conservatorium production for The Brisbane Festival, conducted by Alex Ingram. Johnson was also a national finalist in the McDonald’s Operatic Aria and Italian Awards.

He has appeared in oratorio on numerous occasions in Brisbane and throughout regional Queensland. In 2011, he performed as soloist with tenor Simon O’Neill in the Puccini Gala Concert, with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. While studying, Samuel has performed numerous operatic roles including Styx in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, Taddeo and Silvio in excerpts from Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Peter Quince in Benjamin Brittin’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Father in excerpts from Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, the title role in Handel’s Saul, Pandolfe in Massenet’s Cendrillon and the title role in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi.