June Tyzack
The career devoted to singers of Tasmanian-born June Tyzack is defined by her work as repetiteur, vocal coach, accompanist, orchestra pit musician, conductor and chorus master.
This calling had its genesis in the 1970s when engaged by the Tasmanian Opera Company as repetiteur and accompanist, and after honing skills in Sydney with The Rockdale Opera Company, Opera Mode, and Pacific Opera, June was employed by Opera Australia, and simultaneously enjoyed a decade-long appointment as Chief Vocal Coach of the Opera Studio of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, preparing young singers for Australia’s most celebrated opera stage.
As official accompanist for the first ten years of the Mathy Competition (now known internationally as the IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition), June acquired a wealth of vocal repertoire of all genres and witnessed the birth of many operatic careers nationally and internationally.
Playing harpsichord with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra was immersion in the works of Handel, countertenors and Baroque performance practice. This passion was later reignited when rehearsing Handel’s Orlando for Leo Schofield’s ‘Hobart Baroque’.
In 2001, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra engaged June as Guest Chorus Master for a concert performance of Verdi’s La Traviata with Johannes Fritzsch conducting. This was the beginning of a 23-year tenure, with June choosing to retire earlier this year after performances of Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder at the Sydney Opera House with Simone Young conducting.
June’s aspirations for the TSO Chorus were not restrained by tradition, introducing surtitles to choral performances, theatrical lighting and projection, and innovative theatrical staging in the Federation Concert Hall including a semi-staged performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Richard Gill conducting.
She devised cutting edge choral-theatre performances for Mona Foma, Dark Mofo, Synaesthesia at MONA, the Spiegeltent, and partnered with Melbourne-based dance company Balletlab for Above, and Michaela Gleave’s unique A Galaxy of Suns for 36-part choir, smart phone app and lighting and sound design.
During COVID-19 restrictions she activated two social projects to keep the spirit of the chorus alive, namely the Amphichorus involving small ensembles singing outdoors with the benefit of natural acoustic walls, and the Sunrise Project, uniting choristers at dawn in winter at various locations in and around Hobart.
Through June’s initiative, the TSO Chorus performed with all the major Australian Orchestras and symphonic choirs, as well as the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Berlin Radio Orchestra, and the Orquestra simfònica de Barcelona I nacional de Catalunya, working with such internationally acclaimed conductors as Simon Halsey, Stephen Layton, Asher Fisch, David Robertson and Vladimir Ashkenazy.
June is passionate about her role as Creative Director of the TSO’s multi-sensory Obscura series, and beyond excited to return to her operatic roots, accompanying the voices of five extraordinary women in their debut performance as QUINTESSENCE.