A Bunbury-raised opera singer is set to embark on the trip of a lifetime as she gears up to take part in a prestigious summer school music program.
Chelsea Burns is set to jet to Graz, Austria in July to participate in the American Institute of Music Studies summer school program after she was awarded the 2023 Opera Foundation for Young Australian’s Sundell American Institute of Musical Studies award.
Burns told the Bunbury Herald receiving the call from the Opera Foundation telling her she received the award was “an absolute shock”.
“I wasn’t expecting the call at all,” she said.
“I then proceeded to run around my house after I got off the phone just in pure excitement.”
During the six-week program, Burns and other AIMS Summer School participants will receive voice lessons, language coaching and take part in various masterclasses.
“One of the biggest problems for us being opera singers is that we’re not as close to the countries that don’t speak English so we don’t get the chance to practice our bilingual skills so I get to speak German every day and practice speaking that there as well working with some amazing people that work through America and Europe,” she said.
“It’s six weeks of just intense learning and knowledge and you get the chance to perform different concerts and there’s a big competition at the end of it that you can enter.”
As Burns spent her childhood in Bunbury, she was first thrust into the world of opera after she watched an Opera Australia production of Carmen that toured the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre and fell in love with the art-form.
“I just remember thinking it was absolutely amazing and I fell in love with the music,” she said.
“There were a few different performing opportunities growing up like performing with the South West Opera Company and the Bunbury Musical Comedy Group as well as performing in a few choirs.
“My parents were very good in allowing me to explore different musical tastes and genres so even though people might think there’s not a whole lot of opportunities in regional towns, there definitely are.
“You just have to be open to looking outside of the typical way that you might get into it in Perth.”
The jet-setting soprano will hit the ground running when she returns from the AIMS Summer School program when she takes up a role as regional tour co-ordinator ahead of WA Opera’s touring production of Koolbardi wer Wardong, which is set to venture to the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre on August 4.
The production, which tells the story of proud, vain and jealous brothers Koolbardi the magpie and Wardong the crow, first toured in Albany, Kalgoorlie and Esperance last year and gives local kids an opportunity to be part of the production in the chorus.
“I was really excited that we were taking (the production) to Bunbury this year just because I know how many talented kids there are down there and sort of having the opportunity to work with Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse as well as the other leads in the show,” she said.
“I think it’s a really wonderful experience for these incredibly talented kids to be a part of.”
Burns sees returning to the very same venue that helped sparked her interest in opera as a full circle moment and said she loves coming back to the regional towns.
“Everywhere we’ve been other than Albany, I’ve had a real connection there through my childhood — especially Bunbury,” she said.
“The ability to go back and work with these kids and know how important these opportunities are and just the fact it can spark the thought of ‘oh I can actually do this as a career’, I feel very privileged to be involved.”