Award-winning First Nations soprano, Nina Korbe, is an accomplished young performer quickly establishing herself in the Opera industry as a rising talent. Nina has been praised for her creamy tone, brilliant top notes and sensitive performances, which continue to delight audiences.

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In 2016, Nina was selected for one of four highly contested places in the Opera Australia Regional Scholarship Programme. Upon receiving the Scholarship she spent an intensive week of training with Opera Australia’s creatives and experts in language and performance. This experience was catalytic in her love of the operatic art form and aided in solidifying her ambitions as a performer in this field.  At the age of fifteen, she began performing with Opera Queensland as part of their chorus and has since amassed credits for their productions of La Bohème (2014), Die Fledermaus (2015), Il Barbiere de Siviglia (2016), Peter Grimes (2018) and Verdi's Requiem (2019). Nina was invited by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in 2018 to perform in the vocal sextet for Planet Earth II: Live in Concert conducted by Vanessa Scammell. In the following year, she was invited by the Queensland Youth Orchestra to be their guest soloist on their regional tour of Queensland. On this tour, Nina performed in multiple concerts a day in many concert spaces and schools, where she was warmly received by the students. Later that year, she was asked to perform as a guest at the Consular Corps of Queensland’s Annual Christmas Dinner with Queensland Youth Orchestra and in their Morning Concert Series.

 

Graduating in 2019 with a Bachelor of Music Performance, Nina was awarded the Griffith University Academic Excellence Award and the Linda Edith Allen Vocal Scholarship. While studying at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, Nina was under the guidance of Head of Voice, Associate Professor Margaret Schindler and performed in her first year in the chorus for their production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. This began her being cast consistently in lead roles in the university operas including The White Cat and Solo Squirrel in Ravel’s L’enfant et les Sortilege (2017), Arminda in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera (2019) and, Héro in Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict (2020). Over the course her degree, Nina worked with such directors as Stephen Barlow, Rodney Hall, Imari Savage and, Stuart Maunder and conductors Nicolas Cleobury and the University’s Professor of Opera, Maestro Johannes Fritzsch. Nina was also a featured soloist in the New Opera Workshop hosted by Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University in collaboration with Opera Queensland. Nina made her solo debut on the Queensland Performing Arts Centre Concert Hall stage as the featured guest soloist for Brisbane Sings 2019 where she performed to a sold out hall.

 

 

In September of 2020, Nina commenced her Master of Arts at the Royal Academy of Music in London where she is studying under Head of Voice, Kate Paterson, Raymond Connell and Anna Tilbrook. She was invited to perform in the RAM Ethnic Diversity Society's concert, The Underrepresented Composer, celebrating musicians of colour where she performed works by Florence Price. In her first year, Nina performed with Royal Academy Opera in their productions of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream in the chorus and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas as the Spirit directed by Jack Furness and conducted by Dean of Students, Elizabeth Kenny.  In her summer term she was cast in the Royal Academy Vocal Faculty Scenes as Ilia from Mozart’s Idomeneo. In the following year, Nina performed with Academy Voices in their Transcending Boarders concert series and as Lucia from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor in the Royal Academy Vocal Faculty Opera Scenes. Throughout the year, Nina featured in masterclasses with international guests Florian Boesch, Helena Dix and Hartmüt Höll. Nina was invited again by Royal Academy Opera to debut the role of Little Ms Manifest, in the critically acclaimed world premiere of Freya Waley-Cohen’s Witch directed by Polly Graham and conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth. Recently, Nina was brought on as the Assistant Director to David Antrobus for the Royal Academy Vocal Faculty Summer Scenes. Nina has concluded her time in the Royal Academy of Music Master’s Programme with her graduation recital, entitled Seven Stages of Grief, and as the Soprano Soloist in Listz’s arrangement for Two Piano’s and Timpani of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony which featured as the finale concert of the Royal Academy of Music Summer Piano Festival. For her studies at the Royal Academy of Music, she is the proud recipient of an ABRSM International Postgraduate Scholarship, an International Student House Residential Scholarship, a Lord Mayors’ Young and Emerging Artists Fellowship and a grant from the Ian Potter Cultural Trust.

 

Upon returning to Australia, Nina has performed with many of the country’s leading ensembles including Opera Queensland, Camerata, Queensland Ballet, Southern Cross Soloists and the Goldner String Quartet. This year Nina will continue in her position as Artist in Residence with Queensland Youth Orchestras and in addition to her ongoing work in Queensland, Nina is a returning 2024 Melba Opera Trust Scholar. 

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Nina is fiercely passionate about the representation of Indigenous artists in the creative industries. As a proud Koa, Kuku Yalanji, Wakka Wakka woman, she is actively involved in the championing of Indigenous voices and sits on the board for Queensland Youth Orchestra’s Reconciliation Action Plan as a First Nations Representative, while also working with QSO on their First Nations Advisory Board.

 

In 2024, Nina will be making her professional debut in the role of Maria in West Side Story with Opera Australia and in August with Victorian Opera as Lisette in Puccini’s La Rondine.

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