Mr Peter Coleman-Wright

Peter Coleman-Wright is widely considered one of Australia’s most versatile. He has performed around the world over the last two decades and is the recipient of many awards including the Glyndebourne Touring Prize (UK), a Green Room Award (for Billy Budd), a Mo Award (for Billy Budd), the Helpmann Award 2002 for Best Actor in a Musical (Sweeney Todd) and the Helpmann Award 2006 for Best Male Performer in a Supporting Role in an Opera (Death in Venice) .

Critics have hailed Peter’s singing as a ‘real glory’ and a ‘towering achievement’ with ‘peerless technical command’ and ‘an enormous expressive force’. The Times in London praised his ‘stream of beautifully moulded sound with a golden heroic edge.’

Peter is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and as well as singing regularly with the Australian Opera has performed with the Metropolitan Opera NY, the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival, Netherlands Opera, Dublin Grand Opera, La Fenice, Opéra de Bastille Paris, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Bordeaux Grande Opera, Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, Bregenz Festival, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Santa Fe and the Covent Garden Festival. His concert career includes performances at Le Châtelet, Paris, the Spoleto Festival, Italy, the Naantali Festival, Finland, London's South Bank, Wigmore Hall, the London Proms and Musica Viva. He has recorded for EMI, Chandos, Telarc and Hyperion labels.

Through a visiting-artist position at the Sydney Conservatorium, Peter Coleman-Wright has made a valuable contribution to the long-term future of music in Australia. Peter’s commitment to the fostering of contemporary and twentieth music has seen him create the roles of John in Jonathan Harvey’s Inquest of Love (1993) and Colin in David Blake’s opera The Plumbers’ Gift (1988) as well as singing the title roles in Benjamin Britten’s opera Billy Budd, Hans Werner Henze’s The Prince of Homburg and Luigi Dallapiccola’s The Prisoner.

For outstanding service to the community in the field of Music Peter, Coleman-Wright is nominated for admission to the degree of Doctor of Visual and Performing Arts (honoris causa).