Valley girl on song

Bryony Dwyer

THE singing career of New Norfolk's Bryony Dwyer has been boosted by a major win at the recent Sydney Eisteddfod. The 25-year-old soprano is studying in New South Wales and has been awarded the $10,000 Emiel Doeland Memorial Scholarship.

A highlight of the Sydney Eisteddfod program, this scholarship is awarded annually to encourage an outstanding young opera singer (under 30). Speaking on behalf of the judging panel, maestro Richard Bonynge AO CBE congratulated Bryony on her excellent performance and said that he and his colleagues soprano Anne Marie McDonald and baritone John Pringle had unanimously selected her as winner.

Born in NSW and raised in the Derwent Valley, Bryony is now in her final year of an advanced diploma of opera at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Bryony also plays the clarinet and as an active member of the Royal Australian Navy Band, she has performed at many key events, including the Coronation of King George Tupou V in Tonga and Anzac Day services in Gallipoli.

Singing is her first love and although she has featured in leading roles a number of operatic productions, Bryony says her most exciting performance was in Denmark in 2004, when she sang with the Derwent Valley Concert Band at celebrations surrounding the wedding of Crown Prince Frederik and Mary Donaldson.

Bryony said the scholarship win was a wonderful encouragement. "Over 60 singers entered the event and happy make the final six, I was determined to do my best, but I never expected to, so when Richard Bonynge called my name, I thought I was dreaming. It was quite unreal," she said. With her ambitions firmly focussed on an operatic career, Bryony is now planning to try her luck abroad. Congratulations Bryony.