Sian Pendry

Cavalleria Rusticana, Opera Australia
“…mezzosoprano Sian Pendry’s sultry, warm-toned Lola lit up the stage…”
Murray Black, The Australian, January 2017

Madama Butterfly, Opera Australia
“Just as fine was Sian Pendry's understated but all-too-human Suzuki”
Michael Shmith The Age May 2015

The Marriage of Figaro, Opera Australia
“There was an especially vivacious and priapic Cherubino from Sian Pendry”
Michael Shmith November 2015

Maddalena,  Rigoletto, Opera Australia
“…Sian Pendry sang that role with new vocal warmth and quiet power, bringing dramatic verisimilitude to the character’s protective change of heart towards the libertine Duke”.
Peter McCallum, Sydney Morning Herald, June 2014

Olga, Eugene Onegin, Opera Australia
“Sian Pendry’s Olga is suitably cheerful, naïve and a little bit silly by turns, singing sweetly at all times “
Clive Paget, Limelight, March 2014

Rosina, The Barber of Seville, Opera Australia
“Sian Pendry's Rosina was full of vocal and personal charm.”
Michael Schmidt, The Age, May 2012

Dorabella, Cosi fan tutte, Opera Australia
“Sian Pendry’s richly coloured, warm-toned singing suited Dorabella’s more calculating and seductive nature.”
Murray Black, The Australian, September  2009

Mezzo-soprano Sian Pendry studied at the Victorian College of the Arts, where she completed a Bachelor of Music Performance in Voice (Honours). Following this, she attained a Graduate Diploma of Music (Opera), at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University. Sian won the National Aria in 2002 and has twice been a finalist in the McDonalds Aria competition as well as being awarded the Tinkler Encouragement prize in the Australian Singing Competition, Mathy Awards, a vocal finalist in the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Awards, and the recipient of scholarships from Rotary, the Linda Edith Allen Estate, the Austral Salon and the Mabel Kent Estate. Sian was also a Developing Artist with Opera Queensland and completed an intensive Italian course at the Istituto Europeo in Florence, Italy.

Sian became a member of Opera Australia’s Moffatt Oxenbould Young Artists’ Development Program in 2007 and has since sung many leading and principal roles for Opera Australia including Olga (Eugene Onegin), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Rosina (The Barber of Seville), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Inez (Il Trovatore), Curra (La forza del destino), Annio (La Clemenza di Tito), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), Hansel (Hansel and Gretel), Valencienne (The Merry Widow), Stephano (Romeo and Juliet), Second Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Page (Salome), Mercédès (Carmen), Nancy (Albert Herring), Siegrune (Die Walküre) for the Melbourne Ring Cycle, Hermia (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Venus (Orpheus in the Underworld), Kitchen Boy (Rusalka), and the title role in Carmen for Opera Australia’s Northern Territory and West Australian tour. Sian has also appeared with Opera Australia at the Poly Theatre in Beijing for the Meet in Beijing Arts Festival and in their Great Opera Hits on a Sunday Afternoon throughout the summer at the Sydney Opera House. Sian’s recent roles for Opera Australia include the title role in Carmen for Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, Lola (Cavalleria Rusticana), Federica in Luisa Miller, Princess Clarice in The Love for Three Oranges, as well as Mercédès in Carmen. She also covered Fricke, sang the role of Waltraute in the Melbourne Ring Cycle and appeared as Albine in Massenet’s Thais in Concert, Concert in The Domain and in the New Year’s Eve Gala Concert.

Upcoming engagements include Amneris (Aida on the Beach), Suzuki (Madame Butterfly), Pelageya Podtotschina / Respectable Lady (The Nose), the title role in Carmen, La Belle Dulcinee / Garcias / Burlesquer in Don Quichotte, Maddalena (and cover Giovanna) in Rigoletto and Magdalene (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg). She will also be making her debut with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra performing Handel’s Messiah. 

On the concert platform, Sian has performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under Oleg Caetani in the role of Mary in The Flying Dutchman, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy performing Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and recently with the Sydney Philharmonia performing Elijah. Sian also participated in the concerts for the 2012 re-opening of Hamer Hall, Melbourne.

Other notable engagements include the first performance of a new work based on the life of Eugene Goossens, Eugene and Roie, for the Sydney Festival and featuring in Sydney Philharmonia’s series of Bach concerts, broadcast on ABC Classic FM.