Andrew O’Connor

As a performer and educator Perth-born Andrew O’Connor is versed in a wide variety of styles and genres – and for more than a decade has developed a busy freelance career encompassing opera, the concert platform, vocal chamber music, and the classroom. Praised for his ‘remarkable musicianship’ (Limelight Magazine) and ‘textured, fine-wine bass baritone’ (Arts Hub) he appears regularly in both a solo and ensemble context with many of Australia’s finest music organisations.

Andrew is a Lay Clerk with St Mary’s Cathedral Choir, Sydney, was an Associate Artist with Pacific Opera in 2019, and was the winner of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Aria Competition 2020. From 2015 – 2019 he was a core member of The Song Company, and in 2021 became a founding member of AVÉ – the Australian Vocal Ensemble. In 2022 he made his international debut with The VOCES8 Foundation and in 2023 was a member of the American Bach Soloists Academy in San Francisco.

In 2024 Andrew will make important solo debuts with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Other projects yet to be announced include joining Pinchgut Opera for four opera and concert programs, further recording and performance activity with AVÉ – Australian Vocal Ensemble, returning to The Song Company for two projects in their 40th Anniversary Season, concerts with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Van Diemen’s Band, Castalia Vocal Consort, Bach Akademie Australia, Salut! Baroque, and more.

Notable 2023 engagements included the roles of Polimante, Erasto, and Ombra in Legrenzi’s Giustino and Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri for Pinchgut Opera, a range of concert, education, and recording projects for AVÉ, the role of Harapha in Handel’s Samson for Sydney Philharmonia Choirs at the Sydney Opera House, Songs of Rosa Mystica with The Song Company, Handel’s Alexander’s Feast, Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, Handel’s Messiah, and other projects with Bach Akademie Australia, Moorambilla Voices and more.

In 2022 he performed in six projects for Pinchgut Opera including solo debuts at the Adelaide Festival and Four Winds Festival, and led an educational residency at the Orange Regional Conservatorium in  association with the Godfrey Turner Memorial Music Trust and Musica Viva Australia and more.

His operatic experience includes more than twenty complete roles – including Gelone in Oronotea (Cesti), Polyphemus in Acis & Galatea (Handel) three roles in The Loves of Apollo & Dafne (Cavalli) for Pinchgut Opera; four roles in Graeme Koehne’s Love Burns for The Other Theatre. Other engagements include Attila (Verdi) and Eighth Wonder (John) for Opera Australia; Hamlet (Dean) for State Opera South Australia as part of the Adelaide Festival; and five years of main stage and regional touring with West Australian Opera (2010 – 2014) and a wide span of roles with other independent companies including those of Monteverdi, Purcell, Mozart, Offenbach, Sullivan, Britten and more.

Outside of music, Andrew is always on the hunt for an excellent coffee, a great bowl of pasta, a new favourite red wine, tickets to the latest theatrical hit in Sydney, or a long coastal walking track.