Karina Bailey

Originally from South Australia, soprano Karina Bailey has been working with Opera Australia in Sydney since January 2021. She has played the roles of Tisbe and Angelina in the company’s NSW 2022 schools touring production of Cinderella.

Karina completed her Master of Music (Opera School) at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under the tutelage of Kathleen McKellar Ferguson in June 2020. Karina made her professional debut in 2016 as Papagena (The Magic Flute) with the State Opera of South Australia and was a member of their Young Artist Program until 2018. With the company she also played the roles of Elaine (Cloudstreet) and Ida (Die Fledermaus) as well as covering the roles of Bubba (Summer of the Seventeenth Doll), Adele (Die Fledermaus) and Norina (Don Pasquale). She made her UK professional debut as Sylviane/Lolo in The Merry Widow with Opera Bohemia in 2019.

Further operatic role highlights include Lucia (The Rape of Lucretia), Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro), and Jazz Trio (Trouble in Tahiti). Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Servilia (La clemenza di Tito), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Peep-Bo (The Mikado) and Anne (A Little Night Music). She was engaged to perform the role of Sœur Constance (Dialogues des Carmélites) (performances cancelled due to the pandemic).

Karina has appeared as the soprano soloist in a number of oratorio works in Australia and the UK. Highlights include Haydn’s Mass in Bb Major, Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42, Handel’s Messiah, Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Schubert’s Mass in A flat and Hayden’s Theresienmesse.

Competition acclaims include first prize in the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Aria Competition Finals 2022, after winning third place in 2020 and the Conductor’s Award in 2018. She was a finalist for the Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Scholarship 2022, and won the MTO Developing Artist Grant (Runner up in the German-Australian Opera Grant) in 2020. She appeared as a finalist in the Ye Cronies Opera Award in Glasgow (2019 and 2020), was the winner of the Dawn Wallace Memorial Prize 2017, 5MBS Young Virtuoso Competition Vocal Section 2016 and the Arnold Matters Scholarship Competition, 2016.

Karina is currently based in Austria where she works as a full-time chorus member and occasional principal artist at the Linz Landestheater.