Louise Keast

Soprano

Australian soprano Louise Keast joined the Opera Australia chorus and company in 2021. In 2023 Louise performed the role of First Page in Wagner’s opera Tannhaüser with Opera Australia and was a featured soloist in Chorus! at the Sydney Opera House. In October 2023 Louise performed the role Monica (Menotti’s The Medium) at The Independent Theatre with local company Operantics.

An associate artist with Melbourne Opera, Louise performed the roles Wellgunde (Wagner’s Das Rheingold), Countess Almaviva (Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro) and Marzelline (Beethoven’s Fidelio) whilst a member of the Richard Divall Emerging Artists Programme. Her operatic experience also includes engagements with Victorian Opera, IOpera, Gertrude Opera (now named Australian Contemporary Opera Company) and Port Fairy Spring Music Festival.

An enthusiastic recitalist, Louise has performed locally several times with The Opera and Song Collective, and has self-produced numerous recitals with pianist Donna Balson. A recent highlight in 2022 was the opportunity to present two recitals in Bayreuth, Germany, at the Steingraeber & Söhne Kammermusiksaal, as a principal artist in the Festival Junger Künstler Bayreuth.

In 2023 Louise was a semi-finalist in the Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Scholarship and a semi-finalist in the More Than Opera: German Australia Grant. In previous years Louise has been a Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge Foundation scholarship recipient and represented Australia in 2019 at the final rounds of the 38th International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition in Villach, Austria.