Graduand Phoebe Rose Osborne is excited to be heading to Vienna next year to perform in Le Nozze di Figaro - The Marriage of Figaro.
Crossing the stage for her degree tomorrow looks set to be just the start of a career under the spotlight for Phoebe Rose Osborne.
The Bachelor of Music graduand, whose degree is endorsed in Performance, dreams of representing Aotearoa New Zealand on opera stages around the world - and she is off to a strong start.
She heads to Vienna, Austria, in August next year where she has the lead role of Barbarina in the Vienna Opera Academy’s fully staged production of Le Nozze di Figaro – The Marriage of Figaro.
“It just came like a bolt out of the blue. I was completely surprised that I was offered the role in Le Nozze di Figaro and very grateful to have been given a scholarship to train and perform. I think I stared at the email for a little while before it actually sunk in,” she says.
What makes it all the more special is that Phoebe Rose will be training in Vienna with world class Ukranian operatic soprano and vocal coach Professor Victoria Loukianetz.
Phoebe Rose, originally of Wellington, started classical voice training when she was aged eight and really had no idea where this would take her.
"It’s been an exciting journey and it’s what I love. It felt like a natural decision to study a Bachelor of Music to broaden my musical knowledge,” she says.
And of course, her study was balanced with performing.
In her first year, she used a recording studio for the first time, singing Silent Night in Te Reo and English. This was then broadcast to more than 30,000 people at Sky Stadium as part of Wellington City Mission's fundraising concert to help house Wellington's homeless population. The concert raised more than $325,000.
“That was an amazing learning experience … I only had a few days' notice to prepare. It was so different to anything I had ever done, and I loved it.”
As part of her degree, Phoebe Rose performed in student concerts held at both Marama Hall and First Church. She also sung in several charity concerts and competed in competitions across Aotearoa to gain stage experience. She placed in Dunedin, Canterbury and the under 21s New Zealand Lockwood Aria Competitions.
Along with these enjoyable and memorable events, additional high points during her time at Otago have included meeting new people across a range of disciplines.
Phoebe Rose has enjoyed attending Pasifika Postgraduate Symposiums and hearing about the research of Pasifika students. She has been an undergraduate member of Graduate Women Otago (GWO), attending monthly meetings and assisting with academic gown hire.
This GWO membership has provided her with valuable insights into the careers of many amazing Otago University graduand’s and GWO scholarship recipients. In March 2024, Phoebe Rose attended CSW69, the Commission of the Status of Women at the United Nations in New York as a Youth Delegate for Pacific Women’s Watch NZ and GWO.
The true highlight of her time at Otago has been spending time with people from the School of Music; “being able to work with and learn from the amazing team of people in the classical performance department, including Dr Tessa Romano, Tom McGrath and Professor Terence Dennis”.
In addition to training with Dr Romano, Pūkenga Matua/Senior Lecturer of Voice, Phoebe Rose has also been training privately with one of Aotearoa's internationally acclaimed sopranos, Rebecca Ryan, since August 2024.
Phoebe Rose was awarded the University of Otago Pacific People’s Entrance Scholarship in 2022, which she says has been a “life saver”.
“It has also helped to contribute to my household costs and has enabled me to attend university by helping me buy a car as I live out in the country with my parents where public transport is unavailable. It has helped me purchase my iPad that I have used every day for my performance degree and helped me become eco-friendly by going paperless with my music,” she says.
Alongside her music papers, Phoebe Rose says she has had the privilege of studying a range of different papers, from forensic biology and marine science to the influence of David Bowie on popular culture and music, and the role of conspiracy theories in contemporary religious conflicts.
Phoebe Rose says her long-term plans are to study voice and classical performance internationally and represent Aotearoa New Zealand in the major opera houses around the world. This includes, supporting charities in their fundraising efforts and advocacy work with Graduate Women International.
“I would also like to go on to teach and eventually undertake a PhD.”