Indigenous songstress takes her voice to the international stage

Shauntai Batzke, inspirational gospel and opera singer and songwriter, is a Wiradjuri woman who grew up in Sydney. When she’s not on stage singing in her beautiful, rich soprano, Ms Batzke keeps the wolves from the door working as an administrative assistant at the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development at the Victorian College of the Arts at the University of Melbourne’s Southbank campus.

Ms Batzke moved from Sydney to Melbourne to pursue a career in opera.

“It was in 2009 that I had met Deborah Cheetham,” says Ms Batzke. “She was auditioning people to do the Spring intensive program down here at VCA, and the rest is history.”

Ms Batzke is only too aware that as the first Indigenous graduate majoring in classical voice at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, she is, like her mentor Deborah Cheetham, a trailblazer in Indigenous opera.

And she echoes Head of Curriculum and Programs and singer, songwriter, author, poet and film maker Richard Frankland when she says “At the Wilin Centre we believe that when you have art you have voice and when you have voice you have freedom and with freedom comes responsibility.

“It’s a real desire of mine to see more Indigenous students come to Melbourne University. I don’t want to be the only one who has graduated from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music in classical voice,” she says.

In August Ms Batzke heads to New York to undertake a summer school at the Belle Arti Center for the Arts as part of the ‘Canto de las Americas – A Workshop for Aspiring Artists in the Vocal Arts’ Program.

“I’ll have the opportunity to work with singers from the Metropolitan Opera and learn from esteemed coaches alike. It’s a dream come true and an opportunity of a lifetime.”

Ms Batzke has already enjoyed some memorable highlights in her short career.

She was invited to perform at the inauguration for Victoria’s 29th Governor, the Honourable Linda Dessau, singing O Mio Babbino Caro to close the event.

She has been the recipient of the Harold Blair Opera Scholarship for two consecutive years following in the footsteps of Yorta Yorta Bass Baritone, Tiriki Onus, who was the inaugural recipient of this prestigious scholarship for 2012 and 2013.

Alongside Shauntai’s opera career, she continues to take her administrative role at the Wilin Centre seriously.

“Wilin means fire and that warmth and that energy that comes from the fire,” says Ms Batzke. “I feel that it’s my responsibility, being at the front desk, and being the first point of contact, to create that atmosphere for any visitor who comes through.”

vca-mcm.unimelb.edu.au/wilin