Alexander Sefton

From a very young age, I’ve adored singing and music, acting and being on the stage. I was involved in amateur theatre in Newcastle and sang in various choirs, including the Australian Youth Choir.

As a teenager, I started my first singing lessons after being asked to perform in local musicals but when my teacher at the time introduced me to opera I fell in love with the drama of the music and stories.

After High School, I began a Bachelor of Music at the Sydney Conservatorium but decided that the performance focus of the course at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts appealed to me more so I took the plunge and moved to Perth. There I met my incredible, soon-to-be wife Kyla and graduated from WAAPA with a Bachelor of Music (Classical Performance) and a Graduate Diploma in Music in 2013.

For two years after graduating, I travelled with the Opera Australia Schools Company, performing over three hundred times for primary school students around NSW, including at my old primary schools in Newcastle! In 2015 I also learnt to produce and record music with the 12-month Produce Music course at the Ableton Live School and Studios 301.

In 2016 we moved home to Newcastle and I started teaching Voice from home as well as at the Newcastle Conservatorium, first through their community music program and then for their Bachelor of Music, for which I was also a lecturer and examiner.

Alongside my teaching, I began performing in as much amateur opera as I possibly could, performed as a guest artist for Celebrity Cruises with the ‘Fusion’ Vocal Group and joined the Opera Australia Chorus as a Casual Chorister (and cooked in a restaurant, but that’s another story!)

With no performances during the COVID lockdowns of 2020, I focused on improving my singing and later, auditioned as a soloist for Opera Australia. I was made a young artist for 2021 and since then have realised my dream of singing principal roles on the Opera House stage as well as touring Australia with Opera Australia’s touring arm. Other personal highlights include performing at Opera Australia’s inaugural production of Carmen on Cockatoo Island and in the first-ever digital production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in Brisbane.

I have continued to teach throughout this time and every day I learn more about how the amazing human voice works and all the cool things it can do; I love sharing this knowledge with students and, above all, watching students grow as singers, musicians and artists.