Talented musical trio show off skills in recital

A trio of remarkable voices will perform today in the Sarjeant Gallery at midday.

Selected in March as the Dame Malvina Major Emerging Artists 2011/12, they say it has been one of the best years of their lives.

As interns of the NBR New Zealand Opera, getting to eat, drink and breathe opera is perfect, they say.

Being around internationally renowned opera stars who understood their need to soak up as much learning as possible was incredible, the trio said. "They remember what it was like to be a student, so have no problem talking to us and helping us," one said.

Dunedin soprano Emma Fraser, 32, has completed a bachelor of music and a bachelor of commerce - as a back-up career she has never needed - at Otago University.

In 2005, she was accepted for an emerging performer scholarship at the Australian Opera Studio in Perth, which has since closed down.

This is 24-year-old counter-tenor Stephen Diaz' third summer opera school, and he is completing a bachelor of music in vocal performance at Auckland University.

Young Samoan bass baritone Moses Mackay, 21, has started his honours in vocal performance at Auckland University. Last year the gifted threesome performed in the NBR New Zealand Opera productions of Xerxes, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci in Auckland and Wellington.

The three started their singing lives in church choirs and are all deeply passionate about making opera their lives.