Melba Opera Trust, a legacy of the visionary soprano Dame Nellie Melba, delivers Australia’s leading development program for exceptional young opera singers and repetiteurs. Nellie once said ‘to succeed in opera, you have to engage in the business of singing. A beautiful voice is not enough.’ This is at the heart of our philosophy: our artists are trained to be more than a voice, to be equipped with the skills they need to build sustainable careers.

The Melba Program, a year-long scholarship funded program, supports artists from around Australia through a bespoke course of artistic development, mentoring in business, professional and personal skill development, and performance experience.

Following in Nellie’s footsteps, many of Melba’s talented alumni are realising their dreams and performing in opera houses around the world.

About Melba Opera Trust’s 2026 Artists
Sophie Blades
Soprano Sophie Blades has just completed a Master of Music Studies (Opera Performance) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She has sung roles such as Eurydice (Orpheus in the Underworld), Adina (The Elixir of Love) and Theodora, as well as creating the roles of Mara, Mum and Snake Skin 1 in the quadruple bill Mother (Sydney Conservatorium of Music and NIDA, directed by Lindy Hume). Her solo concert highlights include Carmina Burana, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Stella Natalis by Karl Jenkins.

Sophie is the current recipient of the Nance Grant AM MBE Opera Scholarship and the Eleanor Blakemore Opera Society Scholarship with Melba Opera Trust.

Jack Bolton
Jack Bolton holds a Classical Voice Performance degree from the Queensland Conservatorium. His solo appearances include Mozart’s Requiem (Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Sing with the Orchestra) and Paul Mealor’s Coronation Kyrie (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra). For Brisbane’s Voxalis Opera, he has sung Masetto (Don Giovanni) as well as Giorgio Talbot and Sir Gualtiero Raleigh in the Donizetti adaptation, The Two Queens. Jack was the 2024 recipient of the Southern Cross Soloists’ Margaret Schindler Vocal Scholarship and a prize winner in the 2023 and 2025 National Liederfest.

Jack is the recipient of the Ryman Healthcare Opera Scholarship, the Annie McFarling Opera Scholarship and the John & Elizabeth Wright-Smith Scholarship with Melba Opera Trust for 2026.

Sophie Hamer
British-Australian soprano Sophie Hamer holds a Classical Vocal Performance degree from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Her roles include Ino (John Eccles’s Semele), the Plaintiff Angelina (Trial by Jury), Mabel (The Pirates of Penzance) and the Dew Fairy (Hansel and Gretel). She has appeared as soprano soloist in Messiah, Fauré’s Requiem, Goodall’s Invictus: A Passion and Bach’s solo cantata Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, as well as WA Opera’s Enchanted Encounters: Songs of the Supernatural.

Sophie is the current recipient of The Amelia Joscelyne Memorial Scholarship with Melba Opera Trust.

Zachary Hamilton-Russell
Zachary Hamilton-Russell completed his Bachelor of Music (Honours) degree at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, where he majored in classical piano performance, studying with Max Cooke OAM. He has collaborated with singers from companies such as Victorian Opera and Melbourne Opera, accompanied groups like the Australian Boys Choir, and worked with students from the major tertiary music institutions around Melbourne. He is also a church musician, currently serving as the Director of Music and Organist at St John’s Toorak.

Zachary is the current recipient of the Margaret Schofield Opera Scholarship and the Southey Shelmerdine Repetiteur Scholarship with Melba Opera Trust.

About Lachlan Higgins
Australian baritone Lachlan Higgins is a graduate of Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where he studied with Geoffrey Moses. His recent roles include Joseph De Rocher (Dead Man Walking), Don Giovanni, Demetrius (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Schaunard (La bohème), and in Perth he has performed extensively with Freeze Frame Opera and the West Australian Opera.

Lachlan is the current recipient of the Paulette Bisley Opera Scholarship and the Max & Jill Schultz Opera Society Scholarship with Melba Opera Trust.

About Chloe James
Mezzo-soprano Chloe James is a graduate of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music with degrees in Classical Voice and Opera Performance, and an alumna of Opera Scholars Australia. Her performing credits include the title role in Hansel and Gretel and Second Lady in The Magic Flute (Melbourne Conservatorium); Boojum!, English Eccentrics, Parrwang Lifts the Sky and The Grumpiest Boy in the World (Victorian Opera); and the premiere in 2025 of Eva by Stefan Cassomenos (Port Fairy Spring Music Festival).

Chloe is the recipient of the Jo Horgan & Peter Wetenhall Opera Scholarship and the Valma Allaway Opera Society Scholarship with Melba Opera Trust.

About Devon Lake
Baritone Devon Lake is a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. His WAAPA performances included leading roles in The Enchanted Pig, The Marriage of Figaro, Viardot’s [YF1] Cinderella and Gianni Schicchi, and he received the 2025 Richard Gill Award. He has appeared as a soloist in the Perth Rotary Vienna Pops Gala, and Bach’s Mass in G and Mozart’s Requiem (UWA Choral Society). In 2026–27 he joins the West Australian Opera Wesfarmers Young Artist Program.

Devon is the recipient of the Joseph Sambrook Opera Scholarship with Melba Opera Trust for 2026.

About Aylish Ryan
Hailing from Toowoomba, mezzo-soprano Aylish Ryan completed a Bachelor of Music degree at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, graduating with distinction. She was a Lisa Gasteen National Opera Program artist in 2023 and 2024, and in 2025 she joined the Opera Queensland Young Artist Program. Role highlights include Orfeo (Gluck) in Underworld: An Operatic Journey to Hell and Back, Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance and the Mistress of the Novices in Suor Angelica.

Aylish is the current recipient of the Dame Nellie Melba Scholarship, the Patrick & Vivian Gordon Award and the John Wegner AO Opera Scholarship with Melba Opera Trust.