Biography

The Australian-Irish tenor Steve Davislim began musical life as a horn player. After eight years of playing in orchestras and brass groups, he entered the Victorian College of the Arts as a singer to study with Dame Joan Hammond. He completed his Bachelor of Arts of Music with distinction and additionally studied with John Modenos in Athens and followed masterclasses by Ileana Contrubas, Luigi Alva, Gösta Winbergh, and Neil Schicoff, and worked in lieder masterclasses with Irwin Gage. He has been awarded scholarships by the Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee Trust, the Victoria State Opera and the Australia Council for the Arts (an international study grant for 1993).

He has worked with the Victoria State Opera for three years and also some time with the Treason of Images Theater Company Australia, where he made his debut as Jove and Sylvano in Cavalliís La Calisto in the 1988 Melbourne Spoleto Fringe Festival. The tenor has made many live and recorded broadcasts with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, including solo song recitals and two world premiere performances of contemporary operas. Steve Davislim has also performed much lieder and Oratorio concerts with orchestras such as the Melbourne Symphony, the State Orchestra of Victoria, the Züricher Kammerorchester, and more recently with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva (Mendelssohnís Psalms) and the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra in Lisztís Faust Symphony under Zoltan Pesko and Beethovenís Missa Solemnis under Christoph Eschenbach.

Steve Davislim currently lives in Zurich where he attended the International Opera Studio for two years and has appeared in many productions at the Zurich Opera House. Recently he joined the Fest Ensemble of the Zurich Opera House. The tenor sang the role of Beppe (I Pagliacci) in an open air production in Basel and toured Japan in operatic recitals and concerts of Beethovenís Ninth Symphony.

The 1995-96 season activities included a tour of Switzerland as Imeneo in Orfeo by Bortoni of which a CD has been made, televised opera concerts in Sweden and Curzio in a new production (Harnoncourt/Flimm) of Le Nozze di Figaro at the Salzburger Festspiele 1995. In London and at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, Mr. Davislim performed Missa Solemnis with the BBC Symphony under Roger Norrington.

In 1996, Mr. Davislim sang the role of Don Ottavio in a new production of Don Giovanni in Athens, directed by Ruggiero Raimondi.

Mr. Davislim has worked with well-known maestros, such as Nello Santi (Marriage of Figaro), Frühbeck de Burgos (Flying Dutchman), Welser-Möst (Merry Widow), Harnoncourt (La Belle HÈlËne), and Weikert (Magic Flute).

Excerpts from the Press

On Missa Solemnis

"The tenor Steve Davislim provided some of the eveningís most pleasing singing. His tone is fresh and lyrical, but he is capable of projecting it with power."

John Allison
London Times
December 1995

On St. Matthewís Passion

"...Australian tenor Steve Davislim whose ringing lyric tenor complemented Schreierís dramatic one."

Dan Tucker
Chicago Tribune
March 8, 1997

"Pedrillo in Mozartís Abduction was tailor-made for Steve Davislim, visually and musically."

Neue Züricher Zeitung
December 1996

"Steve Davislim ... a discovery of the Zurich Opera Studio sings and acts as Paolino (Cimarosa Secret Marriage) with winning charm and the right mixture of sensitivity and clarity in his voice."

Bruno Rauch
Züricher Oberlander
July 1996