A quartet of Otago Daily Times Aria winners will join voices for a special concert this weekend.
Stephen Chambers, together with Dunedin-based Anna Leese, Claire Barton and Emma Fraser, will perform in the Glenroy Auditorium on Saturday in a benefit concert for Chambers.
He has been awarded the 2009 Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama international scholarship and will leave Dunedin next month to take up the two-year scholarship in Glasgow.
"I'm really excited about it. It's a great opportunity for me and I feel really ready to go," he said this week.
Chambers (26) was trained in Dunedin by singing teachers Elizabeth Bouman, Judy Bellingham and Isabel Cunningham.
He graduated from the University of Otago in 2005 with a BSc in physiology and a MusB (Hons), before completing a GPD (opera) at the Boston Conservatory last year.
Fraser said it was a great career opportunity for the young tenor.
"Only one Royal Scottish Academy international scholarship is awarded per year to students all over the world and Stephen has been selected as this year's scholar," she said.
"It's a huge achievement for a Dunedin-trained singer."
Leese (2001), Barton (2002), Fraser (2003) and Chambers (2005) are all former winners of New Zealand's oldest singing prize, the ODT Aria.
The competition originated in 1936, when the newspaper combined with the Evening Star to sponsor a grand choir contest with a first prize of 100.
Chambers said the benefit concert would be an entertaining affair.
"It will be a selection of operatic songs, duets and musical theatre-style songs. All quite accessible, fun stuff."
The quartet will be accompanied by pianist Kirsten Simpson.
The concert starts at 7.30pm, Tickets for the concert are available from Begg's Music Works, the University Bookshop and the Miracle children's clothing store. The 2009 ODT Aria final will be held in the Glenroy Auditorium on Sunday, August 23.
