ZIGGY HARRIS
Australian lyric baritone, Ziggy Harris, is an emerging artist based in Germany, who has appeared as an award winning finalist of the 2026 MTO German-Australian Opera Grant and the Prix D'Art Vocal Wirth, and is a recipient of awards from the Bill Diamond & Megan Evans OAM Memorial Awards and the Sydney Eisteddfod Jubilee Fund.
His performed roles include Conte Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Dandini (La Cenerentola), Athanaël (Thaïs), Dr. Falke (Die Fledermaus), Abbate (Arlecchino), Sprecher (Die Zauberflöte), Antonio (Le nozze di Figaro), Cadmus (Semele), Le Surintendent (Cendrillon), among others.
Ziggy has performed with a variety of independent opera companies, such as Endangered Productions in Busoni's Arlecchino at Sydney's Eternity Playhouse, with Springboard Opera in Massenet's Thaïs, and with the Freundeskreis Mühlhäuser Museen e.V. & Stadt Mühlhausen in J. Strauss II's Die Fledermaus. As a concert soloist, he has appeared at La Maison Symphonique de Montréal under the baton of Dr. Jean-Sebastien Vallée, the 2024 Montréal Bach Festival with Les Muses Chorales, and the 2025 Sydney Fringe Festival in the new musical, PYRATES!, by Jassy Husk. His oratorio repertoire as a soloist includes Johannespassion (Bach), BWV82 "Ich Habe Genug" (Bach), Messiah (Handel), Petite Messe Solennelle (Rossini), Requiem (Duruflé), and Requiem (Faure).
As a keen recitalist, and having developed his song-recital artistry with Michael McMahon and Louise Pelletier, Ziggy's performed song repertoire includes Liederkreis Op. 24 & Op. 39 (Schumann), Rückert-lieder & Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Mahler), Schwanengesang (Schubert), and Histoires Naturelles (Ravel). In 2023, 2024 and 2025, Ziggy performed multiple sold-out recitals for the community of his hometown, Armidale, alongside pianist Dr. Robert Manley, at The Michael Hoskins Creative Arts Centre, which showcased a mix of operatic arias and lieder cycles.
Ziggy is a passionate proponent of contemporary opera and art song, and has featured in the creation process of several contemporary works. In March of 2025, he workshopped and performed a song cycle of graphic scores by composer and pianist Toby Stanford (Répétiteur - Scottish Opera EAP) titled When I was A Boy, I Lived Like Water, set to texts by poet Cyrus Larcombe Moore. In April of 2024, Ziggy performed the world premiere of Canadian composer Sylvie Rickard’s song cycle Answering The Call, which was set for baritone, guitar and clarinet, and revised by guitarist Dr Razvan Bezna.
Ziggy holds a Master of Music (Voice & Opera) from the Schulich School Of Music, where he studied under the tutelage of baritone Brett Polegato and coach/pianist Louise Pelletier, and received funding from McGill University's Fellows Scholarship Program.
A graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium Of Music, Ziggy earned his Bachelor of Music (Voice) with Distinction, studying with baritone Dr. Simon Lobelson, countertenor Andrew Dalton, and coach/pianist Alan Hicks, having been awarded the Pete Davidson and Patricia Long Scholarships.
Deeper lore:
Ziggy was born and raised in Armidale, New South Wales, amidst the frosts of the Northern Tablelands, by his two mothers, Jen and Kath. From an early age, they had Ziggy listening to Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell, Rodriguez and Van Morrison between constant replays of Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. With backgrounds in behavioural therapy and disabilities nursing, and despite little background in the performing arts, Ziggy's mothers understood that it was important he undertake some creative endeavour, and so he commenced violin lessons at the age of 4. At 10-years-old and still a boy soprano, Ziggy made his solo debut as Cobweb in Opera New England's production of Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2009), and the following year appeared as The Little Sheppherd Boy in Opera New England's production of Puccini's Tosca (2010). In 2018, he began his stint as a violin student at Sydney Conservatorium in a Bachelor of Music Education, before shifting in 2019 to Classical Voice in the Bachelor of Music (Performance).
Outside of opera, Ziggy has worked seasonally at Peterson's Winery & Guesthouse in Armidale since 2018, where he conducts wine tastings and other miscellaneous hospitality activities. He has also worked at Bunnings Warehouse as a Paint Expert, the University of Sydney Union as part of the events management team, at a law firm as an administrative assistant, and as a bartender in several of Sydney's inner-west pubs, including the Imperial Erskineville, the Newtown Hotel, and The Townie.
His long term goal is to create an opera festival in Armidale, but that's another story...