Biography
Described as possessing “a voice like manuka honey - priceless, and healing to boot” (Waikato Times, NZ), New Zealand-born soprano Felicity Tomkins is currently based overseas, having recently completed her training last year at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), under the tutelage of internationally acclaimed tenor Stuart Skelton, obtaining her Artist Diploma in Opera Vocal Performance.
In October last year, she travelled to Sydney to compete in the finals of the prestigious Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Bel Canto Award, where she was awarded Third Prize and Tait Memorial Trust Prize. Felicity was then named as the Winner of the Lockwood New Zealand Aria Competition, another of Australasia’s leading singing competitions held the following month in Rotorua, performing with the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra under maestro Giordano Bellincampi in the Final.
Last June, Felicity was a finalist and made her Wigmore Hall debut in the Elizabeth Connell Prize held in London, originally selected as one of twenty-two quarter-finalists selected from around the globe. She was selected as a participant in the international Queen Sonja Singing Competition, held last Oslo this August.
During the 22/23 season whilst studying at CCM, Felicity was a Central Region Finalist/Kentucky District Winner in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, and was a finalist and winner of the Audience Choice Prize in the 2023 Saengerbund Awards, held in Houston, Texas. In May, she was a Finalist in the Zenith International Opera Competition held online. In July of 2022, she was the Runner-Up for the Lexus Song Quest, debuting with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under maestro James Judd in the Grand Final. In the summer of 2022, before heading home to compete in the Lexus Song Quest, Felicity experienced CCM Opera's Language and Culture Immersion Program, and was based in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsoper.
Felicity has been a 2020 Dame Malvina Major Foundation New Zealand Opera | Resident Artist, and completed her residency with the company in 2021 before arriving at CCM.
This past summer in July, Felicity was an Opernstudio Artist at AIMS Graz summer training program in Austria, where she made her European concert debuts with the AIMS Festival Orchestra under maestros Marius Stieghorst and Marzio Conti. She participated in a wide variety of concerts at AIMS, including masterclass coachings with Bo Skovhus and Linda Watson. Felicity was awarded the Audience Prize and Wiener Philharmoniker Coin in the Meistersinger Competition at the end of the summer program.
Earlier in the summer last July alongside her studies, Felicity made her Cincinnati Opera debut, as Military Wife/Soprano 1 in Aleksandra Vrebalov's powerful work, The Knock, the opera’s world-stage premiere.
During her time at CCM, she made her role debut as Madame Lidoine, in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites (2023). She was also the soprano soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with CCM’s Chamber Orchestra (2021), and she made another role debut as Jeannette in Bologne's L’amant Anonyme (2022). At CCM, she has also worked with guest tutors Pierre Vallet, Amy Burton and John Musto in public masterclasses.
Her other role experience includes; Giulietta in The Tales of Hoffmann (University of Waikato, NZ), Countess Rosina Almaviva - cover, in Le nozze di Figaro (NZ Opera), Norina in Don Pasquale (NZ Opera in Schools Tour), Nedda - cover, in Pagliacci (Festival Opera NZ), and Elle - cover, in La voix humaine (NZ Opera). Felicity has also appeared as a soloist with several choirs and orchestras in New Zealand, including Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle (Cantando Choir), Malcolm Archer’s Requiem (Cantando Choir), and Bach’s B Minor Mass (Hamilton Civic Choir).
During her tertiary studies in New Zealand as a Sir Edmund Hillary Arts Scholar/Medallist and Aria Competition Winner at the University of Waikato, Felicity graduated with her Master of Music (First Class Honours), Bachelor of Music (First Class Honours), and her Bachelor of Science (Biochemistry) conjoint degrees. Felicity has been involved with a wide variety of concerts and events in New Zealand, both through the University of Waikato Conservatorium and in the wider community, for example at Hamilton Garden and Arts Festival, including fundraising concerts for the Dame Malvina Major Foundation. At past New Zealand Opera Schools and at University, she has worked with guest New Zealand and internationally based tutors including Simon O’Neill, Emma Pearson, Pene Pati, Amina Edris, Dame Malvina Major, César Ulloa, Della Jones, Russell Smythe, Glenn Winslade, Nuccia Focile, James Baillieu, Iain Paterson, Terence Dennis, Gina Sanders, Penelope Cashman, and José Aparicio.
At the 2021 NZ Opera School, Felicity was awarded the Dame Sister Mary Leo Scholarship with the Susie and Guy Haddleton Emerging Artist Award, and was the 2021 Circle100 Scholar. In 2022-23, she was awarded a Kia Ora Foundation Patricia Pratt Scholarship and is a Kiwi Music Scholar, (2021-22) with both awards having supported her artistic growth internationally. Other awards Felicity has received include; a Dame Malvina Major Foundation Arts Excellence Award (2021), University of Waikato Dr. Beverley Pullon Vocal Prize (2019), Norah Howell Award winner (2021), and Wallace Corporation University Blues Awards for Performing Arts (2017-2020).
Known for her work not only as a singer but as an actor, Felicity was selected to be a member of the 2014 Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand (SGCNZ) Young Shakespeare Company, a three-week workshop experience, culminating in a performance of Julius Caesar at The Globe Theatre in London, England. Felicity also holds ATCL Diplomas with Distinction in Classical Singing Performance (2017), Public Speaking (2016), and Speech and Drama (2014). Felicity has been involved in several world premieres of new music, including her own piece, African Beggar which was a finalist in the Lilburn Composition Awards (2018), and was involved in the premiere of composer Abby Pinkerton’s new work As the Flowers Bloom and Fade (2019). She can be heard in recordings on Radio New Zealand Concert (RNZ), and in Janet Jennings’ Voices of Women CD (Atoll Records/SOUNZ), a project which involved recording a new work with pianist Maria Mo, entitled Myself When Young, released in July 2020.
———
Any abbreviation or modification of this biography needs to be submitted here for approval.
- Thank you for your kind understanding -
Reviews
“Die Neuseeländerin Felicity Tomkins, die in ihren klang-. mächtigen Sopran immer wieder facettenreiche Nuancen einbaute, ersang sich den Publikumspreis.”
Walther Neumann | ‘Hohes Niveau zum Finale,’ Meistersingerkonzert beschloss AIMS Graz 2023.
“The performers were uniformly excellent, so much so that the sense of performance disappeared immediately; instead, it became a shared human experience…”
Joe Law: Opera News | The Knock | Cincinnati Opera
“A strong cast, including some who appeared in the film version of The Knock, provided convincing and well-sung portrayals. The opera centers on two wives: Joella “Jo” Jenner, performed by Mary-Hollis Hundley, and Aishah McNair, sung by Briana Elyse Hunter.
Two other wives, sung by Felicity Tomkins and Erin Keesy, as well as the Commanding Officer’s Wife (Stephanie Sanchez)…also sang in the rich choruses that populate this work.”
Janelle Gelfand: Cincinnati Business Courier
“The ensemble cast of six singing actors is made up of Armando Contreras, Mary-Hollis Hundley, Briana Elyse Hunter, Stephanie Sanchez, Felicity Tomkins, and Erin Keesy. Every one of these young artists serves the music and libretto of The Knock with honest acting and straightforward vocalism, all at the service of Aleksandra Vrebalov and Deborah Brevoort’s powerful music drama.”
Rafael de Acha: All About the Arts
“...Soprano Felicity Tomkins singing, so appropriately, Mozart’s Comprendo amico [L'amerò, sarò costante] (loosely translated as ‘‘Get it, friend?’’) with a voice like manuka honey – priceless, and healing to boot – and an authority and confidence on stage which could give many university lecturers a lesson in presentation.”
“Opening the second act soprano Felicity Tomkins as the wealthy socialite Hanna was luxuriating in a bath of bubbles onstage with her guests gathered about her. She was the darling of all as she sang Vilja Song (crrct) (The Merry Widow) and flung cherries to her admirers. She was utterly bewitching.”
— ‘Review: New Zealand Opera School's final-night concert a knockout,’ Wanganui Chronicle, Jan, 2018.
“Felicity Tomkins soared through an aria from Smetana's The Bartered Bride, adding zing to top notes which were true and strong. Felicity has a strong and beautiful stage presence, together with a glorious voice. She is a singer to watch and note.”
- Concert Review: Whanganui Chronicle, Lin Ferguson. Jan, 2020
“Swishing onstage with style and ease was beautiful soprano Felicity Tomkins, a young singer of note already. Tomkins' demeanour is commanding and her aria L’amico Fritz by Mascagni was assured with her top notes soaring with ease and thrilling the audience.”
- Concert Review: Whanganui Chronicle, Lin Ferguson. Jan, 2020.
“The presence of the three singers in this concert, Tomkins, Shaw and Phillips, lifted both choir and audience, with full-toned, resonant, impressively confident singing…when soprano Tomkins sang the single, pure, final, beatific note of the Requiem - that was spellbinding.”
- Review: ‘A Winter Reflection’ Sam Edwards, Waikato Times, Aug 2019.
“It was music heaven with soprano Felicity Tomkins singing the Domine Deus, her voice strong and unforgettable yet again.”
- Concert Review: Whanganui Chronicle, Lin Ferguson. Jan, 2021.
“A poignant and deeply felt Ave Maria, Verdi from Felicity Tomkins plumbed the depth of emotions this piece requires and Tomkins was exquisite, her voice caressing every word.”
- Concert Review: Whanganui Chronicle, Lin Ferguson. Jan, 2021.
