Deborah made her professional debut as a performer in 1995 in the widely acclaimed self authored biographical play White Baptist Abba Fan. From that time to the present Deborah has worked tirelessly to create opportunities for First Nations singers, musicians, composers, conductors and visual artists to excel in the world of classical music to claim a place on every stage in the country. Whilst supporting the development of countless artists she has maintained the highest standard of professionalism as soprano, composer educator and arts leader.
Deborah is a champion of Music Education for First Nations Children, a widely respected composer and renowned soprano. For 15 years, Deborah has led Australia’s First Nations Opera Company, Short Black Opera as Artistic Director creating and maintaining a space for First Nations musicians in the world of classical music.
Deborah’s early career was shaped by an opportunity to study in New York at the Metropolitan Opera with renowned repétitéur Joan Dornemann and language coach Nico Castel and at The Juilliard School of Music and with American repertoire expert Paul Sperry. Upon returning to Australia, Deborah created her first major work, the critically acclaimed one woman play White Baptist Abba Fan which toured extensively throughout Australia, the UK and Europe from 1998 to 2001.
A major turning point came in 2007 when Deborah was awarded a two-year Fellowship from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board of the Australia Council for the Arts in order to create Australia’s first Indigenous opera, Pecan Summer. The following year, she began the process of bringing together Indigenous singers from around Australia for intensive classical vocal training in Melbourne at the Victorian College of the Arts in preparation for the world premiere of the Australia’s first Indigenous opera Pecan Summer in October 2010.
Following the success of Pecan Summer, Deborah established Short Black Opera Company (SBO), a national not-for-profit company for the development of Indigenous opera singers. Under Deborah’s leadership SBO went on to produce seasons of Pecan Summer in Melbourne 2011 (Arts Centre), Perth 2012 (State Theatre Centre WA), Adelaide 2014 (Her Majesty’s Theatre) and Sydney 2016 (The Sydney Opera House).
The Sydney Opera House production of Pecan Summer received a total of 9 Broadway World Awards. This landmark work has been a vehicle for the development of a new generation of Indigenous opera singers and has also fostered the early careers of a number Australia’s most talented young non-indigenous singers. In addition to this Deborah partnered with the Melba Opera Trust to establish the Harold Blair Indigenous Opera Fellowship, which supports the development of an Indigenous classical singer to ensure access to further career opportunities.
Short Black Opera for Kids was established by Deborah in 2013 as SBO’s principal outreach program to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in regional, rural and remote communities. Drawing on her 25 years of experience in Tertiary, Secondary and Primary education, Deborah created a program which would strengthen a sense of self, enable performance, build skill sets in music, language and song writing while developing a new and informed opera audience from a previously disenfranchised part of the community. The on going success of this program led to the creation of the Dhungala Choral Connection Song Book (2018) and Dhungala Choral Connection Song Book Vol 2 (2024)which have become a much loved resources in music classrooms across Australia and the soon to be launched How to Make a Cheeky Opera DIY Opera Production kit (2024) for Primary aged children.
Deborah is a celebrated composer having established her credentials in the early 2000’s after receiving a commission to write and perform an original work as the welcome to country for the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Her list of commissions from major Australian ensembles continue to grow including works for; the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony, Australian String Quartet, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Rubiks Collective, The Sydney Philharmonia, Plexus Collective, the Goldner Quartet, Flinders Quartet, Victorian Opera and Chineke! (UK).
in 2019 Deborah responded to the lack of representation of First Nations Orchestral musicians by establishing Ensemble Dutala as Australia’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Chamber ensemble. This group emerges from Short Black Opera’s One Day in January project which was created by Deborah in 2019 as a residency and scholarship program designed to increase opportunity, visibility and status of First Nations orchestral musicians in Australia.
As a change maker Deborah is devoted to the evolution of opera as an art form and to the empowerment of all creative artists and members of the community which makes live performance possible in Australia. In 2021 Deborah began a five year appointment as MSO First Nations Creative Chair and in 2023 Cheetham Fraillon was appointed inaugural Elizabeth Todd Chair of Vocal Studies at The Sydney Conservatorium of Music at the University of Sydney.
Deborah describes herself as a 21st century urban woman who is Yorta Yorta by birth, stolen generation by government policy, soprano by diligence, composer by necessity and lesbian by practice.
Deborah has served on the following boards and committees
- First Nations Chair Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, 2021 – current
- Board of Directors Malthouse Theatre, 2019 – 2022 (Finance Committee/Governance Committee)
- Board of Directors Melbourne Recital Centre, 2018 – 2023 (Governance Committee/Rems and Noms Committee)
- Board of Directors Australian Music Centre, 2018 – 2020
- Board of Directors Kaiela Institute, 2014 – 2018
- Board of Directors NAISDA, 2015 – 2018
- Dame Joan Sutherland Fund Committee Member (USA), 2017 – 2022
- Worowa Aboriginal College Advisory Committee 2015 – 2021
- Board of Directors Yorta Yorta Traditional Owners Land Management 2017 – 2019
- Board of Directors Parks Victoria, 2011 – 2015
- Patron Indigenous Literacy Foundation, 2015 – 2018
- Patron Cathy Freeman Foundation, 2015 – current
- Expert Reference Group Creative Industries Victoria, 2015
Deborah’s career, achievements and contribution to the nation have been celebrated with many significant awards and commendations including most recently the Queensland Government – Australian Women in Music Lifetime Achievement Awards (2022), the JC Williamson Lifetime Achievement Award (2021) which recognises an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the Australian live entertainment and performing arts industry, and helped to shape the future of our industry for the better. Other awards include; The Melbourne Music Prize (2019); the Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award for service to music; Limelight Magazine Artist of the Year (2019); Vocational Service Award from the Rotary Club of Melbourne (2013) and inclusion on the Victorian Honour Roll of Women (2013) and Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll (2019). In the 2014 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, Deborah was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), for distinguished service to the performing arts as an opera singer, composer and artistic director, to the development of Indigenous artists, and to innovation in performance.
