With a distinguished background as an opera singer and actress, Brisbane based Tarita Botsman is also a director and writer. Tarita runs her own company, The 7 Sopranos, who have engaged more than 400 Australian based opera singers and musicians over the past 15 years. The company have toured independently to acclaim both regionally and internationally.
SINGER/ ACTOR
Appearing professionally on stage and screen since a teenager, Tarita made her operatic debut in Australia at the tender age of 22 for Opera Queensland. After extensive experience and acclaim in her home country she then went on to study in Italy, the UK and Germany where she performed over twenty operatic roles. Tarita performed regularly as a soloist with many of Australia’s major orchestras and has performed as an actress for every major state theatre company in Australia most notably in the role of Sophie for the Australian premiere of Terence McNally’s play “Masterclass.”
A graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Opera Course, Tarita did her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music whilst also studying acting at QUT. She spent a year studying with international singing teacher Margaret Baker-Genovesi in Rome on various scholarships. She was a winner of the Young Australian of the Year and Young Queenslander of the Year awards and has been the recipient of numerous other awards including the Monash University Italian Studies Award, the Ian Potter Cultural Trust Travel Award, a recipient of funding from the Tait Memorial Trust in the UK, and an Arts Queensland Artist Individual Development Grant and a Queen’s Trust Award for Excellence in the Arts.
During her time in the UK, Tarita was honoured to sing for Their Royal Highnesses Prince Phillip and the Queen of England and performed regularly as a soloist at recitals at Australia House. She sang as a soloist with LSO at the Barbican Centre and many regional orchestras across the UK. Tarita has been invited to perform solo recitals in France, UK, Italy, Pacific Islands, Japan and Morocco and performed a private recital for the Mother of the UAE, Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Al Ketbi.
DIRECTOR/ WRITER
In 2000 Tarita directed, produced and tour managed the one man play “The Christian Brother” by Australian writer Ron Blair around the Republic of Ireland which saw it invited to be performed at Dublin Festival, the Galway Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Worldwide since 2002 Tarita has directed over 400 corporate events and concerts. Memorable corporate clients she has delivered performances have included Gucci, Sofitel, IBM, Microsoft, Paspaley Pearls, Cartier, IGA, Hyundai China, Clipsal 500, Rolex, Tourism Australia, Sheraton Worldwide, Dubai Shopping Festival, the World Trade Centre Abu Dhabi and the Singapore Fashion Festival and the Queensland Government’s Advance Queensland Innovation and Investment Summit.
In 2009 Tarita turned her talents to creating The 7 Sopranos. An overnight success, The 7 Sopranos have been consistently in demand worldwide. They have been working alongside internationally recognised independent producing house Cre8ion since 2014 and touring regional Australia with three different shows – their self titled concert show, “Songs from Stage and Screen, ” which she wrote and directed and “Reverie,” based on her creative concept.
The group released their first self-titled album “The 7 Sopranos” with ABC Classics in 2013 and their most recent album is a self-produced album called “Popcorn” which was re-released by Fanfare and Sony in 2018.
The 7 Sopranos are appearing as headline artists on the upcoming Bravo Cruise for the Performing Arts out of Sydney in 2018.
RECENT AND ONGOING
Since early 2016 Tarita has been developing a new theatre work with producers in the US based on an original creative treatment she has developed for stage and TV which sees her travelling regularly to the US.
In 2018 Tarita directed Opera in the Gardens, revived a production of Songs from Stage and Screen for performances in Sydney and a NSW regional tour and worked as dramaturge and director on a new children’s theatre piece called The Magic Watering Can by composer Craig Allister Young for the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. This year Tarita was also thrilled to return to Opera Queensland as Assistant Director to Daniel Slater for the production of Peter Grimes being produced in conjunction with Brisbane Festival and she was thrilled to be the ceremony director of the inaugural Australian Women in Music Awards 2018.
In 2019 Tarita will commence her PhD.