About

Where it all started…

Linda Thompson was born in Melbourne, and started school when living on the Pines Estate in Frankston North with her mother, younger brother and baby sister. Linda's natural talent for singing was first discovered at family gatherings, and she was encouraged to showcase her vocal prowess from the tender age of five. Despite her mother's pragmatic suggestions of pursuing a career as a nurse or hairdresser, Linda's heart was set on becoming a pop singer - opera was nowhere to be seen, despite growing up listening to a range of music on record and radio.

Growing up without a lot of money meant that singing lessons were out of the question, and as soon as Linda was old enough (14¾), she got a job at the local supermarket and left school - to contribute to household finances, and pay for singing lessons. At 15, Linda won Victorian Checkout Opera of the Year competition at Coles. Moving to a full-time job in the city unpacking and filing false teeth in drawers at Dental Houses Australia, it took Linda less than two weeks to realise that jobs on offer without an education were perhaps not all they were cracked up to be. Linda convinced her mother and stepfather that she needed to go back to school, skipped the year and a term, and rejoined as if she’d never left.

In the interim, a young music teacher and music teaching assistant had arrived, and music classes were on the curriculum at the lower year levels. For the first time, there was to be a school musical - and Linda was cast in the lead role. Learning that Linda had never been to the opera or heard much classical music, the new music teacher took her to see Dame Joan Sutherland in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Palais Theatre, and said to Linda, “you could do that”. An unforgettable moment. No-one in the family had finished high school or been to University, and helped by free tertiary education and government study assistance, and the score to get in, Linda was able to take up the offer of a place at the Conservatorium at the University of Melbourne.

At University, Linda grasped and created opportunities to sing all types of classical music. She joined amateur music theatre societies and sang their lead roles, formed vocal groups to earn money busking, put on concerts, won Eisteddfods, scholarships and competitions - and fixed her sights on singing at the Sydney Opera House by the time she was 30. (She debuted there at 26).

Towards the end of her University studies, Linda started to work with a young - and now leading international - stage director, Barrie Kosky. Simultaneously singing lead roles and running the company with him. Linda’s voice, performance and interpretative skills caught the attention of the flagship opera companies, and she landed contracts as a Principal Young Artist - firstly with Victoria State Opera, and then moved to Sydney with Opera Australia, where she was a full-time principal artist for three years.

In 1990, Linda won the prestigious Herald Sun Aria, and went overseas for further role study, working with coaches in Europe and UK - including at Royal Opera Covent Garden. Working with Opera Australia in principal and supporting roles until 1993, Linda created the leading roles in two World Premieres of Australian commissions at the Sydney Opera House, and left Australia again to go overseas in late 1993.

Family priorities followed, alongside a steady stream of performances in opera concerts and art song, including the Australian premiere of Ned Rorem’s Evidence of Things Not Seen for the Melbourne International Arts Festival. Another overseas stint in Europe with her young family, before Linda was enticed to return to Australia to take up the role of Head of Classical Voice at Monash University. That role gave Linda the opportunity to move into artistic and stage direction, programming opera seasons and mini festivals.

From within the University system, Linda could see that there was a gap in development of Australian graduate singers, who needed a place/program to grow and develop artistically in front of audiences. With the encouragement of Robert Taylor CEO at the National Theatre and trustee of the Gertrude Johnson Estate, in 2008 The Opera Studio Melbourne was born, as an independent repertory company for young singers. So successful was the artistic output, that the company grew to include established singers and international artists, performing as ‘Gertrude Opera’, and culminating in the first international opera festival in Nagambie in 2015. In 2017, the Festival moved to the Yarra Valley, where it had three successful years - and international connections and opportunities opened up, with the first performance overseas in December 2019 at La MaMa Expermental Theater in NY.

In 2021, Linda won a Green Room Award for Programming, after taking the 3rd Yarra Valley Opera Festival entirely online in 2020 - in a world-first. After strategic consultation and planning in 2020-2021, the company became known as Australian Contemporary Opera Co. (ACOCo.) with a ten-day annual international festival of contemporary opera and song as the primary annual output.

With every extraordinary achievement and conviction that comes from a life of leadership in the performing arts, a sense of place and the uniqueness of Australian character and identity becomes more integral to the work - with the body of work build on foundations and potential for an inspirational legacy.

Linda’s family made money stretch to stay at a caravan park every summer on the Mornington Peninsula. The long summer days hold a magic known by almost everyone who has spent time there - even more so by its residents. Contributing to the building of a contemporary festival of opera and song is more than an annual ten days of exceptional, international performances. It is a statement of who we are, bringing stories and people together, putting possibilities on a platform and ideas onto the horizon.