Latvian-Australian soprano Lana Kains has taken to the national and international stage with musical works from Baroque to Contemporary.

In 2023, Lana had her performance debut singing Die Schöpfung with the University of Sydney
Graduate Choir and Orchestra conducted by Christopher Bowen and role debut as Donna Anna in Concordia Ensemble’s production of Don Giovanni. She also participated in the Lisa Gasteen
National Opera Program in Brisbane.

In 2022, Lana performed the role of The Queen of the Night in the Sydney Conservatorium’s production of The Magic Flute, Musetta in Musica Proibita Management’s La Bohéme, Semele in Handel’s Semele with Concordia Ensemble, and Serpina in the Opus Collective’s production of Pergolesi’s La serva padrona. She also performed Mozart’s Requiem in D minor with the Illawara Choral Society, Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate with Prima Luce Music, and Handel’s Messiah with the Radio Chest Choir at Sydney Town Hall.

Other roles Lana has performed include: Bastienne from Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne with
Concordia Ensemble, Papagena from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Pacific Opera, directed by Peter Coleman-Wright AO and Queen Dido from Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas as part of Gondwana Choir’s 2020 Festival of Summer Voices. She has been a featured soloist in the Sydney Conservatorium’s Greenway Series concerts and opera galas working with conductors Stephen Mould and Erin Helyard and performed with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Johannes Fritsch singing Waldgespräch by Alexander von Zemlinsky. This performance was streamed live and has been broadcast on ABC Classic FM.

Lana has strong links to Tasmania, where her family live and she began her tertiary studies in voice. She sang Händel's Messiah in St. David’s Cathedral in 2019 and 2020 and has participated in many Festival of Voices projects as a chorister and soloist. She has also performed and produced her own recitals both at the Hobart Town Hall and St. Mary’s Cathedral. Some of the other works she has performed include Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Handel’s Athalia, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Noël, Fauré’s Requiem in D minor and Clérambault’s La Muse de l’Opéra.

Lana has a Bachelor of Music Performance in classical voice and a Master of Music Studies in opera performance from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, which she studied with her singing teacher Maree Ryan. She is the recipient of the Henderson Traveller’s scholarship (2022), Patricia Bell Grant (2018 & 2021) and the Helpmann Family Fellowship (2021) from Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Elizabeth Wade Scholarship and Jessie Wakefield-Luckman Prize for Voice from the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music. In 2022, she won First Prize with the Henkell Brother’s Award at the 40th National Liederfest in Melbourne, sang in the finals of the Sydney International Song Prize and competed in the semi-finals of the Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Scholarship. In 2021 she won the Vocal Showcase Prize in the Fresno State Art Song Festival and in 2019 she won the Nelle Ashdown Memorial Award at the Hobart Eisteddfod.

Bio updated Feb 2024