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The Australian pianist, harpsichordist counter-tenor and lecturer, Dean Orion Sky-Lucas, graduated from the University of Newcastle Conservatorium of Music, NSW, studying with Michael Duddmann (organ) and Professor Robert Constable (piano).
Since graduation Dean Sky-Lucas has been the accompanist to the wind and opera departments of the VCA at the University of Melbourne, teacher and lecturer at the Melbourne Conservatorium, and for four years was an associate artist with the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM). He departed ANAM to pursue further studies in speech pathology at Latrobe University, placing him at the forefront of vocal performance from a biomedical perspective.
Dean Sky-Lucas has performed harpsichord, celeste, piano and organ with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO), Orchestra Victoria (OV) and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO), and regularly tours New Zealand, Australia and internationally as a soloist and chamber musician on keyboard and voice. He is widely known to Australian audiences through numerous national broadcasts, both live and pre-recorded with ABC FM, Sunday Live and Radio National. He became known in high prominence as a repetiteur and vocal coach at the Victorian Opera and with Australia's most lauded opera singers.
Festival engagements have been notable with 8 appearances in 10 months during 2003, including the Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane International Festivals. During 2004, Dean performed the role of the singing pianist in ChamberMade Opera's Recital inx the USA, the Melbourne Season and the Victorian tour. He was the alto soloist in the Australian Ballet's season of La Bella Figura with Orchestra Victoria.
In 2005 Dean Sky-Lucas performed the lead role in George Frideric Handel's Orlando, the title role in the 2006, Australian premiere of Antonio Vivaldi's Guistino, La Peinture in Charpentier's Les Arts Florissantes and the World premiere of a work written for viola da gamba consort for the Royal British Music Society by Australian composer Natalie Williams, in the same year. During 2005, he recorded a CD of Italian Baroque music with Louisa Hunter-Bradley and David MacFarlane which was received with critical acclaim.
Dean Sky-Lucas has continued to perform in this combination in regular guest appearances in the concert series presented by Past Echoes both in Melbourne and Sydney. For several years Dean has toured across the nation with ensembles including Ensemble Troika, AnnaLisa Kerrigan's "Ireland" and Kurrawong ensemble. He performs widely with early music ensembles in Australia and his repertoire is vast, encompassing the 13th through 21st centuries. He combines the versatility demanded in early music performance practice with the fastidiousness that new music requires and as such is respected by peer and patron for the illumination brought forward in new and old scores.
Dean Sky-Lucas was an artist-in-residence at the University of Auckland in 2008 with the string, collaborative piano, voice and early music departments, featuring 3 recitals in as many weeks with master-classes and individual lessons. Following 15 years in Melbourne, he accepted in 2010 the position of Lecturer and Head of Collaborative Piano at at the School of Music, University of Auckland, New Zealand. |
