Biography                                                                    Last update: January 23rd, 2004

Australia born (April 22nd) Cheryl Barker came across music ever since she was a little child. She grew up in Balwyn, Ormond and McKinnon. At 15, her family moved to Geelong.

Her father, Lawrence (who had a very good tenor voice) was Minister in a church. Her mother, Ruth, played the organ. Cheryl very often sang and even took singing lessons, but never really took it seriously.

At the age of 14, at Belmont High, she auditioned for a role in the school production of a musical called ‘The Boyfriend’... She was selected and performed the role, together with Bobby (who happened to be Peter Coleman-Wright, who was to become her husband and has now a brilliant career as baritone opera singer). At that time, Peter studied the piano and was very interested in classical music. He asked Cheryl to join the local amateur society… where she had her first ‘prima donna’-role as Rose Maybud in Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Ruddigore’...

But it was only when she met Dame Hammond, that things profoundly changed… Now she definitely knew, she really wanted to become a singer !!

Cheryl Barker studied in the Victorian College of Arts under Dame Joan Hammond. Meantime she had a job in a bank. When 19, she auditioned in several opera companies in Australia and, very soon, she was accepted as part-time singer in the Victoria State Opera Choir. She goes on auditioning and experiences her first big chance at her 23rd and gets the role of Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serial. She then stopped working for the bank and became fulltime singer.

Having started a career in Australia, she married Peter Coleman-Wright and left Geelong for London. We are 1984.

Peter was member of the Glyndebourne-choir and Cheryl had to find a job…

Two weeks after her arrival she was already accepted in the choir of the Welsh National Opera… Only four weeks later, she was on stage in Cardiff ! She stayed there for about a year and a half; did some replacements and performed a smaller role in Rigoletto.

Then Cheryl Barker really started free-lancing, it was the start of an unbelievable career !!

She was awarded the Dame Mabel Brookes Fellowship in 1986, represented Australia in the Finals of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions Competition held in New York and won the Royal Overseas League Competition in London in 1989.

Her big early break was being chosen in 1990 for the then unknown Baz Luhrmann's La Bohéme at the Sydney Opera House.

Cheryl has sung at the State Opera of South Australia (Blonde - Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail); with the Victoria State Opera in Melbourne (First Lady - Die Zauberflöte, Mimi - La Bohème and Antonia - Les Contes d’Hoffmann); with the Australian Opera in Sydney (Marzelline - Fidelio, Nedda - I Pagliacci, the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro), with the Lyric Opera of Queensland in Brisbane (Tatyana - Eugen Onegin); with English National Opera (Foreign Princess - Rusalka, the Governess - The Turn of a Screw, Oksana - Christmas Eve, Musetta - La Bohème and Donna Elvira - Don Giovanni); with English Touring Opera (Marzelline - Fidelio and Cherubino - Le Nozze di Figaro), with the Scottish Opera (Annius - La Clemenza di Tito, Tatyana - Eugen Onegin and Adina - L’Elisir d’Amore) and Jennifer - A Midsummer Marriage in the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Suor Angelica - Il Trittico and Liù - Turandot at Flanders Opera.

Cheryl Barker made her debut as Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly for Auckland Opera, New Zealand in 1994, a role she will perform many times, also at Flanders Opera. This particular production, under the direction of Canadian star director Robert Carsen, was filmed for television and broadcasted on huge outdoor screens for an audience of over 5.000 people. She returned to Auckland Opera for her first Violetta - La Traviata.

Cheryl also frequently appears on concert platforms such as London’s Barbican Theatre and Royal Albert Hall, the Wigmore Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, the Queen Elisabeth Hall (London), the Edinburgh International Festival and at the Spoleto Festival (Italy), the Melbourne International Festival (Australia), the Edinburgh Festival (Scotland), Vienna (as part of the Mozart B-Centenary celebration) and the Queen Elisabeth hall in Antwerp where she performed an unforgettable Verdi - Requiem.

Throughout all this, a very important thing happened in the life of Cheryl : the birth of her son, Gabriel, on July 20th 1999 !

Cheryl opened the opera season of the Vlaamse Opera with Suor Angelica. For the Belgian public this was an almost historical performance: Cheryl Barker and Rita Gorr (as La Principessa). Rita was born in Ghent (!) and has a 50-year-career all over the world. Two generations of extraordinary personalities!

In November 2002 Cheryl performed Tosca (a new production, directed by David McVicar) at ENO/London; in January 2003 Madama Butterfly at De Nederlandse Opera (Amsterdam), more Tosca at ENO in March/April 2003 and Eugen Onegin at Australian Opera in September 2003.

Cheryl Barker‘s plans for the future were focused on a new production called ‘The End of the Affair’ (composed by Jake Heggie, who also wrote Dead Man Walking) which is a creation commissioned for Houston Grand Opera in Feb/April 2004. A Madama Butterfly followed in Houston in November 2004.

Recently, Cheryl ended a recording session of a new CD called 'Puccini = Passion'. The CD is now released and can be ordered (Melba Recordings).