An Australian Postgraduate Award enabled Miss Dunstone to undertake a PhD in musicological research at the University of Newcastle. Her topic was concerned with performance practices in early nineteenth century Italian vocal music for women, and included a full thesis with five discs of recorded live concerts, illustrating the research. Miss Dunstone has had work published by Cambridge Scholars Press (London) and in Australian Voice.

Miss Dunstone is a Lecturer in Music at the Wesley Institute (NSW). She has taught singing since 1984, preparing students for AMEB, HSC and tertiary examinations and auditions. She has been an adjudicator for the National Amateur Song Contest and Lake Macquarie Eisteddfod (2001); Warringah Eisteddfod and The Sydney Angels Singing Competition (2003).

Prudence Dunstone has performed many principal roles with the State Opera of South Australia and the Australian Opera, in operas including Rigoletto, Die Walküre, Lucia di Lammermoor, Death in Venice, The Gondoliers, The Magic Flute, Carmen, La Traviata, Salome, Falstaff, Eugene Onegin and Le Nozze di Figaro. Highlights have included the title role in Handel’s Ariodante, Katisha in The Mikado and Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera. She has also prepared the role of Penelope in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria for De Nederlandse Opera. Miss Dunstone recently appeared as the Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music for the Sydney Vocal Arts Centre.

As Katisha in The Mikado 

with Brian Gilbertson

(Photo by Heather Blewett)

Prudence E. Dunstone

Miss Dunstone has made recital broadcasts for the ABC, and sung as a soloist with ABC orchestras for performances including The Messiah and Schubert’s Mass in C. She has appeared as a soloist with the Adelaide Harmony Choir in the St Matthew Passion, and in Sydney with the Philharmonia Choirs for the Mozart Requiem, C.P.E. Bach’s Magnificat, Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater. She has performed Berlioz’s song cycle Les Nuits d’Été with the Adelaide Chamber Orchestra, and has also performed as a soloist with Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. Her most recent appearance was in recital with pianist Miss Maryleigh Hand in Adelaide, performing the song cycle Fünfzehn Gedichte aus ‘Das Buch der hängenden Gärten’ by Schoenberg.

Prudence Dunstone studied in Adelaide at the Elder Conservatorium first as a flautist, and then as a singer, graduating with First Class Honours. She held a cadetship with the State Opera of South Australia from the Music Board of the Australia Council, and then moved to Sydney to work with the Australian Opera, where she was a member of the ESSO Young Artists Development Program.

As Olga in Eugene Onegin, with Claire Primrose

(Photo by Heather Blewett)

As Vittoria in The Gondoliers

Singer, Singing Teacher, Musicologist