Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO
Soprano, Composer and Educator (NSW)
Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO is a Yorta Yorta/Yuin soprano and composer specialising in chamber, orchestral, choral and operatic settings of First Nations traditional languages and narratives. In an international career spanning 35 years she has championed the voice and visibility of classically trained Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians through her achievements a composer, performer and as Artistic Director of the Short Black Opera and Dhungala Children’s Choir.
Ms Cheetham Fraillon’s career and achievements have been celebrated with a number of significant awards including: the Don Banks Music Award (2023), Australian Women in Music Lifetime Achievement Award (2022), the JC Williamson Lifetime Achievement Award (2021) the Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award for service to music and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of South Australia (2018).
In the 2014 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, Ms Cheetham Fraillon was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), for distinguished service to the performing arts as an opera singer, composer and artistic director, to the development of Indigenous artists, and to innovation in performance.
In 2021 Ms Cheetham Fraillon began a five year appointment as First Nations Creative Chair for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and in 2023 was appointed the inaugural Elizabeth Todd Chair of Vocal Studies at The Sydney Conservatorium of Music at the University of Sydney.
Image credit: Stefanie Zingsheim
