Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/111460
profile H is spellbinding voice takes you to places you didn't even know existed. His portrayal of Simone in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi guides you through 13thcentury Florence, where you encounter commedia dell'arte (comedy of masks) in all its melodramatic glory. As José Castro in La Fanciulla del West he shows you the best of 19th-century California: saloons, bandits, miners and, of course, love. It's no secret that bass Luke Stoker has a transformative voice. And with the stage presence to match, it's little wonder he's being heralded as one of Australia's up-and-coming opera singers. But Luke very nearly missed his calling. If things had gone according to plan when he finished school, he could have been treating horses for colic and puppies for pneumonia as a vet in his home town of Tamworth, NSW, instead of performing. After missing out on getting into veterinary science at university, Luke enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts in music with the intention of transferring to veterinary science after bolstering his GPA. Somewhere along the way, his passion for music trumped his veterinary ambitions. Despite achieving the GPA required to transfer to veterinary science, after his first year at university Luke realised his true passion and continued with his music degree. "As a child I always wanted to be a musician, but later in my school life I started thinking about a more realistic career, something more certain. You're told music isn't a stable profession, I guess. "It took me three or four years, but I eventually came full circle. Anyway, I enjoy opera too much to give it up," he laughs, wise with hindsight. In the past year, Luke has won the Opera Foundation Australia's 2012 German Opera Scholarship, providing the contract opportunity to join the opera studio at Cologne Opera, one of Europe's leading opera ensembles, and the 'Swifts' German Language Scholarship. He has also received funding from The Sir Robert William Askin Operatic Scholarship 2012. The prestigious German Opera Scholarship is considered a launch pad for an international career in opera. While it's a remarkable opportunity for Luke, it's difficult not to lament the fact that we'll be exporting one of our flourishing talents to Germany. It certainly feels a little bittersweet. Luke's rationale is this: "In Australia the opportunities for opera singers are limited. If you look at somewhere like Germany, there are XIX