Olivia Pike as Gretel
Olivia Pike is a classically trained soprano and pianist, recently returned to Canterbury, after spending the last 3 years in Boston, USA, where she was offered a place at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee in 2023. After completing a 2-year Graduate Performance Diploma in Voice Performance, she stayed on as a staff pianist for the Musical Theatre and Classical Voice Departments, where she worked closely alongside many of the conservatory’s most sought after voice teaching staff. In 2024, she made her Mainstage debut for the Boston Conservatory Opera Department as Peaseblossom, in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Later that year she went on to sing the principal role of Alma Winemiller, in Lee Hoiby’s Summer and Smoke, also for the Boston Conservatory Opera Department.
Prior to heading overseas, Olivia was based in Dunedin, where she gained both her Bachelor, and Master of Music degrees in Classical Voice Performance, Olivia had a growing vocal career around New Zealand, performing extensively for Opera Otago, The Little Box of Operas, the Marlborough Opera Festival. Her performance credits include: Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Susanna in Susanna’s Secret, Miss Brill in The Mansfield Trilogy, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte.
She was a member of the New Zealand Opera Freemasons Opera Chorus in Christchurch from 2016-2023, making her mainstage debut as a Bridesmaid in Le Nozze de Figaro, in 2021, and sang 2nd Apparition in Verdi’s Macbeth in 2022. In 2023, she performed as The Good Fairy in Respighi’s Sleeping Beauty for the NZ Opera ‘Opera in Schools’ Tour.
Olivia gained notable successes in aria competitions nationally, including first places in the 2024 Canterbury Opera Foundation Christchurch Aria, the 2023 Brayden Coldicutt Napier Aria, the 2022 North Shore Becroft Aria, and the 2018 Dame Malvina Major Foundation Dunedin Aria. In 2022 she was a finalist in the New Zealand Aria Competition.
Outside of singing she has worked extensively as a freelance pianist, choral accompanist, vocal coach and vocal/musical director, as well as teaching both piano and voice privately.
She is excited to perform her debut role back in New Zealand singing Gretel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with the wonderful Toi Toi Opera, and can’t wait to share this fabulous opera with local audiences.