SUNSET SALON:
There’s No Place Like Home
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE Tobias Merz, Mark Connors & Fiona Jopp
Date & Time
Friday, 6 June
5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Venue
Aqua Vista Penthouse
64 Sixth Ave, Maroochydore
Kabi Kabi Country
With a nod to the origins of chamber music, this cosy salon concert will take place in a stunning home overlooking the beach at Maroochydore, as the sun sets over the horizon. Taking inspiration from Chamber Opera, Art Songs, and Musical Theatre, Tobias Merz (Tenor) and Mark Connors (Piano), will perform a collection of much-loved pieces inspired by the 2025 festival theme of HOME. In this multi-disciplinary event, Fiona Jopp (Dance) will weave lyrical moments of dance and movement around the musical repertoire - and the audience - creating a truly immersive experience for the audience. Combining the hospitality and intimacy of chamber music salons of old with the beauty of the Sunshine Coast, and international musicians of the highest calibre, the Sunset Salon has become one of the festival’s most popular events, selling out as soon as tickets are released!
Ticket price includes wine and a cheese platter.
TOBIAS MERZ (Tenor)
Tobias Merz discovered his love of music in his native New Zealand as a boy soprano before moving to The Netherlands to study classical singing at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. His career has seen him performing in over 40 productions in some of the world’s best known Opera Houses across The UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
He has performed with English National Opera, Opera North, Scottish Opera and Opera Australia. Roles include Goro in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Bastian in Mozart’s Bastian und Bastinenne, Alfredo In Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, Cyril in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Princess Ida, Leonard Meryll in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Yeoman of the Guard, Zotico in Cavalli’s Eliogabalo, Purcell’s King Arthur and Billy in Kurt Weil’s Mahagonny. He has performed numerous oratorio works and appeared with Amsterdam Symphony, Sydney Symphony and The Resident Orchestra of The Hague amongst others.
Tobias has also composed and performed several scores for contemporary dance and film. Notably for Sydney Dance Company, Carriageworks, WAAPA and QUT.
Since moving to Maleny on the Sunshine Coast Tobias has performed with Opera Queensland and most recently the critically acclaimed Three Countertenors concert with Queensland Baroque for 4mbs Classic FM Festival of Classics, The Messiah and Haydn’s Nelson Mass with Oriana Choir, Bach B Minor Mass with Canticum Chamber Choir, Haydn’s Creation and Carmina Burana with Brisbane Chorale.
He has also co-produced, composed and performed two independent works. In Process - an immersive work in collaboration with figurative artist David Bongiorno and contemporary dancer, Fiona Jopp, premiered at Maleny Equestrian Arena and a dance theatre work Aftereffect also a collaboration with Fiona Jopp.
MARK CONNORS (Pianist)
Mark Connors is a graduate of Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University (QCGU), where he was awarded the Hilda Woolmer Scholarship Prize for piano accompaniment. As an undergraduate, Mark began an ongoing collaboration with the Underground Opera Company as pianist/musical director. For several years he worked with Brisbane City Opera (BCO), for whom he conducted Handel’s Apollo & Dafne and the Australian premiere of Opera Galactica. He has worked with Voxalis Opera as a performer and musical director, as well as other arts companies Little Match Productions, Springboard Opera and Topology. He continues to be in demand as a studio pianist/collaborative artist. Mark plays regularly for school and community choirs and works as a studio accompanist for classical voice at QCGU. In 2019 he was engaged as the Children’s Chorus Master for Opera Australia’s national tour of Madama Butterfly. Mark is part of the music staff on a casual basis with Opera Queensland (OQ). With OQ he has been repetiteur for several productions, including the 2022 season of La Traviata, repetiteur/harpsichordist for their 2023 season of Cosi fan tutte and 2024 season of Dido and Aeneas. 2024 Also saw Mark performing several concerts with London-based tenor Paul Tabone, a collaboration he continues in 2025.
FIONA JOPP (Dancer)
Fiona Jopp has danced extensively in Australia and internationally across multiple disciplines. She performed in Disney’s The Lion King in Sydney, Melbourne, and Shanghai and played Anybody’s in West Side Story (Pimlico Opera, London).
As a contemporary dancer, she toured with Michael Clark Company, Bonachela Dance Company, Emanuel Gat Dance, Javier de Frutos, and Lucas Jervies. With Sydney Dance Company, she performed works by Rafael Bonachela, Jacopo Godani, Gideon Obarzanek, Andonis Foniadakis, Lee Serle, Cass Mortimer Eipper, and Gabrielle Nankivell. As an associate artist, she danced in Nude Live and was performer/rehearsal director for Crazy Times (Anthony Hamilton). She also portrayed Rosaleen Norton in Hidden Sydney.
Fiona has staged works by Rafael Bonachela for Sydney Dance Company, George Mason University (USA), and the Pre-Professional Year program, and set a duet by Emanuel Gat on the Czech National Ballet.
Her screen work includes Filth and Wisdom (Madonna), Anna Karenina (Joe Wright), World War Z (Marc Forster), PUMA ads, and music videos for Calvin Harris and M.I.A.
She debuted as a choreographer with so much, doesn’t matter (New Breed 2015) and continues to create independently. In Process (with Tobias Merz and David Bongiorno) ran in 2022–23, and Aftereffect, a duet with Tobias, premiered in 2023.
Now based on the Sunshine Coast, Fiona collaborates with local artists, choreographing for David Bongiorno’s Fowl Queen and Valkyrie (Australian Wearable Art Festival) and performing in Sand (Courtney Scheu & Itamar Freed) and Poetical Inhabitants (Melissa Langham/LJ Projects). She choreographed the 2024 Australian Wearable Art Festival and continues as choreographer for A Girl’s Guide to World War (Musical Theatre Australia).