Coming Up!

Frank (www.thewinetradition.com.au) was born in Sydney in 1967 to Vito and Antonia Dangelico, Italian migrants from Puglia in the south who met at a hostel in Ultimo and who were active community members, with his mother also a keen folk singer. 

Frank established various organisations and hosted and organised countless events to help ensure the preservation of Italian culture in Australia. 

In 2016 he performed in the Opera Queensland production of “The Barber of Seville” at the grand opening of the Munro Martin Parklands.

Frank also performed two roles in ”Beginnings” – one as a singing Italian cane cutter called Giovanni, and one as Jeremiah the landlord in the Malaytown scene.

He trained with Opera Queensland in Brisbane in 2017. 

In 2018 he performed in the Opera Queensland production of “Ruddigore” in the Munro Martin Parklands and co-produced “Sunday at Six”, a presentation artworks and songs featured on the TV show “Countdown”. 

In his spare time, Frank is the lead singer and guitarist with the band “The Southside Band” which performs regularly in Cairns.

In 2021 Frank, along with colleagues Kathryn Ash, Roz Pappalardo & Rubina Kimiia co-wrote and acted in Jute Theatres production of “La Bella Figura”, a complete season sell out and breaking all previous box office records.

Frank has owned & operated “The Wine Tradition NQ” since 2007 where he distributes wines from around the world (with a heavy focus on Italy) to restaurants and venues in North Queensland.

Frank, along with his wife Bec contribute significant hours and support to many locally based charities & organisations.

He has also recently become a Nonno to grandson Beau Bentley Francesco Dangelico.

Adrian (www.adrianstrooper.com) is Cairns born and bred to a Dutch Immigrant father and a Cairns born mother. Adrian even went to Cairns State High School, with Lizanne Smith as his teacher! After being a part of the Cairns classical music scene as a student, he continued his studies as a Violist at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music. Adrian decided that Opera was more his thing and changed to Opera Vocal Studies at the age of 20 while at the Canberra School of Music. He followed his then singing teacher to the Australian Institute of Music where he graduated with a Bachelor of Music. 

While finishing his degree Adrian performed as a Chorister and Soloist in Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House. Between 1999 - 2003 he worked with Conductors and Directors such as the Late Richard Gill, Simone Young, Neill Armfield and Stuart Maunder. 

As Adrian developed as a performer he won a number of singing competitions including the Italian Opera Award, The Metropolitan Opera Award and the German Operatic Award. It was with the help of these competitions and immense hometown support such as the Far North Queensland Youth Assistance fund and the then Civic Centre, that catapaulted Adrian onto the opera and theatre stages of the World. 

Adrian has performed as a soloist in such theatres as the Sydney Opera House, the Barbican in London, Bolshoi in Moscow, Liceu in Barcelona, Komische Oper in Berlin, Opera Comique and Bouffe du Nord in Paris, Semperoper Dresden, Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf, Piccolo la Scala in Milan and the Cologne Opera. 

Adrian was a resident soloist at the multiple award winning Komische Oper Berlin between 2005 and 2010 and again from 2012 to 2019, where he sang lead lyric tenor roles under the direction of some of the most important directors of the opera world. 

Between 2010 and 2012 Adrian had the privilege of working with the great Peter Brook on the critically acclaimed and “Moliere Award” winning ‘Une Flute Enchentee’. Having performed for 6 months in the Bouffe du Nord theatre and then embarking on a world tour performing in major festivals such as La Nuit in Lyon, the Buenos Aires Festival, the Lincoln Centre Festival New York and the Hong Kong Music Festival. 

Adrian has also sung in some of the most prestigious Opera Festivals in the world including with conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin in the Salzburg Festpiel, Alessandro de Marchi at the Innsbruck Festival of Ancient Music, Rene Jacobs at the Festival d'Aix en Provence and Barrie Kosky's Saul with Erin Helyard and Die Zauberfloete at the Adelaide Festival. 

In 2019 Adrian and his family returned to Cairns where he teaches, coaches, conducts and is a dad. Adrian now feels he is in a position to contribute to the Cairns region and is committed to fostering the idea that young classical musicians can have a vibrant career AND earn money.

Tetsutoshi Tabata (www.66bcell.com) is a visual artist from Osaka, now based in  Cairns. He studied butoh dance under Akiko Motofuji and Yoshito Ohno in  Tokyo where he became involved with dance and digital scenography. He  co-founded media performance unit 66b/cell and  worked as a researcher  at Rikkyo University Tokyo investigating visual environments for dance  and theatre. Tetsutoshi has created work in a range of settings  including museums, galleries, nightclubs and public spaces using set  design and projection mapping. Presentations and performances include  Ars Electronica, The Japan Virtual Reality Society, Adelaide Festival,  Brisbane Festival, Seoul International Dance Festival and Powerhouse  Museum Sydney. He has showcased work in prominent places worldwide,  including NYC, Europe and Asia. Recently, Tetsutoshi has been  collaborating with Bonemap (Cairns) and Deon Hastie (NAISDA) at  Carriageworks Sydney.