Cheryl Barker

Cheryl Ruth Barker AO (born 22 April 1960, Sydney) is an Australian operatic soprano who has had an active international career since the late 1980s. She has sung on several complete opera recordings with Chandos Records, including the title roles in Dvořák's Rusalka, Janáček's Káťa Kabanová and Puccini's Madama Butterfly, and Emilia Marty in Janáček's The Makropulos Case. She has also made two solo recordings of opera arias, one with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor David Parry and the other with Orchestra Victoria and conductor Richard Bonynge. On the stage she has had partnerships with the English National Opera and Opera Australia.

Barker studied with Dame Joan Hammond at the Victorian College of the Arts and began her career as a member of the opera chorus at the Victoria State Opera at the age of 19. She made her first solo appearance at that house as Blondchen in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the age of 23.

In 1984, Barker moved with her husband, baritone Peter Coleman-Wright, to London, so that he could assume his new position as a member of the choir at the Glyndebourne Festival. Two weeks after their arrival, Barker auditioned for and was accepted as a member of the opera chorus at the Welsh National Opera. She stayed there for the next year and a half, occasionally substituting for ailing singers in larger parts and performing the occasional comprimario role in addition to singing in the chorus.

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