Steve Davislim, an Australian tenor, died suddenly in Germany on August 11th. He was 57 years old. He was born in Malaysia in 1967, and he moved to Tasmania with his family when he was young.
After graduating from the Victorian College of Arts in Melbourne, he worked for a couple of years in Germany before returning home.
He studied voice with Dame Joan Hammond, and he performed with the Victoria Opera for three seasons.
After graduating from university, he went on to study in Greece, Germany, and Switzerland. During his time in these countries, he worked with Irwin Gage, who was an accompanist at the Zurich University of Arts.
He began his professional career as a principle member of the Zurich Opera in 1994. He sang various roles, such as Don Ottavio in “Don Giovanni” and Tamino in “The Magic Flute.”
He also performed at various festivals, including the Salzburg Festival and the Hamburg Opera.
In 2005, he made his debut as a member of the Chicago Lyric Opera. He then sang the role of Idomeneo at La Scala in Milan.
He also regularly appeared with various other orchestras. Some of these include the BBC Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Royal Danish and San Francisco Symphony.
Davislim regularly appeared on the ABC, and he has worked with various conductors, such as Simon Rattle, Peter Eustavo, Pierre Boulez, Andris Nelsons, and Marc Minkowski.
Even though he was based in Europe, he came back to Australia to sing in Opera Australia’s productions of Eugene Onegin, Die Meistersinger von Nrnberg, and Don Giovanni.
He was recently in Melbourne for the season of Idomeneo, which was a co-production with the Victorian Opera.
He also sang the role of Karl Loge in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Das Rheingold on August 12. During a function at the Opera House, Simone Young, the chief conductor of the orchestra, paid tribute to Davislim.
Simone Young and Davislim worked together on numerous occasions, including in Das Rheingold and Les Illuminations.