Robert was the winner of the open Oratorio award and the English Art Song prize during the 2007 Australian National Eisteddfods in Canberra. Prizes at the Adelaide Eisteddfod include the French Art Song Prize in 2007, the Metropolitan Male Choir Voice Scholarship and the Nancy Thomas Memorial Prize in 2006, and the Les Dutton Memorial Scholarship and the Junior Vocal Championship in 2005. Robert was named ‘Best New Voice’ in The Advertisers Oscart Awards in December 2005. He is the recipient of the Elder Conservatorium’s Christ Church Scholarship, the 2007 Lienau Scholarship for outstanding merit in singing in 2007, the Recitals Australia Scholarship and the finalist prize in the Beta Sigma Phi awards in 2006. He also won the singers prize in the state finals of the 2007 MBS Young Performer of the Year Award.

Operatic roles include Ferrando in Cosi Fan Tutte, Laurie (Cover) in Little Women for State Opera, Camille in The Merry Widow for Co-Opera, Lacouf in Les Mamelles des Tiresias for State Opera Young Artists, Bastien in Bastien and Bastienna for St. Peters Cathedral, Alexis in The Sorcerer for the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of SA, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus and Springer in The Bartered Bride for the Elder Conservatorium, The Jazz Trio in Trouble in Tahiti and The Errand Boy in A Dinner Engagement for Musaic Vocal Company. He sang the role of Ted Strehlow in workshops of Gordon Kerry’s Ingkata for State Opera this year and has been a member of the State Opera Chorus for the 2004 Adelaide Ring Cycle, The Elixir of Love and The Barber of Seville.

Robert’s concert work as a soloist includes acclaimed performances of the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion, Benjamin Britten’s Les Illuminations, Handel’s Music for the Carmelites, Messiah, Israel in Egypt, Look Down, Harmonious Saint, Purcell’s Saul and the Witch of Endor, Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, Tippett’s A Child of Our Time, Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge, Mozart’s Vespers, and has given several recitals for Recitals Australia. He has been a core member of Adelaide Chamber Singers, and in 2006 toured Canada, the USA and the UK with the group, aided by a Helpmann Academy grant. During this tour he won the solo vocal competition at Kathaumixw, an international choral festival held in Powell River, Canada.

Critical Acclaim

"Robert Macfarlane's Ferrando (move over, David Hobson)...Of all the admirable voices, Macfarlane's is the most remarkable. His light, true tenor floats seamlessly and apparently effortlessly from full to counter-tenor - all the way to an E-Flat in alt...and must have been exactly what Mozart was hearing in his head when he wrote Un' aura amorosa."
Elizabeth Silsbury (Opera-Opera, November 2007)

“The story is related in recitative, aria and chorus, with the bulk of the narration falling to the Evangelist. We were fortunate to have an Evangelist of such quality in Robert Macfarlane who, in addition to his splendid vocal talents, revealed a depth of understanding that belied his youthfulness. He relayed the events with such urgency and engagement that the drama was brought vividly to life.”
Stephen Whittington, The Advertiser, 11th April, 2007

“Rare eloquence…”
The Advertiser (Oscart Awards) Dec 10, 2005

“From his first recititative, now there arose a new King, tenor Robert Macfarlane made an indelible impression and maintained, even improved upon his game through three more.”(Israel in Egypt)
Elizabeth Silsbury, The Advertiser, 18th October 2005