Biography
Soprano Greta Bradman has built a career marked by parallel achievements in core operatic roles and crossover ventures, in addition to her prominent work as a radio presenter.
Born Greta Bradsen in Adelaide, Australia, in 1979, she is the granddaughter of cricket legend Sir Donald Bradman. The family had adopted the spelling Bradsen to limit exposure tied to the famous athlete, yet later reinstated the original surname for all members, Greta included. After finishing at the Elder Conservatorium of Music in Adelaide, she grappled with whether to pursue music professionally and instead completed a master’s degree in psychology, followed by several years of clinical practice. She remains a board member of both the Australian Mental Health Prize and the Arts Wellbeing Collective. Married to computer executive Didier Elzinga, Bradman has stated that her two children shaped her eventual commitment to singing; as she remarked to the Australian Women's Weekly, “[m]usic is something that can connect generations and can connect you back to your childhood -- I had no sense of that until I had kids.” An Australian National Academy of Music fellowship enabled her to enter a graduate vocal program at the Wales International Academy of Voice in the U.K., where Kiri Te Kanawa and Dennis O'Neill were her instructors. Conductor Richard Bonynge, whose long association with soprano Joan Sutherland is well known, took note of her and engaged her for the title role in Handel’s Rodelinda in 2014, then led her major-label debut, My Hero, issued the next year on Decca.
Bradman has maintained an elite international schedule since, singing in leading opera productions across Australia and giving concerts in Australia, the United States, and multiple Asian countries. She has actively supported Australian composers, taking part in the 2016 recording The Domestic Sublime: The Vocal Music of Katy Abbott. A 2015 profile on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation series Australian Story introduced her to a broader audience. Complications after vocal surgery nearly prevented her major Australian Opera debut in a 2017 staging of Puccini’s La bohème, yet she recovered in time to perform. The recital album Home appeared in 2018, and in 2020 she joined the Tinalley String Quartet for a Decca album of Mendelssohn works. Nationally she is recognized in Australia as a presenter on the ABC Classic FM network.
Born Greta Bradsen in Adelaide, Australia, in 1979, she is the granddaughter of cricket legend Sir Donald Bradman. The family had adopted the spelling Bradsen to limit exposure tied to the famous athlete, yet later reinstated the original surname for all members, Greta included. After finishing at the Elder Conservatorium of Music in Adelaide, she grappled with whether to pursue music professionally and instead completed a master’s degree in psychology, followed by several years of clinical practice. She remains a board member of both the Australian Mental Health Prize and the Arts Wellbeing Collective. Married to computer executive Didier Elzinga, Bradman has stated that her two children shaped her eventual commitment to singing; as she remarked to the Australian Women's Weekly, “[m]usic is something that can connect generations and can connect you back to your childhood -- I had no sense of that until I had kids.” An Australian National Academy of Music fellowship enabled her to enter a graduate vocal program at the Wales International Academy of Voice in the U.K., where Kiri Te Kanawa and Dennis O'Neill were her instructors. Conductor Richard Bonynge, whose long association with soprano Joan Sutherland is well known, took note of her and engaged her for the title role in Handel’s Rodelinda in 2014, then led her major-label debut, My Hero, issued the next year on Decca.
Bradman has maintained an elite international schedule since, singing in leading opera productions across Australia and giving concerts in Australia, the United States, and multiple Asian countries. She has actively supported Australian composers, taking part in the 2016 recording The Domestic Sublime: The Vocal Music of Katy Abbott. A 2015 profile on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation series Australian Story introduced her to a broader audience. Complications after vocal surgery nearly prevented her major Australian Opera debut in a 2017 staging of Puccini’s La bohème, yet she recovered in time to perform. The recital album Home appeared in 2018, and in 2020 she joined the Tinalley String Quartet for a Decca album of Mendelssohn works. Nationally she is recognized in Australia as a presenter on the ABC Classic FM network.
Albums
