Tenor, Composer and Stage Director Robert Macfarlane enjoys a busy, multi-faceted career in works from the late renaissance to the present day. He studied at the Elder Conservatorium, The HMT-Leipzig "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" and was a Young Artist of the National Opera of Lyon. He was also a protegee of the late, great German tenor Peter Schreier. He has won numerous awards including the 2020 Bayreuth Young Artist Award from the Wagner Society of Victoria. Recent roles include the Japanese Envoy in Robert Lepage's production of Stravinsky's The Nightingale (Adelaide Festival), Malcolm/Macduff (Cover) in Bruce Beresford's production of Verdi's Macbeth (Melbourne Opera) and his widely celebrated portrayal of Mime in the Melbourne Opera Ring Cycle directed by Suzanne Chaundy. His concert work includes the Evangelist in the Passions of J.S Bach, Haydn's Creation, Mozart's Requiem and Mass in C Minor, Missa Solemnis and 9th Symphony by Beethoven, Schubert's Winterreise and the tenor works of Benjamin Britten.

His work as a stage director has showcased a fascinating cross-disciplinary approach, with his dramatisation of Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri, Arms of Love, with Song Company and indigenous dance group Karul Projects being hailed 'a revelation' and his Circus and Schubert Lieder rumination on mortality More Guilty Than The Poet described as 'Ingenious and thought-provoking'. Operatic credits as a director include Handel's Radamisto (Sydney) and Acis and Galatea (Genesis Baroque) which was described as a 'fantastically inventive theatrical transformation'. He will soon direct Puccini's Tosca for iOpera.

His original music has been performed all over the world and his hilarious Covid anthem 'My Opera Career's Over' was a grand finalist and prize-winner in the 2021 International Songwriting Competition.