About Piera

Biography

Piera Dennerstein is a classically trained soprano who has studied and worked internationally as a singer, actor, MC, and educator for over a decade, across all genres and artforms.

In February 2024, Piera debuted her full-length solo show, Pursuing Pleasure, presented by Whitehorse City Council and The Round Midsumma Residency Program. This work is touring nationally in 2025 thanks to receiving funding from Creative Australia through The Australian Cultural Fund, and has already garnered 5 star reviews and won the Fringe World Weekly Award.

More recently, Piera debuted another, shorter original work, Call the Doctor!, which was sponsored by The Melbourne Cabaret Festival and The Dobell Foundation. Also in 2024, Piera completed her fifth national tour of China, this time performing as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and educating children about music through the works of Mozart. In Australia, she acted and sung as Gioia in the world premiere of theatre play Why Can’t Women Be Like Men?, as well as acting, singing and dancing in Finucane and Smith’s theatrical spectacular The Exotic Lives of Lola Montez. She also opened Finucane and Smith’s critically acclaimed Melbourne Fringe retrospective Global Smash Club alongside independent theatre icons Moira Finucane, Maude Davey and Imogen Kelly.

In the years since the Melbourne lockdowns, Piera has spent much of her time touring Finucane and Smith’s Dance Hall nationally. In 2023 she also performed her most formidable operatic role to date: Poppea in Lyster Opera’s The Coronation of Poppea.

In 2022, Piera performed at the Palais Theatre for 4 sold out shows with comedy genius Bill Bailey, portrayed the Voice of God in the world premiere of The Destroyer and made her Bendigo Chamber Music Festival debut, stepping in to sing the soprano solo in Bach’s Lutheran Mass BWV233 with less than 24 hours’ notice.

Despite living in the most locked-down city in the world, in 2021 Piera joined the roster of Artist Bookings Agency and became a member of the Victorian Opera Chorus. She also joined Finucane & Smith in their triumphant return to the stage at Luna Park, Melbourne and formalised her cross-over status with Jazz and Blues solo shows as part of Midsumma Festival and at the Clocktower Centre. Piera also delved into her love of art song with a solo recital for national institution Art Song Canberra.

2020 began with Piera securing a place on 3MBS Radio’s The Talent programme. She also performed for the second time at the Melbourne Recital Centre for the 3MBS Marathon. Throughout the lockdown, Piera performed regularly in online salons for Finucane & Smith, including in a lineup featuring Australian living legend Paul Kelly.

In 2019 Piera performed her first leading role in a grand opera: Adina in GBD Productions’ tour of L’elisir d’amore by Donizetti. The second half of the year was spent engaged with Finucane & Smith as a guest artist in international performances of The Rapture and The Rapture Chapter II. She continues to perform regularly at corporate events, particularly for Vavachi Productions and Entertainment International.

In the first half of 2018, Piera travelled to France to take her place at the Fabrique Lyrique Operatic Young Artist program in Bourges where she played the Coquette in the world premiere of Fêtes et Cendres. The second half of 2018 had her in China, performing as Constanze Mozart in the children’s show Magical Mozart for Australian International Productions. Piera reprised this role in 2019 following the success of the initial tour.

In 2017, Piera covered the title role in L'incoronazione di Poppea for Lyric Opera of Melbourne. The year prior, she toured China playing the Second Spirit and covering Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with the Australian International Opera Company. In addition, Piera performed the roles of Virtù and Pallade in L'incoronazione di Poppea at the Trentino Music Festival in The Dolomites in Italy.