Australian soprano Nicole Car has a launched a new fund called Freelance Artist Relief Australia to provide financial aid to Australian classical singers who are struggling to make ends meet after losing work because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nicole Car. Photograph © Yan Bleney

“The fund will offer grants to freelance Australian singers who have had cancelled contracts due to the coronavirus. Freelancers do not have access to many of the government stimuli like JobKeeper and they are looking at many, many months of not being able to work,” Car tells Limelight from her home in Paris.

“These grants will be available for any Australian working in Australia or overseas in any organisation recognised by the Australia Council for the Arts, or internationally. I have spoken to a range of my colleagues who have explained their situations and there really is a need for help at this time, and over the coming months.”

As Car points out, there are a lot of Australian opera singers working overseas. “They might have residents permits – like us,” she says, referring to herself and her husband, French-Canadian baritone Etienne Dupuis. “We have residents permits for France but we’re...