Sol3 Mio star Amitai Pati has won the Dame Malvina Major Foundation Award and its $50,000 prize.
The award was funded by Joan Egan in honour of the Dame Malvina Major Foundation’s 30th anniversary.
Dame Malvina says Pati is a very worthy first recipient, and demonstrates the commitment and tenacity needed to succeed.
“He is endowed with a superb tenor voice and is dead set on making his dream come true. He shows grit and determination and a nothing-will-get-in-his-way attitude which is necessary in the business of opera or theatre,” she said.
“Amitai wants it and has a plan laid out. He heard the audience clapping his big brother once when he was very young, and he told himself he wanted that too in his own right.”
Pati told Seven Sharp Dame Malvina pulled him and fellow Sol3 Mio members Moses and Peni out of a “very dark place back in 2013”.
“We created everything we are doing now in honour of her and I’m just super grateful.”
Pati says the money from the award will help him with all things financial in an expensive operatic, and he hopes to give some back to the foundation.
Check out Pati and Dame Malvina’s full interview with Seven Sharp in the video above.
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