The annual Hawker Carols celebration on Christmas Eve will once again feature celebrated Australian soprano Lorina Gore.

Canberra-trained, she has a strong personal connection with the Belconnen area and, long before becoming an opera celebrity, once sang rock ’n’

roll at the late Stephen Pike’s Tarzan’s Theatre Restaurant in Kippax.

But for a very long time now, after having trained in Canberra in London, Gore has been centre stage in Australia and overseas, sometimes in traditional roles such as Musetta and Violetta but increasingly in contemporary parts like Honey Barbara in Bliss and Ophelia in Hamlet, to name just a couple.

This year she’s been back in town a couple of times, joining Andrew Goodwin in a September recital for Arts Song Canberra and treading the boards for the Canberra Theatre’s 60th birthday gala in October.

Gore was recently the guest vocal soloist for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra’s Gladiator in Concert at the Riverside Theatre, Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre — a blockbuster concert version of Hans Zimmer and Klaus Badelt’s score to Ridley Scott’s film starring Russell Crowe, of which she says, “What a ride!”

Hawker Carols, Pinnacle Nature Reserve, Dungowan Street, Hawker, 8.15pm, December 24.