Enter, Traveller, and Be Welcume
Songes of Ages Past, for This Present Day
Meet the Merry Band
Merry It Is is a vocal ensemble dedicated to medieval and renaissance music. We’re passionate about bringing this repertoire out of the archives and into live performance. We aim to create something immersive and joyful; a glimpse into the musical life of the past.
David Hibbard was born in Murwillumbah in Northern New South Wales. Murwillumbah High School lead to the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, from where he graduated in 1981, having learned from Gregory Massingham and Donald Smith.
He joined the State Opera of South Australia in 1982 performing The Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly, and The Second Armed Man in the Magic Flute.
He received an Australia Council for the Arts grant to study under Daniel Ferro in New York, and then a scholarship to the Aldeburgh Festival where he studied with Sir Peter Pears. He was contracted to the English National Opera in 1985 where he sang Achillas in Julius Caesar under Sir Charles Mackerras, Osiridis in Moses under Alberto Erede, and Hans Schwartz in Die Meistersinger under Sir Mark Elder. Following this he sang Pietro in Simon Boccanegra at the Glyndebourne Festival and Sparafucile for Opera 80 (English Touring Opera).
David returned to Australia singing Fiesco (Boccanegra), Ramphis (Aida), Publio (La Clemenza di Tito) under Christopher Hogwood, Monterone (Rigoletto). He won the German Operatic Award in 1991and sang Count Horn in Ballo in Maschera, and Arthur in Maxwell-Davies’ The Light House at the Cologne Stats Opera, before accepting Marcello Viotti’s invitation to become the First Bass at the Bremen Staatstheater, where he sang Fiesco, Padre Guardiano (Forza) and Alvise Badoero in La Gioconda. Towards the end of his tenure there he was one of the recipients of the first Bayreuth Stipendium.
He returned to Australia in 1996 performing with all the State Opera Companies, as well as Opera Australia, also taking time to reprise his role of Arthur in The Lighthouse at Teatro Liceu in Barcelona, he sang with New Zealand Opera, the Bonze in Taipei and Don Alfonso in Singapore. At the State Opera of South Australia he sang Fafner in The Ring Cycle, first under Jeffrey Tate in 1998, and then under Asher Fisch in 2004.
In 2017 he returned to University, writing his thesis on Horace Stevens, receiving a BA Hons. From the University of South Queensland. He is currently a full time carer for his partner of forty years.
David can be heard on the Melba Records release of The Ring Cycle as Fafner, and the WDR release of Der Meister und Margarita by York Höller from Cologne.
In 2017 David received his BA Hons. writing a thesis on Australian bass-baritone Horace Stevens, which subsequently has been published.
A lifetime’s love of music from the 11th to the 17th century lead him to co-found Merry It Is with Claire Arnold in 2026.
Claire has performed leading roles in Canberra Street Theatre’s First Seen Program including ‘The Daughter’ in Geraldine Turner’s Drama Queen and Sabina Spielrein in Psyche, and has appeared in various productions at Sydney’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas.
She most recently performed the role of Mrs Anderssen in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music for the Ipswich Music Theatre Company in 2025.
Claire became a student of David Hibbard’s in 2022, and is thrilled to be working with him to bring rarely-performed historical music to life.
Alex comes from a musical family with a father that plays many different instruments, mainly the tuba, and a grandmother who is a church organist and singer.
During high school Alex was diagnosed with Aspergus Syndrome, then at the age of 14 he was diagnosed with cancer, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He was finally given the all clear when he
was 19.
During treatment at the Mater Children’s Hospital Alex was lucky to be involved in musical therapy.
This introduced alex to a great love of music which grew when he turned 18 and discovered karaoke at local pubs. At his sister’s birthday party he sang “You Raise Me Up” to his sister and brought many present to tears.
Not satisfied with just doing karaoke, he auditioned for the Ipswich Musical Theater
Company’s “The Phantom Of The Opera” in 2014 where he was given a part in the ensemble
and also played the phantom double. In 2015 he got the chance to be in Mary Poppins
playing the parts of Valentine and the Police Man. After that he went on to perform in many more amazing shows.
Singing and performing has given him a great amount of confidence in everything that hedoes, and one day he hopes to be cast as the role of “Teen Angel” from the musical
“GREASE”.
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