Sofia Laursen Habel has spent lockdown practising her singing on the family farm and composing her own operas, but she'll be back on stage in September performing at the Friends of the Foundation's Spring Soiree.

"It's super exciting... I've just been practicing a lot, singing in the paddocks. It's so nice to fill up the space, singing outside," she said.

The Spring Soiree raises money for Wimmera Healthcare Group, and is an event close to Laursen Habel's heart - she was a driving force behind the original 2019 event.

"I applied for, and received, a grant from the University of Melbourne to put on this fundraising concert in Horsham," she said.

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"We decided to do it again because the first time was such a big success."

For Ms Laursen Habel, performing in the Wimmera is a big part of the appeal.

"This is a place where I want to continue making music and performing... country areas are in need of artistic content and performances, rather than in Melbourne where it seems to be in abundance," she said.

"It's nice to come here, where I feel like music's needed, especially during this tough time."

Hailing from a musical family in Boolite, near Warracknabeal, Habel fell in love with music at an early age, but it wasn't until she boarded at Ballarat Grammar that her love for opera began to truly emerge.

"I've always sung, and especially musical theatre had always been one of my favourite genres to perform. I went boarded at Ballarat Grammar because I wanted to pursue my singing and performing, and I was introduced to more classical pieces," she said.

"Then when it came to study further, I was looking at Conservatoriums around the country, which are all heavily classical. It wasn't necessarily a conscious decision, it was just what I enjoyed singing.

"I was drawn to the dramatic potential; it's just fascinating being able to express emotion and text in different languages."

Habel was accepted into the Melbourne Conservatory of Music in 2016, where she pursued her love of Scandanavian composers such as Sibelious, Nielsen and Greig, and began thinking of ways to bring opera to a new audience.

Forced home from her studies in Melbourne due to the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, Habel has been using lockdowns to focus on her own music, including two new operas composed in collaboration with two other composers.

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Laursen Habel wrote the melodies and librettos, while a composer in New York and another composer, a family friend, contributed the soundscapes.

The first opera, called Rupudiating Oran, is a short, half-hour piece that was inspired by COVID and lockdowns, the second is called Karmalarella."

"It's a combination of Barberella, the sixties-cult movie, and Kamela Harris," Ms Laursen Habel said.

"It's about climate change, gender inequality and what a dystopian post-world of COVID and lockdowns could potentially look like.

"It features robots, droids and spaceships. That's where the Barberella elements come into it.

"Opera is often marketed to a specific audience, so I'm trying to break away from that and make it more accessible. Opera can be performed anywhere, at any time and in combination with other genres.

"It's not just old, dead white male composers. "

The Spring Soiree is on September 12, and will feature songs from opera, musical theatre and some of Australia's most well known hits.

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