A crowdfunding campaign is raising money to help the Australian tenor recover from the debilitating condition.

Julian Gavin’s name will ring bells for opera aficionados. A regular with Opera Australia and many of the nation’s other major companies, Gavin was a firm favourite of audiences and production teams across the country. His Royal Opera House, Covent Garden debut in 1996 as Don Carlos in Verdi’s epic of the same name, taking over for Roberto Alagna, put the Australian tenor on the map internationally. Based predominantly in London, but consistently working across the globe, Gavin was thriving in the opera world, singing at the best houses, and performing under top conductors.

But during the second half of 2010, things stopped going to plan. The tenor was forced to withdraw from his last Australian engagement in 2011, portraying Dick Johnson in Opera Queensland’s production of The Girl of the Golden West, citing a “serious illness,” although no specific details of his condition were available at the time.

In an article published on Norman Lebrecht’s Slipped Disc website, Gavin has now opened up about his struggles with an Acquired Brain Injury (ABI), and the onset of symptoms that, in hindsight, revealed the diagnosis....