Aisling Kenny
Soprano
Irish soprano, Aisling Kenny is a soloist, recitalist and ensemble singer and in recent years has established herself as a specialist in early music. She frequently performs sacred and chamber works of the baroque and classical eras, in particular the music of J.S. Bach. She has sung as a soloist with leading Irish and European ensembles including Collegium Vocale Gent, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Balthasar Neumann Chor, Sestina, Resurgam, Camerata Kilkenny, Chamber Choir Ireland, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Ricercar Consort, Staatskapelle Halle and Pulcinella. An experienced ensemble singer, she has sung with Vox Luminis, Gabrieli Consort, Choir of the Age of Enlightenment, RIAS Kammerchor, Zürcher Sing-Akademie, Ensemble Marsyas and Atalante. Recent performances as a soloist include Johannespassion in Eisenach, the town of Bach’s birthplace and BWV 73 at Bachfest in the Thomaskirche, Leipzig, with Collegium Vocale Gent, directed by Philippe Herreweghe, Spirit and Second Witch in Dido and Aeneas with Collegium Vocal Gent and Ricercar directed by Philippe Pierlot at Le Rivage des Voix festival and several projects with Irish Baroque Orchestra directed by Peter Whelan. A dedicated recitalist, highlights include Dowland’s lute songs with Thomas Dunford in Paris and Kilkenny and concerts with historical harpist, Siobhán Armstrong at Galway Early Music Festival and East Cork Early Music Festival.
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Photo credit: Miriam Kaczor
Charlotte O'Hare
Soprano
Soprano Charlotte O'Hare is based in Northern Ireland and works internationally as an ensemble singer and soloist. She studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and was multiple prize winner including the RNCM’s Gold Medal.
​Charlotte has appeared as a featured soloist with various early music ensembles including the Irish Baroque Orchestra, Arcangelo, Sestina, Resurgam, as well as concert and recital performances at the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, and St Martin in the Fields. Charlotte is a member of Chamber Choir Ireland and has performed with Det Norske Solistkor, Ars Nova Copenhagen, the Gabrieli Consort and Polyphony.
Operatic roles include Despina (Cosi Fan Tutte), Gabrielle (La Vie Parisienne), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Semele (Semele), and numerous productions with companies including Opera North, Garsington Opera, and Buxton Festival. Charlotte also works in music education and outreach with Leeds Lieder, Opera North Education, and the Royal Opera House.
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Photo credit: Edward Robinson Photography
Eilís Dexter
Soprano
Eilís Dexter is a mezzo-soprano from Dublin whose performances span
from choral music to opera and contemporary works. She graduated in 2019 with a BA in Music from Trinity College Dublin and studied Voice at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Eilís is an established ensemble singer, performing regularly with groups such as Resurgam, Lassus and Tonnta whilst holding an Alto Lay Vicarship at Christ Church Cathedral. As a soloist Eilís has performed Handel's Messiah, Vivaldi's Gloria and Dixit Dominus, Bach's Cantata 100, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Saint-Saëns Oratorio de Noël and Duruflé's Requiem. Operatic engagements include Irish National Opera (Maria Stuarda, Guillaume Tell), Opera Collective Ireland (Semele) and
Blackwater Valley Opera Festival (Macbeth). Eilís was a member of the
Glyndebourne Academy 2023, an intensive training programme for young singers. In competition she was awarded the Pearl Atock trophy for
Mezzo-soprano Solo in the 2022 Feis Ceoil. Eilís also has a strong dance background and looks to engage in interdisciplinary projects.
Photo credit: HOSEA Productions
Sarah Thursfield
Mezzo-Soprano
Sarah is a contralto/mezzo-soprano originally from Dublin, Ireland. Currently a student of Dutch soprano Judith Mok, her recent solo performances include Duruflé’s Requiem, Bach’s St John Passion, Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s Mass in B-minor, Handel’s Messiah and Cousser’s The Universal Applause of Mount Parnassus with the Irish Baroque Orchestra under Peter Whelan.
Sarah is an experienced choral musician, and is a member of ensembles such as Chamber Choir Ireland, Sestina Music and Resurgam. In 2020, she had the pleasure of being appointed as the first female Lay Vicar at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, where she currently holds the post of Vicar of the Prebendary of Swords.
Passionate about choral education, she is assistant director of Dulciana Vocal Ensemble, an upper-voices ensemble which specialises in promoting the work of female composers. Sarah is also an alumna of the Choral Scholars of University College Dublin, appearing as a featured soloist on four of their albums released by Signum Records.
Stuart Kinsella
Tenor
Stuart Kinsella is a tenor soloist and consort singer whose choral experience includes the choirs of the RIAS Kammerchor (Berlin), Vlaams Radiokoor (Brussels), Arnold Schoenberg Chor (Vienna), Theatre of Voices, Ars Nova and Musica Ficta (Copenhagen), Coro Casa da Música (Porto) and, closer to home, Resurgam and Chamber Choir Ireland. His cathedral career has spanned the Irish choirs of Christ Church and St Patrick’s in Dublin and the English choirs of Durham and Christ Church, Oxford. He has often sung the solo role of evangelist in works by Bach, Distler and Schütz, and directs a small vocal ensemble called Peregryne.
Max O'Neill
Tenor
Max is a 22-year-old tenor from Dublin. He has recently completed a BSc in Medicinal Chemistry at UCD, where he held a choral scholarship from 2019 - 2023. This year he is continuing his studies with a research masters. He has been singing with DCF’s Lassus Scholars and Piccolo Lasso since 2009 and is also a member of St. Bartholomew’s Church Choir. Max has performed in several operas with TUDublin, Lyric Opera, and the Yorke Trust, and in 2020, he attended the Glyndebourne Opera Youth Academy. In 2022 he toured Switzerland with ECA’s Eurochoir, and in 2023 he was the tenor scholar in the Charles Wood Festival Singers. He participated in Sestina's Next generation programme in 2022, and has sung with them on multiple occasions since, and this year he is a participant of Chamber Choir Ireland's Studio programme. Max currently studies singing with Dr. Robert Alderson and holds an ATCL performance diploma.
Patrick McGinley
Tenor
Patrick McGinley is a freelance tenor working in opera and choral music. A graduate of Maynooth
University, he has performed all over the world with groups such as Anúna, Sestina Music, the Ulster
Consort, Tenso Europe Chamber Choir, and the cathedral choirs of Christ Church and St Patrick’s.
He is a regular member of the Irish National Opera Chorus, most recently in the revival of Guillaume
Tell in Fribourg, Switzerland, and has also worked with Northern Ireland Opera and Blackwater Valley
Opera Festival. He is studying under the tutelage of Mairéad Buicke and won the Tenor Solo prize in
Feis Ceoil 2023.
Graham Cooper
Tenor
Irish tenor Graham Cooper enjoys a busy schedule as a soloist and ensemble singer with leading ensembles throughout Europe. Graham has a particular love for baroque music, participating in masterclasses with Peter Koiij and Philippe Herreweghe and regularly performing Bach with Collegium Vocale Gent. Recent solo highlights include performing the role of Ferrando in Escales Lyriques’ Cosi Fan Tutte in Théâtre Les Cytises, and jumping in as DUP Tenor Soloist in the Belfast Ensembles Abomination - A DUP Opera in Theater Royal Brighton.
Parallel to his studies in neuroscience, Graham studied singing with Lothar Odinius and John Norris. He also benefited from masterclasses with Christianne Stotjin, Thomas Allen, Arnold Bezuyen, Julia Kleiter, and Jard van Nes. Graham has performed in Europe’s major concert halls and sings regularly with Resurgam, Collegium Vocale Gent, Vocal Consort Berlin, and Zürich Chamber Singers. He also sings with Sestina, Echo Vocal Ensemble, and Chamber Choir Ireland.
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Photo credit: Jeremy Knowles @jeremyknowlesphotography
Jonathan Hanley
Tenor
Jonathan Hanley is a British tenor working as both a soloist and ensemble singer with a particular interest in Baroque vocal music. A history graduate from the University of York, Jonathan has been a member of Genesis Sixteen (2016/2017) and was a Monteverdi Choir Apprentice (2018/2019), going on to work regularly for the group.
As a soloist, he has performed around the UK, Europe and North America. Recent highlights are Bach Mass in B Minor (Carnegie Hall, Elbphilharmonie), Christmas Oratorio (Teatro alla Scala, Palais de Versailles), Handel L’Allegro, il penseroso, ed il moderato, and Britten St Nicolas (York Minster). Jonathan also enjoys performing English song and lieder, most recently performing a programme inspired by Gerald Finzi, featuring contemporary a song cycle by Raymond Yiu, accompanied by Gavin Roberts.
Jonathan is a member of Stile Antico and the Monteverdi Choir, and performs regularly with some of the best vocal ensembles in the UK such as the Tallis Scholars, BBC Singers, and Sansara.
Paul McGough
Bass
Paul McGough began his life in music as a boy treble in Mullingar Cathedral choir and was awarded a music scholarship to study at the Schola Cantorum, St. Finian’s College. He read Music & English at Trinity College and received vocal tuition at the RIAM and DIT. Now based permanently in Dublin, Paul has enjoyed a freelance singing career both as a baritone concert soloist and member of many groups, including the choirs of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Christchurch Cathedral, Resurgam, Anúna, Opera Ireland and Chamber Choir Ireland, to name but a few. A versatile vocalist, he has also sung with folk and pop artists like Paul Brady and the Corrs, represented Ireland as a champion barbershop singer with 4 in a Bar and toured many of the world’s great stages as a founding member of the Irish show Celtic Woman.Paul’s group Crux is Ireland’s leading vocal ensemble in the film industry, featured in several award-winning Irish productions (eg. Pilgrimage, the Hole in the Ground) and international television series such as Vikings.
Stuart O'Hara
Bass
Bass-baritone Stuart O’Hara is a graduate of Durham University and the University of York. A former pupil of Alexander Ashworth (RAM), he now studies with Arwel Morgan. He has worked with directors and conductors including Harry Christophers (the Sixteen), Mark Elder (Hallé Orchestra), David Hill (with Ikon) Robert Hollingworth (I Fagiolini), Peter Holman (The Parley of Instruments), and Dinis Souza (The Monteverdi Choir).
Recent highlights include the premiere recording of Orazio Benevoli’s Missa Tu es Petrus with I Fagiolini, and an ongoing project exploring the ballads of Carl Loewe with fortepianist and PhD candidate Ioanna Koullepou. He is a lay vicar in the Choir of Westminster Abbey, under Organist and Master of the Choristers Andrew Nethsingha. He was a songman in the Choir of York Minster for two years and spent many years as a lay clerk at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool (RC), and regularly returns to his home city to sing with the Liverpool Bach Collective, of which he is a founding member.
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Photo credit: Matthew Johnson 2018
Jeffrey Ledwidge
Bass
Since studying singing with Philip O`Reilly, Jeffrey Ledwidge has established himself as one of Ireland's foremost bass soloists with an extensive professional repertoire.
Jeffrey is renowned for his solo oratorio performances, which have included J.S. Bach’s Johannes
Passion and Matthäus Passion along with many of Bach’s Cantatas; Handel’s Messiah, Saul and Dixit Dominus; Mozart’s Requiem, Vesperae Solennes and many of his Masses; Saint-Saëns’s Oratorio de Noël; Beethoven’s Symphony No.9; Haydn`s Creation; Verdi’s Requiem and DvoÅ™ák’s Stabat Mater.
He is also a member of Chamber Choir Ireland under the direction of Paul Hillier. Jeffrey performs regularly with Coro Casa da Musica, Porto, and the renownd vocal ensemble Theatre of Voices.
On the operatic stage, Jeffrey has performed roles in Boris Godunov, La Traviata, The Silver Tassie, The Rake`s Progress, La Boheme, and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Most recently, Jeffrey sang the role of Davenaut in Heinrich Marschner’s opera Der Vampyr and also Don Inigo Gomez in Ravel’s L’heure Espagnole.
Recent engagements include Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 and Missa Solemnis; Verdi’s Requiem; Brahms’s Deutsches Requiem; Elgar’s Apostles; and Handel’s Messiah with Ensemble Marsyas at the Kilkenny Arts Festival. Jeffrey has also toured to Hong Kong, Germany, France and Denmark, performing Arvo Pärt’s Kanon Pokajanen with Theatre of Voices and most recently to France with the English vocal ensemble, Tenebrae.