Dearbhla Collins

Dearbhla Collins is one of Ireland’s finest pianists. She is most well known as a song
pianist and performs recitals with singers such as Benjamin Appl, Patricia Bardon
and Tara Erraught. She also regularly works with Dame Ann Murray and Brigitte
Fassbaender. She has recently been appointed Assistant Head of Music at the
National Opera Studio,London and is the senior vocal coach at the Royal Irish
Academy of Music, Dublin. She has also coached in the Universität für Musik,
Vienna, in Zurich and the Beijing Central Conservatory. She is the founder and
Artistic Director of Dublin Song Series which puts on song recitals in Dublin at the
National Concert Hall and the Hugh lane Municipal Art Gallery.

Dearbhla is the Artistic Administrator of the Veronica Dunne International Singing
Competition, previous winners of which include Nadine Sierra, Fatma Said and William Thomas.

In October 2017 she was awarded an honorary doctorate for her services to music in Ireland from the National University of Ireland.

Owen Gilhooly

Owen Gilhooly studied with Jean Holmes at the Limerick School of Music and subsequently at the Royal College of Music and National Opera Studio, supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, the Belfast Classical Music Bursary, the RVW Trust and the Sibyl Tutton Trust.

He made his Royal Opera House debut singing Fauré Requiem for the Royal Ballet and in 2007 represented Ireland at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.

Having had a significant career as a high baritone, his voice has now developed into the tenor range with focus on lyric repertoire including Macduff Macbeth, Don José Carmen, Lensky Eugene Onegin, Cavaradossi Tosca. Owen made his operatic tenor debut as Borsa Rigoletto for Opera Theatre Company.

He is currently pursuing Doctoral studies at the Royal Irish Academy of Music where he was recently appointed to the Vocal Faculty.

Significant performances include Robert in the world premiere of Luke Bedford’s Through his Teeth (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden); Emilio Il cappello di pagila di Firenze (Wexford Festival Opera); Escamillo Carmen (Opera Theatre Company); Valentin Faust (Everyman Theatre, Cork) and Beethoven’s Christus am Olberge in Spain with Camerata Ireland.

He has appeared in principal roles with Opera Ireland, Opera Theatre Company, English Touring Opera, Lyric Opera, Scottish Opera, Opera North, The Opera Group and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He has made frequent appearances at Wexford Festival Opera, Lismore Music Festival, Buxton Festival Opera, Les Azuriales Opera and Musikverkstatt Wien.

In concert, Owen has performed with both national and international orchestras, including the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestras and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with whom works have included – Berlioz L’enfance du Christ and The Bridegroom The Vanishing Bridegroom, Bill Bobstay HMS Pinafore and Konecký Osud at the BBC Proms.

Appearances include Mozart Requiem, Jenkins The Armed Man RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Mozart Requiem Culwick Choral Society, Mozart Mass in C Minor Carlow Choral Society, Lensky Eugene Onegin, A Nations Song 1916-2016, Military Bands of the Defence Forces, the concert premiere of the new opera The Nightingale and the Rose, El Rememdado Carmen, Messiah with the Irish Baroque Orchestra & Verdi Requiem at the Cork International Choral Festival & Maynooth University.

Current & future performances include Gaston La Traviata for Lyric Opera Productions,a return to the National Concert Hall with Irish Songmakers for ‘Songs of a Gypsy Life’ featuring music by Brahms, Dvorak and Haydn.

Beethoven Missa Solemnis with Oxford Harmonic Choir, Opera Gala at St John’s Smith Square for Irish Heritage, the opening gala of The Cork International Choral Festival 2018, Danilo The Merry Widow, Sun in the world premiere production of The Nightingale and the Rose at the Everyman Theatre, Cork and Borsa Rigoletto for Cork Opera House.

Shirley Keane

Shirley Keane is the founder and artistic director of Limerick based Opera Workshop. Since it’s inception in 2017 she has written and directed five shows collaborating with a core ensemble of Opera Workshop associated singers and instrumentalists.  Their most recent production was the site-specific ‘Abandoned’, comprised of short contemporary operas, at The Old Sailor’s Home, Limerick. 

Having had training in both theatre and opera, at Rose Bruford College, Guildhall School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, Shirley is a performer whose experience ranges from traditional and contemporary opera roles to mainstream theatre.  Shirley has written, produced and directed projects that involve community groups and professional artists and which incorporate any number of elements from spoken word to orchestral works.   She has devised site specific opera productions  at venues such as the Royal Festival Hall and the Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, London.  As a performer, director, and facilitator Shirley has worked with companies as diverse as Opera Theatre Co., Opera Holland Park, Basingstoke Haymarket Theatre, Glyndebourne Opera, Live Music Now, Accademia Solti Te Kanawa, Newham Young Peoples’ Chorus,  Half Moon Young People’s Theatre Co., Theatre Venture, East End Opera and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Ross Scanlon

Irish born Tenor Ross Scanlon trained at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama where he was awarded the Michael McNamara Gold Medal of excellence in performance and at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

Ross is a Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (LRAM) and is also an Alumni of the Royal Academy Opera School. At the Royal Academy of Music, Ross worked with some of the finest Opera directors, conductors and coaches including Sir Colin Davis, John Copley
CBE, Paul Curran, Stephen Barlow, Trevor Pinnock CBE, Jonathan Papp and Maria Cleva. His roles included Lurcanio Ariodante, Masino La vera Costanza, Monostatos Die Zauberflöte and Scaramuccio Ariadne auf Naxos.

Elsewhere, his roles have included Le Thérière L’Enfant et les sortlièges with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Barbican, London, Hot Biscuit Paul Bunyan for Welsh National Opera, Irus The Return of Ulysses for Opera Collective Ireland, Male Chorus The Rape of Lucretia for Opera Collective Ireland, Ed A Belfast Opera for NI Opera, Bookkeeper The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny for OTC, Dublin, Remendado Carmen for Lyric Opera, Dublin, Bill A Hand of Bridge, Remendado Carmen and Tamino Die Zauberflöte for Glasthule Opera.

Ross sings widely in concert, his engagements including Alexander’s Feast, Messiah and The Creation with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Messiah at the Halle Festival, Germany, at the Handel Music Festival, Dublin, and with the Irish Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as performances with choral societies through the UK and Ireland. Other oratorio’s include Britten Saint Nicolas, Dvořák Stabat Mater, Handel’s Alexander’s Feast and Coronation Anthems, Haydn Die Jahreszeiten, The Creation and Missa in Tempore Belli, Mendelssohn Elijah and St Paul, Stainer Crucifixion, Mozart’s Vesperae Solemnes de Confessore and Coronation Mass Schubert’s Mass in B flat, Jenkins ‘The Armed Man – A Mass for Peace’ , Goodall Eternal Light – A Requiem (Irish Premiere), Goodall Invictus: A Passion (Irish Premiere)

Recent and future engagements include performing for HRH, Prince of Wales, with The Ulster Orchestra, Belfast, Tenor solo for the Irish Premiere of Howard Goodall’s Invictus: A Passion with Bray and Wicklow Choral Societies, creating the role of John Pyne for the World Premiere of Raymond Deane’s new opera Vagabones for Opera Collective Ireland and a solo recital of The John McCormack Songbook at the National Concert Hall, Dublin. Ross is a member of the Vocal Faculty at the American College, Dublin.