Deirdre Moynihan - Biography

As a soprano soloist Deirdre has performed with many operatic, orchestral, choral and chamber music groups both on the International stage and throughout Ireland. Her music career to date has seen her perform in Canada, U.S.A, Israel, Brazil, Lebanon, Japan, China and throughout Europe.

Deirdre has extensive performance experience in the field of oratorio and early music repertoire. She has received a number of annual bursary awards from the Arts Council of Ireland for the continuing research and performance of Baroque and Renaissance Repertoire. Deirdre holds an MA in Vocal Performance from the Cork School of Music.

2011 ended on a high note with Deirdre as the soprano soloist for the Irish Baroque Orchestra’s December performances of Handel’s Messiah. The three performances were conducted by the prestigious UK based conductor, Jeffery Skidmore. In January 2012 Deirdre played the role of “Kate” in a John Wilson concert production of “Yeoman of The Guards” with The RTÉ Concert Orchestra at The National Concert Hall. Recent performance highlights also include Handel’s “Dixit Dominus” and Mondonville’s “Jubilate Deo” with Christophe Rousset, The Irish Baroque Orchestra and Resurgam at the Kilkenny Arts Festival, Monteverdi “Vespers of 1610” with Saint George's Singers, Quintessential Sackbut & Cornett Ensemble and Saint George's Sinfonia, Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater” (Dublin), Rutter’s “Mass of The Children” (Fermanagh), Mozart’s “Exsultate, jubilate” (Dublin), Mozart’s “Coronation Mass” (Dublin), Vivaldi’s “Gloria” (Limerick). Music Network supported Irish tours in Oct 2011, “Anda jaleo – Songs of the People” and Nov 2010 “Vivaldi – The Cantatas” were enthusiastically received by audiences around Ireland.

Deirdre has sung as a soloist with, amongst others, the R.T.É Concert Orchestra, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Crash Ensemble and Con Tempo string quartet. Radio broadcasts include Lyric FM, RTE Radio 1 and BBC Radio Ulster. She also has a busy recital schedule and performs regularly with guitarist Alec O’ Leary and pianist Fionnuala Moynihan.

Deirdre embraces the challenge of contemporary compositions and has premiered works by Ian Wilson, Rob Canning, Raymond Deane, Marian Ingoldsby, Ben Dwyer and Hugh O’ Neill. She has been a soloist at The Living Music Festival in works by Messian, Steve Reich, Dusapin, Tippett and Arvo Part’s Stabat Mater. As a featured soloist with the National Chamber Choir performance highlights include Ingvar Lidholm’s “A riveder le stele” and Bo Holten’s “Rain and Rush and Rosebush”. ‘Ad Multos Anos’– a CD by the NCC of specially commissioned works features Deirdre as the soloist on several of the world premiers.

Collaborations with various ensembles have resulted in performances at The Ardee Baroque Festival, The Hugh Lane Gallery, The Boyle Arts Festival, The Living Music Festival 2004-2008, The West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Dublin Guitar Week, Music for Wexford, Barrahane’s Festival, Waterford International Festival and Galway Cathedral Recital Series. She has travelled to Japan to give an extensive series of concerts and workshops with The Crawford Piano Trio. She was subsequently invited to return to Japan to give a series of solo concerts.

Forthcoming performances in early 2012 include a Music Network supported Irish tour - 4-date tour of “Bewitched”(Ian Wilson) with the Irish Chamber Orchestra string quartet, a return to the Hugh Lane Gallery “Sunday’s at Noon” concert series in February and a series of concerts in Poland in March. Deirdre will also be making two recordings in early 2012 – “Bewitched” (Ian Wilson) and her first CD release on the Naxos label (works by Vivaldi).

Deirdre is also a prominent traditional fiddle player and has performed with various Irish groups at many of the world's top folk festivals in Europe and America. Most recently she performed a series of concerts with Carlos Nunez in France and Spain as a guest member of his band. Click here to read more about Deirdre's fiddle playing.