Sylvia O'Brien - soprano
Irish soprano Sylvia O’Brien made her operatic debut as the Governess The Turn of the Screw with Opera Theatre Company in 2004. The same year she took part in the Buxton Festival with English Touring Opera in The Turn of the Screw as well as performing with Opera Ireland as Barena in Janacek’s Jenufa. In 2005 she sang Gabriel in the premiére of Gerald Barry’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant with The National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland (conductor Gerhard Markson) and in 2006 Morton Feldman’s Neither (conductor Stefan Ashbury). She has also sung Konstanze Die Entführung and Grafin Der Wiener Bluthe (English Touring Opera), Countess Le Nozze di Figaro (Opera Theatre Company), Zerlina (Opera2005), Despina under Kenneth Montgomery in Dublin and Mabel Pirates of Penzance (National Concert Hall/Rathmines & Rathgar Musical Society). She has recorded the title role for Wexford Opera Festival’s production of Martinu’s Mirandolina.
Her vocal and musical skills make her an important singer of contemporary repertoire, having performed works by Raymond Deane, Seóirse Bodley, Ian Wilson, James Wilson, Halfidi Halgrimsson and Kevin O’Connell. She was a resident performer at the Malkovich International Composers Competition 2003 and has performed with all the leading contemporary ensembles in Ireland. In September 2008 she premiered a new work by Joseph Phibbs for soprano and string quartet, commissioned by Burnham Market Concerts.
As a recitalist, she has sung in The Anna Livia Opera Festival, The Office of Public Works Series, the Bank of Ireland Arts Recital Series, and at the National Gallery in conjunction with the French Impressionist Exhibition. She performed as part of the Young Artists Recital Series at the Royal Dublin Society and has given recitals for West Cork Music Festival (Bantry House) and Greystones Arts Festivals as well as in the National Concert Hall, Dublin. She toured Ireland singing Seven Romances on Verses by A. Blok in an all Shostakovich programme with the Syrius Trio followed by a performance in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York. She has also given recitals of French, lieder and russian repertoir with pianist Hanna Shybayeva and Spanish songs with guitarist Benjamin Dwyer.
Concerts include Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle conducted by Celso Antunes, Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate with the Orchestra of St.Cecilia, conducted by David Agler, a concert of the Music from the Strauss Family and Lehár with the National Symphony Orchestra in the National Concert Hall, Mozart’s Die Schuldigkeit des Ersten Gobots with the NDR in Germany, and Mozart’s C minor Mass and Requiem in the Mozart Festival with the Orchestra of St.Cecilia, conducted by Kenneth Montgomery.
Recent highlights include Shostakovich’s Symphony No 14 with the Magogo Chamber Orchestra in Tilburg, The Netherlands, St John Passion on tour with the Irish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Stephen Layton, Morton Feldman’s Neither with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dmitry Slobodenyuk, Nono’s Il Canto Sospeso with the Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro Sinfonico di Milano Giuseppe Verdi conducted by Francesco Maria Colombo, and Herbert Howell’s Hymnus Paradisi with the Guinness Choir and the Ulster Orchestra conducted by David Milne.
Future engagements include Verdi’s Requiem with the Guinness Choir, Britten’s Les Illuminations in Deventer, The Netherlands, a new work written for her by by Seóirse Bodley with words by Seamus Heaney at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, and Chausson’s Poemes de l'Amour and de la Mer in Hilversum, The Netherlands.