Edel O'Brien
(mezzo soprano)

Edel O'brienEdel O'Brien comes from Kilrush, County Clare, Rep. of Ireland.
 
At the age of nineteen she won the Margaret Burke-Sheridan Cup at the Dublin Feis Ceoil. After graduating with an Honours Masters Degree in Music and Performance from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Edel was awarded a scholarship to study at Trinity College of Music, London. There she gained Distinction in her Postgraduate Diploma in Vocal Studies as well as winning the Vocal Faculty Prize and the College Gold Medal.
 
While still at TCM, Edel was offered an Italian Government Scholarship to study for one academic year at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, Milan.
 
Having completed her studies in London she was presented with the opportunity to sing in a BBC Masterclass with the opera director David Pountney broadcast from the Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. There she sang Suzuki in extracts of Madam Butterfly.
 
In 2002, Edel was one of seven singers selected out of 200 applicants worldwide to join the Centre de Formation Lyrique, Opera Bastille, Opera National de Paris. There she won the Prix Lyrique which is awarded annually to one male and one female at the CFL.
 
Edel has much experience in opera having sung various roles with the Opera Bastille, Opera Ireland, the Anna Livia International Opera Festival and Opera de Rouen. In oratorio she has sung as soloist with the Malcolm Sargent Festival Choir, Dartington Festival Choir, St. Paul's Choral Society, Hammersmith; the Culwick Choral Society, Dublin; Goethe Institut Choir, the Dublin Bach Singers, Dublin County Choir, Galway Choral Association, Limerick Choral Society, the Lismore Singers, Maynooth Choral Society, Carlow Choral Society and the RTE National Symphony Orchestra.
 In recital, Edel has sung in the Church of St-Martin-in-the-Field, London; Leighton House, Kensington; the Royal Chapel, The Royal Naval College, Greenwich; the National Concert Hall, Dublin; Farmleigh House, Phoenix Park, Dublin; Bank of Ireland Arts Centre, Foster PLace, Dublin,
the Kate O'Brien Weekend, Limerick; Boyle Arts Festival, Co. Roscommon and the National Library of Ireland.
 
Edel has sung in Masterclasses for Teresa Berganza, Ileana Cotrubas, Jose Van Dam, Alexandrina Miltcheva, Robert Lloyd, Felicity Palmer and Ian Partridge.