Northern Irish soprano Aoife Miskelly graduated from the opera masters course at the Royal Academy of Music, London in June 2012 winning the Regency Award. Whilst at the RAM, Aoife was a Sickle Foundation Scholar and a member of the Academy’s prestigious Song Circle team, with whom, she appeared in recital at Wigmore Hall, the Oxford Lieder Festival and Chelsea Schubert Festival.
In January 2013, Aoife was a finalist and prizewinner in the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition at the National Concert Hall Dublin. She was a finalist at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards 2010, the Royal Overseas League Final 2012 and the Young Classical Artists Trust Final 2012 at the Wigmore Hall. In 2011 Aoife was the winner of the Hampshire National Singing Competition, the Bernadette Greevy Bursary, Dublin and the BBC NI Young Artists Platform Award sponsored by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. She is grateful to have been supported during her studies by the Sickle Foundation, the Josephine Baker Trust, the Musicians Benevolent Fund through a Sybil Tutton Opera Award, and is a Samling Scholar, a Britten-Pears and an Internationale Meistersinger Akademie Young Artist.
Highlights include playing Sophie Scholl in the world premiere of Kommilitonen! by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies directed by David Poutney, Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) and Despina (Così fan tutte) all for Royal Academy Opera, Sophie (Werther) for Les Azuriales Opera, France, The Governess in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw (Dartington) and Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel for Northern Ireland Opera.
Recent performances include covering the role of Diana in Diana and Acteon by Jonathan Dove (Royal Opera House Covent Garden), her German operatic debut as Servilia (La Clemenza di Tito) for Cologne Opera, Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park by Jonathan Dove (RAO) and Pamina (Bath Festival). In the coming months Aoife will play Gilda (Rigoletto), Nella (Gianni Schicchi), Gretel, and 2nd Flowermaiden (Parsifal) for Cologne Opera, alongside her debut for Aix-en-Provence, as Thérèse in Les Mamelles de Tiresias by Poulenc. In the Autumn, Aoife will return home to Belfast to sing the role of Cecily in the UK stage premiere of Gerald Barry’s opera The Importance of being earnest for Northern Ireland Opera.
Aoife regularly performs with London-based pianists William Vann and Elizabeth Burgess, with recent appearances including BBC Radio 3’s In Tune programme, recitals at the National Concert Hall Dublin, Etchingham Festival, and the Belfast Music Society.
In her spare time, Aoife enjoys hiking, playing tennis, catching up with family and friends, and helping out on her friend’s sheep farm!
Biographie auf Deutsch:
Die nordirische Sopranistin, seit Beginn der Spielzeit 2012/13 Mitglied des Internationalen Opernstudios der Oper Köln, absolvierte ihr Gesangsstudium an der Royal Academy of Music in London (Abschluss 2012). Während ihrer Ausbildung war sie Mitglied des renommierten »Song Circle«-Teams der Royal Academy und in diesem Zusammenhang u. a. in der Londoner Wigmore Hall, beim Oxford Lieder Festival und beim Chelsea Schubert-Festival zu hören. Im Jahr 2011 gewann sie den Hampshire National Singing Competition, das Bernadette Greevy Bursary, Dublin und den BBC NI Young Artists Platform Award. Außerdem war sie Finalistin bei den Kathleen Ferrier Awards 2010 und diverser weiterer Wettbewerbe.
Am Royal Opera House Covent Garden hatte sie Gelegenheit, die Gesangs-Partie der DIANA in der Ballett-Uraufführung »Diana and Actaeon« von Jonathan Dove zu covern, ebenso die Partie der PAMINA (»Die Zauberflöte«) beim Bath Festival. In der Kinderoper der Oper Köln wirkte sie u. a. als Grossmutter in »Der Räuber Hotzenplotz« von Andreas N. Tarkmann und als STIEFSCHWESTER NEITRUDE in »Aschenputtel« von Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari mit. An der Oper Köln war sie bisher als Servilia in Mozarts »La clemenza di Tito« und als 1. KNAPPE/2. BLUMENMÄDCHEN in »Parsifal« zu erleben.
