Padraic Rowan wins Azuriales Opera Competition

Padraic Rowan

Irish bass-barihunk Padraic Rowan keeps racking up the awards, as he won the €5,000 First Prize Prize at the Azuriales Opera Competition in France. Earlier this Summer, he won the the 2016 Bernadette Greevy Bursary Award. He was also a finalist at the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards and the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards. He also reached the semi-finals of the the 34th International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition, he won the 2014 Wessex Glyndebourne Award, the Dramatic Cup and Tony Quigley Award and the German Government Cup at the 2013 Feis Ceoil in Dublin, and the 2013 Irene Sandford Award for Singers.

Rowan graduated from the Royal Irish Academy of Music in 2013 with a Masters in Music Performance and now studies in London. He is currently in the Young Artist program at the Les Azuriales Opera. This September, Rowa will join the Opera Studio of Oper Stuttgart in Germany, performing a number of roles during the 2016/17 season.

The Azuriales Opera Competition was started in 2003 to  promote young singers at the start of their careers. The singers perform in a Competition Concert and are evaluated by a jury. Ellie Edmonds won the €1,000 Kerry Keane Award for artists under age 26 and tenor Thobela Ntshanyana won Second Prize.

You can hear Rowan in a clip from the St Matthew Passion by clicking HERE.

Seán Boylan wins Northern Ireland Opera’s Festival of Voice

Seán Boylan

Irish barihunk Seán Boylan has won the 2014 Northern Ireland Opera’s Festival of Voice held in the historic village of Glenarm in County Antrim. The competition, is limited to singers aged 18-27 who were born in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland. He is studying for his third year of his music degree at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

Boylan has won a number of awards for his singing throughout Ireland and was a John McCormack Society scholar, as well as being named a ‘Rising Star’ of the Royal Dublin Society.

In opera, he has played the roles of Ben in Menotti's The Telephone, and Tancredi in Monteverdi's Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, as well as the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni and scenes from his Magic Flute.

Boylan has performed throughout the U.K., including a recital at St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, the Clifden Arts Festival, the Drogheda International Classical Music Series, the Abbey Theatre, the Convention Centre, Dublin, the National Concert Hall, Dublin, the home of the Irish President and at the Léran music festival.

A talented pianist and organist (who studied under renowned pianist John O'Conor), Boylan has been the subject of several television and radio broadcasts in Ireland.

You can read in interview with Seán Boylan HERE.