CELINE BYRNE

Soprano

 Celine Byrne is making her mark on both the operatic and concert stages throughout the world.  Her appearances at major concert houses both in Ireland and abroad, including Carnegie Hall, the National Concert Hall, the Hermitage and Tchaikovsky Hall, have been greeted with enthusiastic acclaim by her audiences.

Most recently, Celine has become familiar to audiences worldwide thanks to her collaboration with world-renowned tenors José Carreras and Roberto Alagna.  Together with Carreras, Celine has graced stages in Rotterdam, Linköping, Malmö, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin, Nürnberg, and Hamburg.  Her musical partnership with Roberto Alagna has seen her in concert in Russia's two major artistic centers; Tchaikovsky Hall, Moscow and at the famous Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.  

Aside from her numerous concerts with Alagna and Carreras, Celine has appeared with many of the most prestigious names in classical music including percussionist Evelyn Glennie and conductors David Giménez, Robert Houlihan and Colman Pierce.  She has been invited to sing at several classical music festivals around the world and has sung for Pope Benedict XVI and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.  She has also performed as a soloist with Lyric Opera in Dublin, Anna Livia Opera Festival and Wexford Opera Festival.

Future engagements in 2009 include a concert on July 21st with José Carreras in Zadar, Croatia; a tour of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in Brazil, Columbia and Argentina in August; a Music Network tour in November and a ‘Viennese Christmas’ theatre tour in December.  In January 2010 Celine will be performing at a New Year Viennese Concert with the Ulster Orchestra in the Waterfront, Belfast and in the Spring will make her Scottish Opera debut in the role of Mimi, La Boheme. 

Celine has received many awards both on a national and international platform.  She was awarded First Prize at the Maria Callas Grand Prix in Athens, the William Young Prize at the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition, Dublin and the ‘Brabants Dagblad Press Prize’ at the IVC International Singing Competition in s’Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands.  Celine is also a winner of 10 prizes at the Feis Ceoil, Dublin, the Bill Canning Bursary, Waterford 2003, and the John Mc Cormack Bursary, Dublin 2003.

Celine has a Masters in Music from the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin, where she studied with Dr. Veronica Dunne.  She also has an honours Music Degree from the Conservatory of Music and Drama, Dublin, where she was awarded the college Gold Medal for excellence.  There she studied with Edith Forrest and coach Trudi Carberry.  Celine also received part-time coaching at the National Opera Studio of London and has participated in master classes given by Malcolm Martineau, Dennis O’Neill, Wolfgang Holzmair, Tina Ruta and Roberta Alexandra.  She was a participant in the artistic development programme with Wexford Opera and in April 2007 made her Carnegie Hall Debut.

Celine’s repertoire includes Oratorio, Opera, Operetta and Lieder.  Works performed include Mendelssohn's Elijah and St. Paul, Handel’s Messiah, Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s Mass in C, Mozart’s Requiem Mass, Mahler’s Rückert Lieder, Korngold’s Drei Lieder and Strauss’ Four Last Songs.  Her roles include Countess Almaviva LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, Fiordiligi COSI FAN TUTTE, Nora RIDERS TO THE SEA, Mimi LA BOHEME, Nedda I PAGLIACCI, Rosalinde DIE FLEDERMAUS and Hanna Glawari  THE MERRY WIDOW. 

Her television performances include RTE’s ‘Symphony Sessions’ recorded with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, the official opening of the new Wexford Opera House on ‘The Late Late Show’, a performance on ‘Seoige and O’Shea’ and a feature on ‘Nationwide'.  Celine's radio performances include segments on Lyric FM’s ‘Lyric Notes’ and 'Classic Drive', RTE Radio One’s ‘Rattle Bag' and ‘The Pat Kenny Show’, Today FM's 'Ian Dempsey Show', KFM, Dublin City FM and Holland’s Radio 4.