Soprano Róisín O’ Grady studied at University College Cork where she took her B.A. (Hons, Music and Italian) in 2000 and B.Mus (Hons)in 2001.  In 2004, she completed the one-year Postgraduate Diploma in Concert Singing at The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow, under the vocal guidance of soprano Margaret Marshall O.B.E.  She recieved a First Class Hons. M.A. in Performance at the Cork School of Music in 2008.  She was selected to perform in The Johann Sebastian Bach International Music Competition in Leipzig, July 2008.  She was a member of and a soloist with The National Chamber Choir of Ireland for over two years.    

Róisín has extensive concert experience including; Vivaldi’s Gloria, Beatus Vir and Magnificat, Handel’s Solomon, Samson, Dixit Dominus, Ode on St. Cecilia and Messiah, Charpentier’s Mess de Minuit, Schubert’s Mass in G, Schumann’s Reqiuem, Haydn’s Little Organ Mass, Creation and Nelson Mass, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G Minor, Allegri’ Miserere, Bach’s Jauchzet Gott, Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate, Durufle’s Requiem, Saint Säens’ Christmas Oratorio, Fauré’s Requiem, John Rutter’s Requiem and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.  She has performed with choral societies and orchestras throughout Ireland and Scotland including The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, The Irish Baroque Orchestra and The Orchestra of St. Cecilia.  She is a member of the early music duo Tonos who performed in The John Field Room, NCH, The National Gallery of Ireland, Royal Society of the Arts, London, Queen’s University and were broadcast in concert by Lyric FM.  She performed at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in 2008. 

The Irish harpsichordist and organist, Malcolm Proud was born and educated in Dublin where he read music at Trinity College.  Following a further year of study with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam the Sweelinck Conservatoire awarded him the Performer's Diploma. In 1982 he won 1st prize at the Edinburgh International Harpsichord Competition.

He has performed harpsichord concertos with the Chandos Baroque Players in Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa and Pasadena, with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Gustav Leonhardt in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London and Birmingham and with the English Baroque Soloists under Sir John Eliot Gardiner in Zürich. He participated in John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000, toured Japan in 2001 with tenor Mark Padmore in the Purcell Quartet’s production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo performing in Tokyo, Osaka and Mito, and in 2005 played in a reconstruction of Bach’s St. Mark’s Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music in Lucerne.

He has toured the U.S. and Canada with notable performances at Harvard University and the Frick Museum in New York. Regular appearances in the U.K. have been in  London’s Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, Conway Hall, the Barbican, the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, and Cadogan Hall to name but a few. As an organist he has performed on the historic instruments at Frederiksborg in Denmark,  Valère-Sion in Switzerland, Ottobeuren near Munich, Fagervik in Finland and Udine in Italy and on modern organs  in Antwerp Cathedral, Aveiro in Portugal, and Perchtoldsdorf, Maria Enzersdorf and Propstei St. Gerold in Austria and Charlottesville VA and Boston MA.

His recordings for EMI, Virgin Classics, Meridian, Hyperion, Claddagh, Maya, Centaur, DG Archiv include Bach’s Goldberg Variations, the 5th Brandenburg Concerto with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Zelenka’s Lamentations with Chandos Baroque Players, the six sonatas for violin and harpsichord with Maya Homburger and the three sonatas for bass viol and harpsichord and Marin Marais’ suites with the American viola da gambist John Dornenburg. He has also recorded Purcell’s harpsichord music. His CD of  Bach’s Clavier Übung Bk. 3 was recorded on the Metzler organ in Stein am Rhein, Switzerland in 2008.

His recording of Biber’s Mystery Sonatas with Maya Homburger and Camerata Kilkenny won the prestigious German music industry  Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik Award in 2007.

His recent recording of Bach’s 5th Brandenburg Concerto with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloist has received much critical acclaim. He will record  Bach’s Musical Offering with Dutch baroque flautist Wilbert Hazelzet and Camerata Kilkenny in Belgium in 2010.  He will make his BBC Proms concerto début with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists  in August 2010 performing the 5th Brandenburg Concerto. His recording with the English Baroque Soloists of Bach’s triple concerto recorded in Zurich is due to be released in March 2010.  Malcolm Proud is a full time lecturer on the BA Degree Course in Music at the Waterford Institute of Technology and organist at St. Canice’s Cathedral.

Sample Programmes

Voice and Harpsichord;

Henry Purcell;  Fairest Isle Z.628/38

                         If Music be the Food of Love Z.379C

                        The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation Z.196

Harpsichord suite; Handel suite no, 5 in E major.

                        Prelude

                        Allemande

                        Courante

                        Air with Variations

Voice and Piano; 

Joseph Haydn; (These are a selection of five songs from Haydn’s twelve songs set to English).

                        The Mermaid’s Song

                        Recollection

                        Fidelity

                        She Never Told Her Love

                        Sailor’s Song

Interval

Mozart Lieder  Der Zauberer K.472

                        Als Luise die Briefe K.520

                        Abendempfindung K.523

Claude Debussy song cycle, Ariettes Oubliées L.60.  There are six songs in this cycle.

                        C’est l’Extase

                        Il pleure dans mon coeur

                        L’Ombre des Arbres

                        Chevaux de Bois

                        Green

                        Spleen

ADDITIONAL REPERTIORE FOR VOICE AND PIANO

Benjamin Britten song cycle, On This Island Op. 11

                                                Let the Florid Music Praise

                                                Now the Leaves are Falling Fast

                                                Seascape

                                                Nocturne

                                                As it is Plenty

William Walton Three Songs

                                                Daphne

                                                Through Gilded Trellises

                                                Old Sir Faulk

Dominick Argento song cycle, Six Elizabethan Songs

                                                Spring

                                                Sleep

                                                Winter

                                                Dirge

                                                Diaphenia

                                                Hymn

Strauss songs                            Morgen

                                                Wozu nach Mädchen

                                                Du meines Herzens

                                                Zueignung

Reviews

"On the harpsichord he perfectly comlemented his singer in the conceit and decorative detail of each of the Purcell songs. He turned then to the piano for the songs by Mozart and Haydn, matching O’Grady in the energetic animation of pictorial detail and emotional message. "

Michael Dungan – Irish Times December 9th 2009

"...among Ireland's most vibrant and imaginative early music performers."

Jan Smaczny, Hamilton-Harty Professor of Music, Queen's University.

More Info

For further information on availability or artist fees or to discuss a booking please contact the Performance Programme Manager by emailing .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or telephone: 01 6719429.