An unforgettable evening of Opera and Song with Claudia Boyle, Soprano, and Mairead Hurley, Piano

A former member of the Salzburger Festspiele’s prestigious Young Singers Project, Irish Soprano Claudia Boyle has secured her stellar international profile in recent seasons through highly-acclaimed performances in Zurich, Rome, London, Berlin and New York. She has recently returned from making her house debut for Opéra National de Paris singing the role of Dede in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place conducted by Kent Nagano and directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski. Claudia has won both the First Prize and the Critics Award at The Maria Callas Competition in Verona where the Callas Estate presented her with the miraculous medal once owned and worn by the legendary singer. She was chosen by esteemed film director Mike Leigh to star in his first ever venture for the operatic stage as the leading heroine Mabel in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance in London’s West End. Claudia received particular critical praise for her performance, with the opera being broadcast live in cinemas across Europe.Career highlights have included Konstanze Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Komische Oper Berlin, Alice Alice’s Adventures Underground at The Royal Opera House Covent Garden under Thomas Adès, Adina L’elisir d’amore at Semperoper Dresden and Den Norske Opera, Leila The Pearl Fishers for English National Opera, Tytania A Midsummer Night’s Dream conducted by James Conlon at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, and Lucia Lucia di Lammermoor with Danish National Opera. Claudia performed the four roles of Olympia, Antonia, Giulietta and Stella in Les Contes d'Hoffmann for Irish National Opera and as a testament to her linguistic strengths, Boyle made her debut as Verdi’s Gilda in Rigoletto at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma under Renato Palumbo to overwhelming audience and critical acclaim.She created the role of May-Shan in Christian Jost’s opera Rote Laterne under Alain Altinoglu for Opernhaus Zürich. Claudia performed with the New York Philharmonic at the Metropolitan Opera’s Lincoln Centre, singing the role of Cecily Cardew in Gerald Barry’s The importance of Being Earnest. Her blossoming concert career has taken her further afield to Tokyo, Sao Paolo and Ankara. She has appeared at the Salzburger Festspiele in Cherubini’s Chant sur la mort de Joseph Haydn under Riccardo Muti, with NHK Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No.8 under Paavo Järvi, and in Henze’s Nachtstücke und Arien with NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover under Eivind Gullberg Jensen. Claudia joined Kent Nagano and Ensemble Modern in the role of Dede for the premiere performance of a new chamber version of Bernstein’s A Quiet Place at Konzerthaus Berlin, subsequently joining Nagano and l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal for further performances and a CD recording for DECCA.Claudia collaborated with playwright Enda Wash composer Donnacha Dennehy on their first opera The Last Hotel which received critical acclaim at The Dublin Theatre Festival, The Edinburgh Festival and The Prototype Festival in New York. This was subsequently filmed by Sky Arts and recorded by Cantaloupe Music record label.

Mairéad Hurley studied piano under Rhona Marshall at the RIAM and music at UCD, graduating from there with a BMus. Further studies include the répétiteur course at the London National Opera Studio and a First Class Honours MMus degree (performance) at TU Dublin Conservatoire.Mairead was Head of Music at Opera Ireland from 1998 to 2010 and with a repertoire of over seventy operas, she has also worked for Wexford Festival Opera, Opera Theatre Company, Opera Northern Ireland, Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, Lyric Opera, RTE Proms, the NSO and the RTE Concert Orchestra. More recently, she has been chorus mistress for Blackwater Valley Opera Festival. Productions to date include L’Elisir d'Amore, L'Italiana in Algeri, and Don Pasquale.Mairead performs regularly in recital, work which has taken her to many venues at home and abroad including the NCH, John Field Room, Wexford Festival, Boyle Festival and the Wigmore Hall, London. She has officiated at many music festivals and Masterclasses throughout the country and also officiated for Gerhard Markson’s very successful series of conducting classes in conjunction with the NSO and Dublin Masterclasses.From 2010 until 2021, Mairead was Head of Vocal, Opera and Drama studies at TU Dublin Conservatoire. She continues her work in the Conservatoire as répétiteur in the vocal department and is external examiner for the MMus Performance in Répétiteur at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire. She is currently studying for a Masters in Psychotherapy at Turning Point Institute.