Resurgam choir has announced the appointment of Dr Wolodymyr Smishkewych as its new General Manager. The singer, broadcaster and early music specialist will begin his new role next month, succeeding Lucy Hayward O’Leary who is leaving to concentrate on the string orchestra Luminosa, which she co-founded in 2018.

Smishkewych moved to Ireland from the USA in 2011 to direct the MA in Ritual Chant and Song at the Irish World of Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick. In 2014, he left academia to return to performing. A member of groups Sequentia and Theatre of Voices, he has also performed with artists and ensembles such as Jordi Savall and and his early music group Hesperion XXI, The Harp Consort, Carlos Núñez, and Capella Romana. In 2015, Smishkewych joined RTÉ Lyric FM and currently presents the early music programme Vox Nostra. With historical music specialist Dr Yonit Kosovske he founded the organisation H.I.P.S.T.E.R. (Historically Informed Performance Series, Teaching, Education and Research) and in 2021 launched the Limerick Early Music Festival. 

Commenting on his new role, Smishkewych said: 

I am absolutely thrilled to accept the role of Resurgam’s general manager. Resurgam is an ensemble with which I have had the honour to perform, and which I have admired as it has gone from strength to strength in these last years. I am very excited to help guide the group  into a new phase in the coming years, as it takes its rightful place on the international stage as a first-class Irish ensemble. I look forward to ensuring Resurgam’s active return to live  performances in Ireland and abroad as well as helping grow its recording output, broaden its outreach, and further grow its audience base. 

Smishkewych will begin his new role in November at the launch of Resurgam’s new Baroque ensemble, Vespera. Resurgam with Vespera will perform Abendmusik concerts on Saturday 20 November at St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, with Peter Barley’s Sagittarius Hiberniensis Choir and St Mary’s Cathedral Choir, and on Sunday 21 November with the choristers of St Nicholas’ Schola Cantorum at St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, Galway.

For more, visit: www.resurgam.ie.