Colette McGahon

Irish mezzo-soprano Colette McGahon studied with Dr Veronica Dunne at the College of Music in Dublin, at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and at the National Opera Studio in London. While there she was a finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Competition and won the Miriam Licette Prize which enabled her to specialise in the study of French Song.

Colette’s operatic roles include Ottavia (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), Kostelnicka (Jenufa), Mrs Grose (The Turn of the Screw) and the title role in Carmen. She has worked with conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Bernard Haitink, Ivor Bolton and been directed by Sir Peter Hall, Trevor Nunn and Richard Jones.

Colette has appeared with Opera Ireland, Opera Northern Ireland, Opera Theatre Company, Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Opera 80, the festivals of Covent Garden, Buxton, Glyndebourne and Longborough and at the BBC Proms. As a recitalist she has sung in the Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, National Concert Hall Dublin. Her discography includes C.V. Stanford’s Requiem on the Marco Polo label.

Career highlights include a highly acclaimed Wagnerian debut singing the role of Waltraute in Götterdämmerung for Longborough Festival Opera. She has since added Fricka in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre to her Wagnerian roles.

In the field of education Colette is a Lecturer in Vocal Studies and Opera Producer at TU Dublin Conservatoire of Music and Drama and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She is much demand as an adjudicator and has given masterclasses throughout Ireland and the UK. Her students have risen to dizzying heights on the international opera scene performing at the Royal Opera Covent Garden, Glyndebourne Festival, Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, Aix-en-Provence and La Scala Milan.