Our History
Opera Collective Ireland was founded as Irish Youth Opera by mezzo soprano Colette McGahon in 2011 to give high-standard performance opportunities to singers in their early professional careers. A successful opera singer and sought after teacher and vocal coach, Colette identified the gap that existed between the end of formal education and the beginning of an operatic career. The practical experience that young artists needed to maximise their opportunities on entering the profession was missing and so following conversations with international soprano Suzanne Murphy and tenor Paul McNamara, Irish Youth Opera was born.
Since then the company has rebranded as Opera Collective Ireland and with support and funding from the Arts Council of Ireland has gone from strength to strength. Our annual production is now a much anticipated part of the Irish opera calendar and with the help of our Friends Circle we have given numerous young singers an important career boost at just the right moment… You will now find OCI alumni on stages all across the globe.
What’s On
Find out more about OCI’s upcoming and past productions.