Ailish Tynan was born in Mullingar, Ireland, and studied at Trinity College, the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. She won the Rosenblatt Recital Prize at the 2003 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. Other awards include the Maggie Teyte Competition, Miriam Licette Award and the RTÉ Millennium Singer of the Future.
Her recent opera engagements have included her highly acclaimed company and role debuts of Héro Béatrice et Bénédict for Houston Grand Opera and Opéra Comique, Sophie Der Rosenkavalier and Atalanta Xerses for the Royal Swedish Opera, Miss Wordsworth Albert Herring for Opéra Comique and Opéra de Rouen, and Vixen The Cunning Little Vixen for Grange Park Opera. Whilst at the Young Artist Programme of Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, she performed Papagena Die Zauberflöte, First Niece Peter Grimes, Xenia Boris Godunov, Second Wood Nymph Rusalka and Woodbird Siegfried. Later she returned to sing Marzelline Fidelio under Antonio Pappano. She also sang Zerlina Don Giovanni for the Seattle Opera as her US opera debut, Valencienne The Merry Widow and Susanna Le nozze di Figaro for Welsh National Opera, Euridice Orfeo ed Euridice and Pamina Die Zauberflöte for Opera Ireland.
As a celebrated concert singer, her recent highlights include in the opening night of the BBC Proms, Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music and the King’s College Choir in Cambridge then for BBC Radio 3, Mahler 8 with the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, Finzi Dies Natalis and Szymanowski Stabat Mater with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Simon Halsey, Mozart’s arias and Exsultate Jubilate with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Michal Dworzynski, Carmina Burana with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Daniele Gatti, Mahler 4 with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins and Ännchen Der Freischütz at the Edinburgh International Festival conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras. She also works frequently with all the BBC orchestras, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and Ulster Orchestra, to name a few.
In recitals, Ailish has collaborated with distinguished accompanists including Malcolm Martineau, Graham Johnson, Julius Drake, Iain Burnside, Roger Vignoles and Barry Douglas, giving recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Edinburgh International Festival, City of London Festival, Cheltenham Music Festival, West Cork Music Festival, LSO St. Luke’s and St John’s Smith Square, London. As a former BBC New Generation Artist, she is frequently heard on BBC Radio 3. Her latest discography includes Irish Songs by Herbert Hughes on the Signum Classics, Muriel Herbert songs on Linn Records and the NMC Songbook. She has just finished recording Fauré songs with Iain Burnside on Rosenblatt label and Poulenc songs with Graham Johnson for Hyperion.
Recent and future engagements include Nanetta Falstaff for the Royal Swedish Opera, Tigrane Radamisto for the ENO and return to the ROH for the title role in Hänsel und Gretel. She also recently performed Haydn Seasons in Madrid with Harry Christophers, and gave recitals at the Wigmore Hall and for Music in Galway.
Ailish Tynan is represented by Intermusica.
Ju;y 2010 / 496 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.
Mozart Grabmusik & Requiem
Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele / cond. Michael Hofstetter
"Michael Hofstetter, conducting the Ludwigsburger Festspiele Orchestra with period instruments, makes full use of intensive contrasts and the Irish soprano, Ailish Tynan, interprets these mental anguish in an astoundingly way and with great volume and strength. Josef Wagner, in the role of the angel, counters didactically and soothingly with his oily bass. Their magnificent duet and the powerful final chorus open the heaven for the Last Judgement"
Dietholf Zerweck, Untertürkheimer Zeitung, July 2010
Handel Messiah
Royal Scottish National Orchestra / cond. Roy Goodman
“There are good sopranos and very good sopranos; but there is only one Ailish Tynan. This was luxury casting, and so it proved as she came on and simply radiated sumptuous beauty of tone.”
Michael Tumelty, Herald Scotland, January 2010
“Ailish Tynan…possessed an air of innocence that responded particularly well to the simplicity of the solo violin and continuo accompaniment in ‘If God be for us’.”
Carla Whalen, The Scotsman, January 2010
Haydn The Creation
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / cond. Andris Nelsons
“Soprano Ailish Tynan, creamy and impressively virtuosic.”
Christopher Morley, Birmingham Post, December 2009
Chabrier Ode à la Musique & Bruckner Psalm 150
“Chabrier’s “Ode à la musique” creates something of a perfumed garden with its rich, major-key chords and adoring soprano solos, nicely floated by Ailish Tynan.”
Ben Hogwood, Classical Source, July 2009
“The idea of including Chabrier’s Ode à la musique was a strong one. This was the first Proms performance of the piece. Using a smaller orchestra than the Stravinsky but including soprano soloist (Tynan) and female voices, this was utter delight, right from its gentle opening… Ailish Tynan sang beautifully… projecting perfectly to my seat at the back of the stalls. A great way to experience this little-known piece for the first time.”
Colin Clarke, MusicWeb International, July 2009
Title role of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen
Grange Park Opera / cond. André di Ridder / dir. David Alden
“Ailish Tynan acted our the Vixen with great confidence and effect, and was vocally convincing in the more skittish aspects”
Roger Parker, Opera Magazine, August 2009
“As the bright, clear-voiced Vixen, Ailish Tynan led the pack, stalking on high heels with her fox-fur over her shoulder.”
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, July 2009
"Tynan's chutzpah and candour, energy and engagement are electrifying and she bites into the clustered Czech consonants with relish."
Anna Picard, The Independent, June 2009
“…Ailish Tynan’s feisty, lustrous, vibrant Vixen.”
Andrew Clark, Financial Times, June 2009
"Tynan's cleanly sung Vixen represents the life-force of the animal kingdom.”
George Hall, The Guardian, June 2009
Mozart concert / Glasgow City Halls
BBC Symphony Orchestra / cond. Michal Dworzynski / 19 March 2009
“…the star of the show, and the queen of the night, was the gloriously-voiced Irish soprano Ailish Tynan.
On Thursday her performances of Mozart’s concert aria Alma grande e nobil cor, along with the evergreen motet, Exsultate Jubilate, exemplified what a wonderous instrument is Tynan’s voice, as luxuriously smooth as cream, with real soprano top that has no sharp edge and an amazing bottom register that is almost alto-like in its colous and character. Her poise and control in both numbers was complemented by her extraordinarily unforced acrobatics in decorative passages of the music.”
Michael Tumelty, The Herald, March 2009
Mendelssohn Recital with Llŷr Williams
Wigmore Hall / 4 January 2009
“Since winning the recital prize at the Cardiff Singer of the World, Tynan's distinctively bright and athletic soprano has grown by rapid leaps and bounds. Phosphorescence seemed to hover over the fairytale nocturne of Neue Liebe, as the flare at the top of her voice lit this menacing encounter with the elf-queen. All too human passion heated Die Liebende schreibt, as Goethe's lover came to sensuous life in Tynan's long, awed vowels, before she ended her recital On Wings of Song.”
Hilary Finch, The Times, January 2009
Hero in Berlioz's Béatrice et Bénédict Houston Grand Opera / cond. Michael Hofstetter / dir. Robin Tebbutt "...radiant-voiced Ailish Tynan as the sweet ingenue Hero...Tynan's fine, clean soprano and genteel manner make her Hero the ideal of uncomplicated love and devotion"
Everett Evans, Houston Chronicle, November 2008
Mahler Symphony No.8 / St. Paul’s Cathedral
City of London Festival / London Symphony Orchestra / Valery Gergiev
“Both sopranos – Anastasia Kalagina and Ailish Tynan – sang full and true and there was a virile, intrepid tenor in Sergey Semishkur."
Edward Seckerson, The Independent, July 2008
"A predominantly Russian cast of soloists was led by Viktoria Yastrebova and our own excellent Ailish Tynan. The baritone Alexey Markov was a mellifluous Pater Ecstaticus and Evgeny Nikitin a forthright Pater Profundus, while to Sergey Semishkur fell the responsibility of launching the final stretch with an operatic Doctor Marianus. "
Barry Millington, Evening Standard, July 2008
"There was a modest line-up of soloists, of whom the best were Ailish Tynan as soprano two, Evgeny Nikitin sure in focus as the bass, and Sergey Semishkur, making light of the difficulties of the tenor part. "
Richard Fairman, Financial Times, July 2008
Marzelline in Beethoven's Fidelio
Dir. Jurgen Flimm / Antonio Pappano
“The Irish soprano Ailish Tynan sang Marzelline prettily…”
Rupert Christiansen, The Daily Telegraph, May 2007
“Ailish Tynan sings Marzelline with bags of energy…”
Richard Morrison, The Times, May 2007
Concert performance / Nash Ensemble
"But of course the ensemble has a vocal soloist with them that is truly able to make the material come alive, the Irish soprano Ailish Tynan. There is a lightning sense of presence in her interpretations, both in the carefully whispered and the expressively extroverted. Ravel´s erotically charged and intimately dreamy Chansons madécasses, Gounod´s melodramatic, mocking “Où voulez-vous aller?” Saint Saëns´ mildly decadent “Violons dans le soir” and Schubert´s border crossing and utopian “Der Hirt auf dem Felsen”, become in Tynan´s performance a series of physical states, without the tones ever feeling intrusive or strained."
The Gothenburg Post, 2007
Papagena in Die Zauberflöte / Royal Opera House
“Ailish Tynan made her mark as a Papagena of demotic immediacy and naturalness.”
Opera News, 2004
“Papagena (Ailish Tynan) was vivacious and funny, especially in her giggly Dolly Parton disguise with leather mini skirt and cleavage.”
Opera Now, 2004
Rosenblatt Recital / St John's Smith Square
“A notable recital debut in the Rosenblatt series at St John’s Smith Square in London was that of the young Irish soprano currently singing Papagena at Covent Garden, Ailish Tynan. With a lyric voice of delicious purity, she sang an aptly chosen programme. It is a voice that can sparkly without becoming hard. She is accomplished in her florid work, and she also dipped bravely into the lieder repertoire and delighted us unexpectedly with children’s songs by Manuel Rosenthal.”
Opera Now, 2004
Despina in an Act from Cosi fan Tutte / Royal Opera House
“The chunk of Cosi was a straightforward showcase for tomorrow's talent show of the sort that music colleges put on twice yearly. Except that the talent on the Vilar programme is a cut above your average conservatoire voice… there was much to admire… in Ailish Tynan's feisty Despina.”
The Times, 2003
These are featured projects related to Ailish Tynan:
Highlights
AILISH TYNAN
2009/10 HIGHLIGHTS
• 10 October 2009 Atalanta in Handel’s Xerxes, Royal Swedish Opera, cond. Andreas Stoehr (also 12, 15, 17, 19, 22, 24, 26, 31 October; 2, 4 & 9 November)
• 3 December 2009 Haydn’s The Creation, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, cond. Andris Nelsons
• 11 December 2009 Haydn’s Nelson’s Mass, RTÉ Symphony Orchestra, cond. Douglas Boyd
• 18 December 2009 Vaughan-Williams’s...