Ann Murray

Last updated

Final curtain call of the Metropolitan Opera's 24 December 2011 performance of La fille du regiment (l to r) Lawrence Brownlee (Tonio), Nino Machaidze (Marie), and Ann Murray (Marquise) Curtain Call (6766562451).jpg
Final curtain call of the Metropolitan Opera's 24 December 2011 performance of La fille du régiment (l to r) Lawrence Brownlee (Tonio), Nino Machaidze (Marie), and Ann Murray (Marquise)

Ann Murray, DBE (born 27 August 1949) is an Irish mezzo-soprano. [1]

Contents

Life and career

Murray was born in Dublin. Having won a number of prizes at the Feis Ceoil, she studied singing at the College of Music (now the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, Dublin) with Nancy Calthorpe, as well as arts and music at University College Dublin. In 1968, she made her Irish opera debut performing the shepherd role in a concert performance of Tosca . [2] She pursued further studies with Frederic Cox at the Royal Manchester College of Music and made her stage debut as Alcestis in Christoph Willibald Gluck's Alceste in 1974. She has since sung at all major opera houses and is particularly noted for her performances in works by George Frideric Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss.[ citation needed ]

Murray performs mainly at Covent Garden (where she performed as Siphare in Mozart's Mitridate, re di Ponto ), the English National Opera and the Bavarian State Opera. Murray was the featured singer in volume three of the Hyperion Schubert Edition, Hyperion Records' complete Franz Schubert lieder project, in 1988, led by pianist Graham Johnson.[ citation needed ]

She maintains her links with Ireland and was a patron of the Young Associate Artists Programme of Dublin's Opera Theatre Company.[ citation needed ] In September 2010, she was appointed professor of singing at the Royal Academy of Music in London, [3] where she was previously (since 1999) an honorary fellow. [4]

Awards and honours

She received an honorary doctorate in music from the National University of Ireland in 1997. [4] She was made Bavarian Kammersängerin in 1998.

In 2002, she was made an Honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Diamond Jubilee Honours for her services to music. [5]

She was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit in 2004. [4]

Personal life

Murray was married to the late English tenor, Philip Langridge. The couple had one son, Jonathan, also a tenor. [6]

Recordings

See also

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

Ileana Cotrubaș is a Romanian operatic soprano whose career spanned from the 1960s to the 1980s. She was much admired for her acting skills and facility for singing opera in many different languages.

<i>Roméo et Juliette</i> (Berlioz) 1839 choral symphony by Hector Berlioz

Roméo et Juliette is a seven-movement symphonie dramatique for orchestra and three choruses, with vocal solos, by French composer Hector Berlioz. Émile Deschamps wrote its libretto with Shakespeare's play as his base. The work was completed in 1839 and first performed on 24 November of that year, but it was modified before its first publication, in 1847, and modified again for the 2ème Édition of 1857, today's reference. It bears the catalogue numbers Op. 17 and H. 79. Regarded as one of Berlioz's finest achievements, Roméo et Juliette is also among his most original in form and his most comprehensive and detailed to follow a program. The vocal forces are used in the 1st, 5th and 7th movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kiri Te Kanawa</span> New Zealand opera singer

Dame Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa,, is a New Zealand opera singer. She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced". On 1 December 1971 she was recognised internationally when she appeared as the Countess in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House in London.

<i>Great Mass in C minor</i>, K. 427 Musical mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Great Mass in C minor, K. 427/417a, is the common name of the musical setting of the mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which is considered one of his greatest works. He composed it in Vienna in 1782 and 1783, after his marriage, when he moved to Vienna from Salzburg. The large-scale work, a missa solemnis, is scored for two soprano soloists, a tenor and a bass, double chorus and large orchestra. It remained unfinished, missing large portions of the Credo and the complete Agnus Dei.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magdalena Kožená</span> Czech mezzo-soprano (born 1973)

Magdalena Kožená, Lady Rattle is a Czech mezzo-soprano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Petibon</span> French soprano

Patricia Petibon is a French soprano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">René Pape</span> German operatic bass singer

René Pape is a German operatic bass. Pape has received two Grammys, was named "Vocalist of the Year" by Musical America in 2002, "Artist of the Year" by the German opera critics in 2006, and won an ECHO award in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Mathis</span> Swiss soprano (born 1938)

Edith Mathis is a Swiss soprano and a leading exponent of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart worldwide. She is known for parts in Mozart operas, but also took part in premieres of operas such as Henze's Der junge Lord.

Jill Carnegy, Countess of Northesk is a Trinidadian and British soprano who enjoyed an active career on the operatic stage and in the concert hall in a wide repertoire, and has made many recordings.

Marie McLaughlin is a Scottish operatic soprano.

Kate Royal is an English lyric soprano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francisco Araiza</span> Mexican tenor (born 1950)

José Francisco Araiza Andrade is a Mexican operatic tenor and lied singer who has sung as soloist in leading concert halls and in leading tenor operatic roles in the major opera houses of Europe and North America during the course of a lengthy career. Born in Mexico City, he studied singing at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música de México and later in Germany, with Mozartian tenor Richard Holm, and lieder interpretation with Erik Werba. He made his operatic debut in 1970 in Mexico City as First Prisoner in Beethoven's Fidelio. Araiza initially came to international prominence singing in Mozart and Rossini operas, but in the 1980s broadened his repertoire to include Italian and French lyric tenor roles and Wagnerian roles such as Lohengrin and Walther von Stolzing. He was made a Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera in 1988. Now retired from the opera stage, he teaches singing and serves on the juries of several international singing competitions.

Susan Gritton is an English operatic soprano. She was the 1994 winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award and has sung leading roles in a wide-ranging repertoire from Handel and Mozart to Britten, Janáček and Strauss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Rolfe Johnson</span> English operatic tenor

Anthony Rolfe Johnson was an English operatic tenor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arleen Auger</span> American coloratura soprano (1939-1993)

Joyce Arleen Auger was an American coloratura soprano, known for her interpretations of works by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Monteverdi, Mozart, and Schubert. She won a posthumous Grammy Award for "Best Classical Vocal Performance" in 1994.

Christine Brewer is an American soprano opera singer.

Murray Dickie OBE was a Scottish tenor opera singer and director, who established his career in England, Austria and Italy during the 1950s. In addition to his extensive stage work he was a prolific recording artist.

Roderick Gregory Coleman Williams OBE is a British baritone and composer.

Amanda Jane Roocroft is an English operatic soprano, who in the course of her career has sung leading roles in the opera houses of Europe and North America.

<i>Mozart Mass K. 139</i> (Claudio Abbado recording) 1976 studio album by Claudio Abbado

Mozart Mass K. 139 is a 45-minute classical studio album on which Mozart's Waisenhaus-Messe is performed by Gundula Janowitz. Frederica von Stade, Wiesław Ochman, Kurt Moll, the Chorus of the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Claudio Abbado. It was released in 1976.

References

  1. Macy, Laura Williams (ed.) (2008). The Grove Book of Opera Singers, pp. 334–335. Oxford University Press. ISBN   0195337654
  2. Foregoing info based on Axel Klein: "Murray, Ann", in: The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland, ed. by Harry White and Barra Boydell (Dublin: UCD Press, 2013), p. 697–699.
  3. "New Appointments". Royal Academy of Music. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  4. 1 2 3 Ann Murray at the Royal Academy of Music. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  5. Artist page at Askonas Holt Ltd. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  6. Millington, Barry, "Philip Langridge Obituary: Leading British tenor committed to the theatrical dimension of the operatic stage" The Guardian, 7 March 2010