Biographies
Proinnsías Ó Duinn, conductor
In 2003, Proinnsías Ó Duinn was appointed Conductor Laureate of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra after holding the position of Principal Conductor since 1978. Originally a cellist, Proinnsías was appointed Conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in 1963. After this he held the position of Music Director and Principal Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador. Shortly after being invited to take the position with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, he became Music Director and Conductor of Our Lady’s Choral Society. Proinnsías’s repertoire covers the entire spectrum, from popular to symphonic and includes many national and world premières. He has conducted both the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in a wide-ranging repertoire on CD for Marco Polo and Naxos. As a composer he has written music for most genres from chamber music to symphonic, television and stage. The seven hour television epic production Strumpet City, for which he composed the soundtrack, has been seen world-wide and was recently issued on DVD. He is also in demand as an arranger and orchestrator. Since 2002, Proinnsías has been invited each year to Hallé, the birthplace of Handel, to conduct the birthday celebration performance of Messiah in the Handel Concert Hall. This festival at the end of February each year comprises international soloists, a choir of approximately 400 singers, and the orchestra of the Opera House, Hallé. In December 2005 Proinnsías revisited Ecuador to conduct a series of concerts with the National Symphony Orchestra in the newly refurbished Teatro Sucre and the new Concert Hall of the Conservatorio Nacional. In 2007 Proinnsías was commissioned by the Royal Dublin Society to create a new edition and orchestral material of Julius Benedict’s The Lily of Killarney from 19th century manuscripts in The British Library. This was performed in the RDS in June 2007 as part of their celebrations to present the entire Irish Ring. This project concluded in June of this year with performances of Bohemian Girl.
Rev. Paul Ward, Director
Fr. Paul joined Our Lady’s Choral Society as a tenor in 1985. In 2005 Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the choir’s President, appointed him as director of the choir. During the past 24 years Fr. Paul has sung, as a choral member, in the choir’s varied repertoire which include works by Bach, Beethoven, Poulenc, Gounod, Berlioz, Brahms, Charpentier, Haydn, Handel, Mahler, Mozart ,Michael Tippett and Vaughan Williams. With the choir he sang a specially commissioned work for Pope John Paul 11 on the occasion of the Beatification of the Irish Martyrs in 1992. His favourite work is Cardinal John Henry Newman’s poem ‘The Dream of Gerontius’ set to music by Sir Edward Elgar, which he has performed a number of times with Our Lady’s Choral Society. To celebrate the year of St. Paul, announced by the Holy Father, the choir performed Felix Mendelssohn’s St. Paul in Dublin’s National Concert Hall in November and here in Rome at the saint’s tomb in St. Paul’s Basilica yesterday (February 11th.). Fr. Paul is delighted to have the honour of singing Messiah with the choir for Pope Benedict.
Lynda Lee, soprano
Lynda Lee studied singing with Dr. Veronica Dunne at the College of Music in Dublin. During this time, she was the recipient of many national vocal awards and bursaries and also represented Northern Ireland in the Cardiff Singer of the World and was a finalist and prizewinner at the International Belvedere Competition in Vienna. She made her professional debut with Opera Theatre Company in Handel’s Tamerlano and went on to have a long association with the composer internationally. She has performed with all the Irish Opera Companies such Wexford Festival Opera, Opera Ireland, Opera Northern Ireland and is a regular soloist with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Following several leading Handel roles such as Xerxes (Opernwelt Best Newcomer Award Nomination), Agrippina and Zenobia (Radamisto) (Opernwelt Best Performance Award Nomination) for International Handel Festivals in Germany, she was invited to go on contract with Oper Leipzig. Roles during her engagement there included Elisabeth (Tannhauser), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), First Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Genoveva (title role), Mutter (Hansel & Gretel), and the Second Soprano in Mozart’s C Minor Mass for the award-winning Leipziger Ballet. She also appeared at the Dresden Festival with RIAS Kammerchor (Merab – Saul) and several times at the Handel Festival in Halle. Lynda has appeared with conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Alan Curtis, Roy Goodman, Paul Goodwin and Andreas Sperring. She is in demand as an oratorio soloist in a wide range of repertoire including Handel, Mozart, Janácek, Dvorák and Mendelssohn. Her commercial recordings include Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Handel’s Xerxes, Radamisto and Rodrigo for the Il Mondo Label, Wallace’s Maritana for Naxos and Patrick Cassidy’s (Composer of the Hannibal soundtrack) Children of Lir and Deirdre of the Sorrows with the London Symphony Orchestra. She was also featured in the film and soundtrack of Becoming Jane, the life story of the author Jane Austen. Future plans include her ongoing association with the Bach Cantata Series at St Anne’s Church in Dawson Street, Adalgisa with Lyric Opera at The National Concert Hall and she will also sing the role of Donna Anna at with The Orchestra of St. Cecelia conducted by Kenneth Montgomery.
Robin Tritschler, tenor
Robin Tritschler graduated from the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, London. Prizes have included the Ulster Bank Music Foundation Bursary, the Abigail Dodds Lieder Prize, the Song Prize at the Second China International Singing Competition, and the Song Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards 2006. He won the lieder prize at the Internationaal Vocalisten Concours in ’s-Hertogenbosch, (as well as being awarded 3rd place overall) and, most recently, 2nd Prize at the 2007 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition. In recital, Robin has worked with Janne Malinen, James Boyd, Simon Lepper, Eugene Murski, Roger Vignoles and Graham Johnson. His numerous recital appearances have included the KlavierFest Ruhr, a Benjamin Britten Festival at the Cologne Philharmonie, the Orivesi Music Festival, Finland; the Brahms Song Festival at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; the Dublin Hugo Wolf Festival; the Aldeburgh Festival; and the Temple Recital Series in Utah, USA. On the concert platform Robin has sung with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra; the RTÉ Concert Orchestra; the Orchestra of St. John’s, Smith Square; Cappella Cracoviensis, Poland; the National Symphony Orchestra of Belarus; the Halle Operhaus Orchestra; and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Robin has sung both Evangelist and tenor arias of the Matthew Passion and John Passion in Holland, Ireland, France, Germany and most recently with the Kreuzchor, Dresden. As well as the other major works of Bach, the B minor Mass and Christmas Oratorio, he has performed over 120 Cantatas. He gave his first operatic performance as Sultan Solimann in Mozart’s Zaide under Paul McCreesh at the 2004 Aldeburgh Festival. In 2005 he sang 1st Jew in Salome under Edo de Waart with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and in August 2006 he sang the tenor role in the World Première production of Roger Waters’ Ça Ira in Poland. For the Glyndebourne Festival he has understudied Ferrando (Cosi fan tutte) and Peter Quint (The Turn of the Screw). Robin joined the Welsh National Opera for the 2008/09 season as a company member and roles will include Rodrigo (Otello), Count Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) and Marzio (Mitridate). Future plans include recitals in the Wigmore Hall with Graham Johnson, and the Aldeburgh Festival with Malcolm Martineau.
Ulrike Schneider, alto
Ulrike Schneider was born in Hamm, Westphalia, Germany. After studies in Basel (Swizerland) and Berlin (Germany) she became member of the Opernstudio der Bayrischen Staatsoper, Munich, where she has performed many roles. Her first engagement led her to Lucerne, Swizerland, then back to Germany, to Halle, Handel’s place of birth. During this time, she sang nearly all parts of her register, such as Cherubino, Dorabella, Sesto, The Composer, Hänsel, Orlowsky, Carmen, Brangäne and Marina. In addition, she sang guest parts in Hamburg and Palermo. Beside her stage-work, Ulrike Schneider continuously sings concerts, mostly in Germany, Swizerland and Italy. Often she is guest of the MDR (broadcaster of Middle-Germany) and takes part in a lot of transmissions. During her career so far she has worked with Howard Arman, Marcus Creed, Fabio Luisi, Michael Schneider, Klaus Weise, Proinnsías Ó Duinn and her repertoire extends from the renaissance to contemporary composition.
Ian Caddy, bass-baritone
Ian Caddy has performed in a wide variety of operas and concerts, as a principal soloist, with all of the major British opera companies and orchestras, as well as with Opera La Fenice, Houston Opera, Vancouver Opera, Opéra de Nantes, Opéra d’Angers and engagements with international festivals, orchestras and ensembles, Radio and TV around the world, in Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Manaus, Paris, Reykjavik, St Petersburg and Washington, among other cities; and around Ireland: south, east, north and west!.
This summer, in Ireland, he sang the rôle of Don Alfonso for the first time, with Castleward Opera in Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte. During the autumn he performed two more rôles which were new to his repertoire: the magician, Dipsacus, in the final version of Vaughan Williams’ The Poisoned Kiss, and Zarastro in Mozart’s The Magic Flute: both productions in England. Next year he will perform again with Opera Holland Park, London: yet another ‘first’ in a rôle: Jupiter in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld.
Concerts, this year, include Messiah, here with Our Lady’s Choral Society, and in Halle and London, Bach’s Magnificat and St John Passion, Stainer’s Crucifixion, Saint-Saëns’ Requiem, Handel’s Samson and Saul, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Verdi’s Requiem, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs and Serenade to Music, and cantatas by Bach, Fasch and Telemann. He is very pleased that a special performance, which was postponed last year, is to take place in February of next year. He will sing a new piece, written for him, Forth, Pilgrim Forth (from Chaucer) by Ian Schofield, with the Pomeranian Symphony Orchestra in Bydgoszcz, Poland.