Wexford Factory 2022/23 Academy

Irish mezzo soprano Deirdre Arratoon’s vocal development started singing soprano as guest soloist for choral societies and orchestras including The Garda Band, Eroica Camerata, Wolverhampton Sinfonia, and Arun Sinfonia. Deirdre graduated from the National University of Ireland Maynooth with first class BA Honours degree in music and secured a scholarship to attend The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire as a postgraduate student. During her time in Birmingham, competition prizes included The Cecil Drew Oratorio Prize, The Ashleyan Opera Prize and second prize in the Edward Brooks English Song competition.

Deirdre is also the 2021 winner of the Dame Felicity Lott recital award. Deirdre was invited to join Glyndebourne Opera chorus as a soprano for their 2017 festival and tour. She joined the Arun Choral Society & Sinfonia as mezzo soprano soloist for the Verdi Requiem at Arundel Cathedral, Brighton in April 2022 and The Grange Festival Opera, Hampshire for their 2022 season. Deirdre is also excited to debut the role of Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte in Vienna with the Wiener Festspiele Orchestra as part of Vienna Opera Festival this July.

Baritone Eoin Foran graduated from the Royal Conservatoire Scotland master’s degree in performance, under the guidance of Scott Johnson in 2022. A first-class Honours graduate of TU Dublin, Eoin studied with tenor Emmanuel Lawler. To date, Eoin has been a soloist on both the operatic and concert platform, in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Recent competition highlights include winner of the 2020 TU Dublin Gold Medal Recital Award, and second prize Royal Conservatoire Scotland Lieder competition 2021. Eoin sang with RCS Alexander Gibson Opera Studio in March 2022, playing the role of Immigration Officer in Jonathan Doves Flight. In Summer 2022 he also looks forward to singing with British Youth Opera in Vaughan Williams Sir John in Love and Duchy Opera companies' production of The Gondoliers' where he will sing the role of Giuseppe Palmieri.

Dublin-based Emily Hogarty is a 23-year-old Irish mezzo-soprano. She recently graduated from the TU Dublin Conservatoire in conjunction with Trinity College Dublin with a first-class Honours degree in Music Education (BMusEd). Emily specialised in performance, studying under the tutelage of Mairéad Buicke and Aoife O’Sullivan.

Emily has been a soloist with Trinity Orchestra since 2017 where she has performed all around Ireland, including the National Concert Hall in 2019 for their Golden Years performance. Emily performed Mozart’s Smanie Implacabili in their 2022 Spring concert. Her performing experience also includes concert performances in the Mansion House and City Hall for President Michael D. Higgins as part of the 1916 memorial in 2016. Emily has also musical directed Chicago by Kander and Ebb which premiered in the O’Reilly Theatre in February 2019.  She is currently in the chorus of Maria Stuarda with INO and will be playing Dorabella with Vienna Opera Academy in July.

William Kyle is a baritone from Warwickshire who recently completed his master’s degree at the Royal Northern College of Music, studying with Quentin Hayes. His past opera roles include Benoît in La bohème (Outreach Opera) and for RNCM Opera he has performed Il Conte in Le nozze di Figaro, Ein Musiklehrer in Ariadne auf Naxos, Harašta in The Cunning Little Vixen, Herald in The Pilgrim’s Progress and Géolier in Dialogues des Carmélites.

In 2022, William will appear as an Associate Artist with Nevill Holt Opera, performing as Ufficiale in Il barbiere di Siviglia and as part of the chorus for La bohème. William will also make his debut with British Youth Opera, taking the role of Page in their production of Sir John in Love.

Irish mezzo-soprano Sarah Luttrell is an honours graduate of the TUDublin Conservatoire and is currently a Masters student at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where she is the recipient of the 'RCS Trust Postgraduate Scholarship'.  Sarah has performed with Irish National Opera, Lyric Opera, Blackwater Valley Opera Festival and Northern Ireland Opera. She has sung various roles in Opera Scene Concerts, most recently as Sesto in Handel's Giulio Cesare and Idamante in Mozart's Idomeneo.

Sarah is a multi-award winner of the ESB Feis Ceoil where she was most recently awarded the Mrs. J.P Geoghegan Memorial Cup. In 2021, Sarah won first prize in the Alto Cup and The Margaret Burke-Sheridan. At the Birr Festival of Music's 'Trench Awards', she was awarded the Canto al Serchio prize for voice. In 2020 she was selected as a finalist for the 'Charles Wood Song Competition' and Northern Ireland Opera’s 'Glenarm Festival of Voice'.

Hannah O'Brien is a soprano from Drogheda, Co. Louth. She is currently studying with Elizabeth Ritchie, having completed her master’s and BA in The Royal Irish Academy of Music under Sylvia O'Regan. She played the role of il Destino and Linfea in Cavalli’s la Calisto, Caper in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and Nance Farrell in Stephen McNeff's Banished. Hannah performed in ‘Celebration of the Voice' hosted by Drogheda Classical Music as well as the premier of Michael Holohan’s song cycle The Hills are Crying. She will be performing the role of Polly in a film adaptation of Kevin O'Connell's DreamCatchr, which is to be released in 2023. She was awarded the Gaiety Bursary in 2018 and has received numerous prizes in competitions including The Veronica Dunne - Operatic Ensemble at the ESB Feis Ceoil, Best Aria prize in the Irene Sanford Competition, Lieder Prize and Young cup at ESB Feis Ceoil.

Originally from Co. Kildare, Irish soprano Leah Redmond is in the final year of her master’s degree at the Royal College of Music, London where she is the Rose Williams scholar. She previously graduated from the Royal Irish Academy of Music with a first class Honours degree under Dr. Veronica Dunne and Dr. Dearbhla Collins. In March 2020 she premiered the Evangelina Rigaki piece If Words are Water in a series of concerts in New York and in 2019 made her debut in Ireland’s National Concert Hall accompanied by James Vaughan. Operatic roles include Erste knabe in Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), Sarah Peterson in Banished (Stephen McNeff) and Constancy in Scipio’s Dream (Judith Weir).

A recipient of The Lyons Club Bursary at The Trench Award, Leah is a Mozart Singing Competition semi-finalist and in 2018 was named Royal Irish Academy of Music’s Most Promising Performer in the Irené Sandford Singing Competition.

Baritone Nikolay Zemlianskikh participated in the Young Artist Program of the Bolshoi Theater in the 2019/20 season. In 2019 he performed at the Bolshoi Theatre for Alexandra Pakhmutova’s 90th anniversary concert and took part in the 10th anniversary of the Young Artist Program Gala Concert. In 2020, he completed an internship at the Music Academy of the 13th Winter International Arts Festival in Sochi.

The 2020-21 season saw him participating in the “Music of World War II: Remembering the Shared Sacrifice of Allied Nations” concert, the concert at the Great Hall of the Moscow conservatory to commemorate the 125 Anniversary of the Russian poet Sergei Esenin and the World Opera Day Celebration Concert. His performances at the conservatory include such roles as Silvio in I Pagliacci and Il Barone in La traviata.