Resurgam

Artistic Director : Mark Duley

Resurgam is Ireland’s leading project-based professional choir. Founded in 2003 by Mark Duley, it has earned a respected place amongst the country’s première ensembles. Resurgam has worked with an international array of conductors including Monica Huggett, Christophe Rousset, Erin Headley and John Butt, and has performed in the UK and continental Europe, including an acclaimed appearance at the Bach Festival of Lausanne.

Within Ireland, it has appeared at most of the major international festivals, including Galway International Arts Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Ardee Baroque Festival, Cork International Choral Festival, Galway Early Music Festival and the Pipeworks Festival. It has given many ground-breaking performances of music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Resurgam’s hallmarks as a choir are clarity and transparency of sound, attention to text and emotive content, virtuosity in improvisation and ornamentation, and colourful interplay of instrumental and vocal resources. The singers, many of whom have parallel careers as soloists, have all performed regularly with period ensembles and are able to match the flexibility and articulation of such instruments and work with them interchangeably.

These characteristics enhance Resurgam’s unique work in the field of early vocal music in Ireland, especially through the acclaimed single-composer retrospectives the choir has undertaken (including Giovanni Gabrieli, Heinrich Schütz and Orlandus Lassus). Recent collaborations with the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble have brought exciting new perspectives to the choir’s work in this field.

In addition to its work in the field of historically informed performance of Renaissance and Baroque repertoire, Resurgam has also brought to Irish audiences the great choral works of the Russian Orthodox tradition, touring the country with Rachmaninov’s All Night Vigil and Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, and giving the first complete Irish performance of Schnittke’s monumental Concerto for Choir.

The ensemble is committed to bringing fine choral music to the west of Ireland, and especially to places where hitherto there have been few, if any, performances by professional choral ensembles. It also values its relationships with local choirs in the west, and enjoys sharing the expertise of its singers and players through workshops and coaching sessions.

Artistic Director, Resurgam

Mark Duley is one of Ireland’s most well-known choral specialists and has led workshops and masterclasses for choirs and conductors in Ireland, the UK, and continental Europe. He founded Resurgam in 2003, and has directed the choir in numerous concerts and tours and over a wide range of repertoire.

Mark was born and raised in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, and came to Ireland in 1992. He has held several major posts in the country, including organist and director of music at Christ Church Cathedral Dublin, chorusmaster to the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir, artistic director of the Irish Baroque Orchestra and artistic director of Pipeworks.

As conductor or organist, he has appeared with most of the major Irish ensembles, including RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Chamber Choir Ireland, the Irish Baroque Orchestra, Opera Theatre Company and the Orchestra of St Cecilia. He has performed at many of Ireland’s premier festivals, including the Wexford Opera Festival, the Cork International Choral Festival, the Kilkenny Arts Festival, the East Cork Early Music Festival and the Killaloe Chamber Music Festival. He has given organ recitals in all the major Irish venues as well as in the UK and his native New Zealand.

Mark lives in Co Galway, and aside from a busy freelance career, currently holds the post of organist at the Collegiate Church of St Nicholas, Galway. He is founder-director of St Nicholas Schola Cantorum (directing the five choral ensembles of which it is comprised), and lectures at NUI Galway.

Conductor

Ciarán Crilly is Head of the School of Music and Assistant Professor of Orchestral Conducting in UCD. He has been Artistic Director of the UCD Symphony Orchestra since its foundation in 2002, conducting over 50 performances, including concerts in Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden and the UK. He has delivered a range of taught modules on music analysis, orchestration, performance, and twentieth-century music. He has also been a lecturer in orchestral conducting for the BMus Performance Degree at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and for the MA in Film Scoring at Pulse College, Windmill Lane Studios. He is currently Chair of the Council of Heads of Music in Higher Education (CHMHE).

Ciarán has directed concerts in Ireland and abroad with the Baden Sinfonietta, Dublin Baroque Players, Dublin Screen Orchestra, Hibernian Orchestra, Miró Chamber Orchestra, RIAM Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Savaria Symphony Orchestra and Symphony New Hampshire. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Dublin Symphony Orchestra (2004–07) and Principal Conductor of the Dublin Orchestral Players (2007–15). Through his work with the EAR Ensemble, Hilltown Music Festival, TCD Composer’s Forum Ensemble and the UCD Ad Astra Academy, he has been involved in the commissioning and performance of many new works. He has extensive experience as a studio conductor, recording for feature films, live radio, and Irish, Korean & US television shows. He has been engaged as a conductor for a diverse range of artists, including the Bootleg Beatles, Jerry Fish, Marvin Hammlisch, Jack Lukeman and Bill Whelan. As a violin and viola player, he has regularly performed with several orchestras, including the Irish Film Orchestra, Marlborough Baroque, Orlando Chamber Orchestra and RTÉ Concert Orchestra, and popular musicians, notably Elton John, Sinead O’Connor, Lisa Stansfield and Paul Weller.

Ciaran’s academic work has included contributions to conferences in Ireland, Spain, the UK and the United States, and articles on the composers Satie, Stravinsky, Ligeti, Tchaikovsky and Bernard Herrmann. He is currently co-editing a multi-author volume for Routledge on contrasting approaches to modern conducting with Dr Róisín Blunnie from DCU. Upcoming engagements include performances with the Irish Doctors Orchestra, DYO Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Academic Orchestra in Sweden, plus the UCD Symphony Orchestra’s 20th Anniversary Concert at the National Concert Hall in April 2023.

Soprano

Originally from Co. Wicklow, Irish soprano Colette Delahunt has had a very busy and varied international career to date, performing in opera, oratorio, concert and as an accomplished recitalist. After her formal training in DIT Conservatory of Music with Nancy Calthorpe and Trudi Carberry, Colette was awarded a scholarship to complete her post-graduate studies with acclaimed singer and teacher Valerie Masterson OBE, at Trinity College of Music, London. In London Colette won a number of prestigious awards including the BBC Young Artists Forum Award and The Royal Overseas League Prize. Colette was invited to join Glyndebourne Festival Opera Company and made her debut in Alban Berg’s Lulu in 1998, that same year she was awarded the Erich Vietheer prize for most promising young Glyndebourne artist. A career highlight for Colette was singing the role of Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro at Glyndebourne, Colette went on to sing this role many times throughout her career. Many roles followed at Glyndebourne Opera including a performance of Berg’s Lulu at the BBC Proms. Colette has sung many roles with Opera North, Aix-en-Provence Opera, Covent Garden Festival Opera and made her debut in The Bartered Bride with Bernard Haitink at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Here at home Colette has performed principal roles with Opera Ireland, Opera Theatre Company, Lyric Opera and Opera in the Open.

Colette has performed extensively in concert and oratorio throughout Ireland and Britain working most notably with The BBC Philharmonic, The London Sinfonia, The National Symphony Orchestra , The RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Co-Orch. Recent performances have included Mozart’s Requiem, Mozart’s Mass in C, Fauré’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Choral Symphony and the Brahms German Requiem. Recent highlights have included the premiere performance of Anne-Marie O’Farrell’s composition Pomes Penyeach with the ConTempo Quartet and she also had the unique experience of singing at the premiere performance of Handel’s Messiah in Doha, Qatar. Colette is passionate about the genre of song recital and recent performances include, a recital at the Military Headquarters Genoa, Italy, a recital at Áras an Uachtaráin, NCH John Field Room, St Ann’s Church, Dawson St and a recital for RTÉ Lyric FM. Colette has had the huge honour of being the soloist at The National Day of Commemoration 2014, 2016 and 2020 with the bands of the Irish Defence Forces, all of which were broadcast live on RTÉ television. She has been invited to work with acclaimed film composer Stephen McKeon and has featured as soloist in two films, Pilgrimage and Rose Plays Julie.

Mezzo-Soprano

Irish mezzo-soprano Sharon Carty is a singer who has firmly established a reputation as a respected interpreter of both early and contemporary works, alongside maintaining a busy schedule in mainstream opera and concert repertoire. She is an alumna of the Royal Irish Academy Dublin, MDW Vienna and Oper Frankfurt Young Artist Programme, and is currently an Artistic Partner to Irish National Opera as well as a Creative Associate on the Irish Arts Council pilot Creative Schools scheme.

Regularly praised for her musicality and intelligence, her integrity as an artist and the warmth, clarity and agility of her voice, her opera repertoire includes many of the important lyric and coloratura mezzo-soprano roles, such as Hänsel, Dido, Ruggiero, Dorabella, Cherubino, Ariodante, Orfeo and Sesto. On the concert platform her repertoire spans most of the major sacred concert works, including all of the principal works by J.S. Bach as well as Messiah, Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor, and a broad song repertoire in addition to numerous chamber music works. She is also a dedicated song recitalist, most recently appearing in performances with pianists Finghin Collins, Jonathan Ware and Graham Johnson.

Career highlights to date include her London, Amsterdam and New York opera debuts with The Second Violinist at the Barbican Theatre, and the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Park Avenue Armory, her Wexford Festival Opera debut as Lucy Talbot in the European première of William Bolcom’s Dinner at Eight, the title role in Irish National Opera’s critically-acclaimed Orfeo ed Euridice and her debut at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, where she premiered a new opera, Proserpine by Silvia Colasanti, to critical acclaim. Summer 2022 sees her giving the world premieres of David Coonan’s Horse Ape Bird with INO, and Deirdre Gribbin’s The Stones of Life with the Irish Chamber orchestra. She will continue the 2022/2023 season with  a concert tour with pianist Finghin Collins, and clarinettist John Finucane, as well as returning to INO to sing Dorabella in their new production of Così fan tutte.

A regular collaborator with orchestras across Europe, her discography includes La Traviata on Naxos DVD with the NDR Radiophilharmonie alongside Thomas Hampson and Marina Rebeka as well as The Mountebanks (Gilbert/Cellier) on CD with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Her most recent CD, a disc of Schubert songs with pianist Jonathan Ware, was released in May 2020.

Tenor

Irish tenor Dean Power is a former member of the ensemble at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, starting his residency after graduating from the company’s Opera Studio at the end of the 2011–12 season. After nine years as an ensemble member, 2020–21 was his final season as he begins to expand upon his already growing career as an international solo guest artist. Dean was born in Clarecastle, Ireland, and studied in Dublin with Mary Brennan and repetiteur Mairead Hurley at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama.

During his time at the Bayerische Staatsoper his many roles have included Walther von der Vogelweide in Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Steuermann in Der fliegende Holländer, Froh Das Rheingold, Prince in a new production of Hans Abrahamsen’s The Snow Queen, Edmondo Manon Lescaut, Rustighello Lucrezia Borgia, Graf Albert Die tote Stadt, Gherardo Gianni Schicchi, and Scaramuccio Ariadne auf Naxos, amongst others. In 2017, Dean was awarded the Festspielpreis by the Friends and Sponsors of the Bayerische Staatsoper Festival.

Dean’s operatic engagements have also included his company debut at the Salzburger Festspiele in Puccini’s Il Trittico, creating the role of Gary in the world premiere of the commissioned opera, The First Child, as well as singing Jaquino Fidelio, both for Irish National Opera, Graf Elemer Arabella in his company debut at Opernhaus Zürich, Belmonte in a live-stream concert performance of Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Irish National Opera at the National Opera House in Wexford, Acis in a concert performance of Acis and Galatea with Irish Baroque Orchestra, Maintop Billy Budd for the Glyndebourne Festival and Rustighello Lucrezia Borgia for Theater St Gallen.

On the concert platform, performances include Christmas Oratorio at the Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos in Lisbon, Ryba’s Stabat Mater with Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Evangelist and arias of the St John Passion with Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir conducted by Ebbe Munk, and Carmina Burana with the Bayerische Philharmonie.

In his 2022–23 season Dean sings the role of Graf Elemer Arabella in his house debut at the Teatro Real, Madrid, Heinrich der Schreiber Tannhäuser for the Osterfestspiele Salzburg, and for Irish National Opera, he sings both Ferrando in a new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte and returns to the role of Gary The First Child for a tour of Ireland.

Baritone

Rory Musgrave, a baritone from Connemara, recently made his UK Operatic debut singing the title role of Eugene Onegin for Opera Holland Park’s young Artist Programme, as part of their 2022 season. In 2019 me made his international operatic debut singing the role of Young Kelvin in the Asian premier of Solaris by Dai Fugikura (Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Japan) and is set to return to Tokyo to reprise this role. Upcoming roles include Marcello/ La Bohème (Cork Opera House), and Alonso, Re di Napoli/La Tempesta (Wexford Festival Opera).

Other recent opera engagements include; White Rabbit/Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Mayor of Youghal/Vagabones, Eumete/The Return of Ulysses, under the baton of Christian Curnyn and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Junius/The Rape of Lucretia (Opera Collective Ireland); Camillo/Ein Wintermarchen, Sextus/What Happened to Lucrece, Smirnoff/The Bear and Magnus/Herculanum, Gaby and various/Bernstein a la Carte, Le Podestat/Dr Miracle (Wexford Festival Opera); Taddeo/L’Italiana in Algeri, Belcore/L’Elisir d’Amore (Blackwater Valley Festival); Marcello/ La Bohème, Germont/La Traviata, Schaunard /La Bohème, St Brioche/The Merry Widow (Cork Operatic Society); Schaunard/La Boheme, Count Gil/Susanna’s Secret (Opera Theatre Company); Schaunard/La Boheme, Baron Duphol/La Traviata (Lyric Opera Productions); Gabriel Conroy/James Joyce’s The Dead (Performance Corporation—world premier); Second Soldier and Namaan/Salome (Northern Ireland Opera).

Rory performs extensively in concerts and recitals including venues such as the National Concert Hall, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Clifden Arts Festival, Wexford Festival Opera and Opera Holland Park. His oratorio repertoire includes Handel’s Messiah, Carmina Burana, Hayden’s Paukenmesse. He has also sung in Castletown House Lunchtime Summer Series, Great Music in Great Irish Houses and the Isle of Wight Proms. He made his debut with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in 2015, as a guest soloist in their Lunchtime Concert Series and has gone on to perform with numerous other ensembles including Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, RTÉ Contempo Quartet, Wexford Sinfonia and Crash Ensemble. He recently sang Ravel’s Don Quichotte a Dulcinee with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, under the baton of Kensho Watanabe.

Rory has a keen interest in the vocal traditions of his homeland and this led him to become a member of the international choral group Anúna in 2005. He proudly continues to collaborate with the group and with Michael McGlynn, its founder and artistic director, to this day. In this time with the choir, he had many wonderful experiences including; tours to Japan, China and mainland Europe; the recording of numerous albums and television shows; and was a part of the adventure that was Celtic Origins PBS Special, album and subsequent tours in the United States.

He is a graduate of the Royal Irish Academy of Music, with a Masters in Vocal Performance. An OTC Opera Hub Emerging Artist with Opera Theatre Company (2014–2016), Rory was also awarded the PWC Emerging Artist Bursary and the Arnholm Bursary by Wexford Festival.