Tara Erraught’s Fall 2015: Ireland’s Culture Night 2015, Recitals at Ireland’s Wexford Festival, National Concert Hall, & Music for Galway Series, England’s Wigmore Hall, Celebrity Series of Boston & Carnegie Hall’s Salon Encores Series in the United States, Debut with South Denmark PhilharmonicPlus 3 Opera roles with Bayerische Staatsoper, Special interview with RTE Lyric FM’s Marty In The Morning September 4

Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught kicks off her 2015-16 season with a special event for her native country: she serves as one of 11 honorary ambassadors and will perform at RTE Arena in Meeting House Square for Ireland’s Culture Night 2015, a significant national all-island cultural event involving over 900 venues throughout Ireland celebrating culture, creativity and the arts now in its tenth year.

She guests on RTE Lyric FM’s Marty in the Morning program on September 4 – please visit

http://www.rte.ie/lyricfm/marty-in-the-morning/ or tune in live.

Praised for her rich voice, expansive range and appealing stage presence, Tara Erraught’s international stature has continued to grow since she stepped in on five-days’ notice learning the role of Romeo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 2011, her performance winning worldwide acclaim. In the seasons since, she has sung a world premiere, made numerous role debuts, successfully toured North America twice and made her US opera debut.

During the first half of the 2015-16 season Ms. Erraught tours Ireland, the UK and the U.S. in recital: at Dublin’s National Concert Hall, debuts on the acclaimed Music for Galway Series and in recital at the Wexford Festival, a return to London’s Wigmore Hall and series debut recitals not only at Celebrity Series of Boston but also at Carnegie Hall, Weill Hall in the United States. She makes her debut with the South Denmark Philharmonic. With Bayerische Staatsoper, she sings three of the six roles she will perform with the company: Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina), Cosi fan Tutte (Despina), and Hansel und Gretel (Hansel).

Appearing at RTE Arena in Meeting House Square

Honorary Ambassador

Nationaltheater

Francesco Angelico, conductor

O’Reilly Theatre

with Henning Ruhe, piano

with Dearbhla Collins, piano

A program of songs including works by Dvorak Liebes Lieder, Brahms & Wolf

A program of songs by Dvorak, Brahms, Wolf, Copland, Mahler & Britten

with James Baillieu, piano

Works by R. Strauss & Mahler

Nationaltheater

Constantin Trinks, conductor

Celebrity Series of Boston, Recital, (series debut), Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Longy’s Pickman Hall

with Henning Ruhe, piano

Weill Hall

with Henning Ruhe, piano

Nationaltheater

Thomas Hanus, conductor

Performances in the second half of 2015-2016 include: three additional productions with Bayerische Staatsoper: with music director Kirill Petrenko, she creates the role of Kathleen Scott in the commissioned world premiere of Czech composer Miroslav Srnka’s South Pole; makes her role debut as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, and sings in The Makropulos Affair. Additional debuts include the South Denmark Philharmonic (Sonderjyllands Symfoniorkester), with Ireland’s Wide Open Opera in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and with Tokyo Opera Nomori in recital.

Recent performance highlights include: her first solo opera gala with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra (“Mezzo soprano Tara Erraught’s first solo opera gala with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra is easily summed up: she came, she sang, she conquered.-The Irish Times); her debut in the role of Kathy in the Bayerische Staatsoper’s new production of Poul Rouders’ Selma Jezkova; her American opera debut with the Washington National Opera in Cinderella this past May (“a tremendously appealing and charismatic singer, with a warm voice and a bright future.” –The Washington Post); creating the role of Kitty in the world premiere of Iain Bell’s A Harlot’s Progress at the Theater an der Wien (“…vocally and dramatically her performance was flawless …” –Seen and Heard International.com); role debuts as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the BBC Proms (“Erraught was touching in the trouser role of young Octavian, every moment beautifully sung and acted, ardent and appealing. Her voice is rich with dark glints and bright promise and she offered some of the best singing of the evening.” –The Guardian, UK,May 2014), as well as  Carlotta in Die Schweigsame Frau, Op. 80, Christa in The Makropulos Affair, Prince Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Hansel in Hansel und Gretel with the Bayerische Staatsoper. With the Wiener Staatsoper she sang Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and the premiere performances of a new production of La Cenerentola, earning accolades from the Frankfurter Allgemeine as the “New Queen of Belcanto”.

A native of Dundalk, Ireland, Tara Erraught has been a member of the opera studio at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich since 2008. In spring 2013, the Bavarian government bestowed upon Ms. Erraught the prestigious Pro meritis scientiae et litterarum in recognition for outstanding contribution to the arts. She is only the fifth musician, and the youngest recipient, to be honored with the annual award since its inception in 2000. In March of 2010 Ms. Erraught was the recipient of Dublin’s National Concert Hall’s Rising Star Award. Other honors include First Prize in the Jakub Pustina International Singing Competition in the Czech Republic, along with the Zdar nad Sazavou Audience Prize in 2008. In that same year she was awarded both the Houston Grand Opera Prize and the Washington National Opera Prize at the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition in Vienna. In 2007 Ms. Erraught won Dermott Troy Award for the Best Irish Singer. A graduate of the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, where she studied and continues to study with the acclaimed Royal Opera soprano Veronica Dunne, Ms. Erraught also has the privilege to expand her lieder and opera repertoire with famed German mezzo-soprano Brigitte Fassbaender in Munich.