City Hall, Waterford, Thursday March 2nd @ 7:30pm
International Star Baritone Gavan Ring to perform at City Hall
International opera star, Gavan Ring will be the guest of Waterford-Music on March 2nd when he will perform at the Elizabeth Downey Memorial Recital. The Cahersiveen native is much in demand at home and abroad, garnering rave reviews praising the quality of his rich baritone voice and his charming platform presence. Ring comes fresh from playing the role of Don Giovanni in Spain for Opera de Bilbao. He was last heard in the South East as a fabulous Figaro in The Barber of Seville at Wexford Opera House. He was one of the roster of performers selected to represent Ireland at the Centenary Gala at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall last April.
However, growing up in Kerry, Ring seemed destined to to spend more time on the pitch than on the opera stage. Ring describes his school days as being an eclectic mix with football fitted in around céili band practice. Although his early music experiences were steeped in traditional music, he can recall vividly the first time he heard an operatic voice. “I was about five years old and my mother was playing a tape of the three tenors in the car. I was spellbound. The next day I was up at all hours trying to mimic Pavarotti!”
Despite the precocious Pavarotti impersonations, a career in the classroom beckoned, one that would allow him to combine work with continuing to play football. However in the end, Ring decided to give a career in singing a go. He went on to distinguish himself as a multiple prize winner and the youngest doctoral graduate in performance to date at RIAM. Chairman, Elizabeth Twohig, chairman of Waterford-Music. Said, “we are delighted to welcome Gavan Ring and his accompanist Aoife O Sullivan to perform at the Large Room at City Hall. With a growing international profile, opportunities to hear him in the more intimate setting of the recital hall are rare and not to be missed.”
The programme will include operatic arias, Schubert Lieder and Irish favourites from the John McCormack songbook. Also on the programme is a song setting by Marian Ingoldsby of WIT Music Dept. The work commissioned by Music Network and first performed by Benjamin Appl was described by Michael Dervan of the Irish Times thus; “ The standout performance was of Marian Ingoldsby’s specially commissioned Yeats setting, Never Give All the Heart, written in a harmonically rich, musically eclectic manner.”
Gavan Ring Baritone and Aoife O Sullivan piano
Venue: The Georgian Large Room, City Hall, Waterford
Tickets: available on door €15 students €5