CELINE BYRNE

Celine Byrne is a lyric soprano from Ireland. She received her Masters in Music from the Royal Irish Academy of Music, where she studied with Dr. Veronica Dunne, receiving the RIAM award for outstanding achievement. In addition she has an honours Music Degree from the Conservatory of Music and Drama, Dublin, where she was awarded the college Gold Medal for excellence. She also received coaching at the National Opera Studio of London and studied with Christa Ludwig at the Vienna Staatsoper.

Celine was awarded many prizes in completion including the prestigious Maria Callas Grand Prix in Athens Prize where she won First Prize and Gold Medal at Other awards include Margaret Burke-Sheridan Gold Medal, the William Young Prize at the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition, Dublin and First Prize’ at the IVC International Singing Competition in s’Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands.

Celine is now recognised nationally and internationally as one of opera’s great stars. A performer of ‘fine lyrical quality and a touching actor’ (Opera Magazine), Celine made her operatic début 2010 singing the role of Mimi in La Bohéme. In 2012 she made her Royal Opera House, Covent Garden debut in the lead role of Dvorak’s Rusalka which she took over at short notice. Soon afterwards she was invited back to sing 1 Blumenmädchen in Parsifal followed by Micaela in Carmen and most recently Liu in Turandot.

Recent roles include Liu in Turandot in Oper I’m Steinbruch directed by Thaddeus Strassberger with Giuseppe Finz conducting and Mimi in La Bohéme with Irish National Opera. Previous roles include Magda in Puccini’s La Rondine with Minnesota Opera, Donna Elvira with Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv conducted by Daniel Oren and directed by Kasper Holten, Floria Tosca (Tosca) Mikhailovsky Opera, St. Petersburg, Liu (Turandot) and Elizabeth (Don Carlo) in Leipzig and Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf and Madama Butterfly with Staatstheater Kassel and Irish National Opera, Die Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier in Santiago and Marietta/Marie in Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt with RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in the NCH, Dublin and Mimi with Hamburg State Opera.

A frequent concert performer, Celine has performed with world-renowned tenors José Carreras, Roberto Alagna and Joseph Calleja and has recently sung with Bryn Terfel accompanied by the Borusan Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sasha Goetzel. Recent concerts include Richard Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder in Austria, a recording of Verdi’s Requiem with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by André Lenard and a concert with The Sun Valley Summer Symphony in America.

Recently Celine performed the title role of Madama Butterfly in Bregenzer Festspiele, Die Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier and Mimi in La Boheme with Irish National Opera and Mimi in Luzern. Future engagements include concerts with Jose Carreras, Andrea Bocelli in concerts around Europe a tour in the USA with Barry Douglas to include a Carnegie Hall recital and Madama Butterfly with Irish National Opera and a concert at Bangkok festival of music and dance in Thailand.

www.celinebyrne.com 

SEÁN TESTER

Irish tenor Seán Tester studied Drama, Dance and Singing at the Drogheda School of Performing Arts (known locally as The Little Duke Theatre) which is where he found his love for the performing arts. Seán also draws on a strong background in choral singing as a dedicated member of St. Peter’s Male Voice Choir, Drogheda. Seán is a recipient of the BVOF | RIAM John Pollard Bursary which saw Seán continue his studies with teacher Owen Gilhooly-Miles and coach Dearbhla Collins on the Masters in Music Performance (Vocal Studies) programme at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. 

As an operatic tenor, Seán has made his international role debut in Switzerland in an Irish National Opera co-production of Rossini’s ‘Guillaume Tell’ in the role of “Rodolphe” at Nouvel Opèra Fribourg/Neue Oper Freiburg. In a RIAM Opera production of Dominic Argento’s ‘Postcard from Morocco’, Seán played the roles of Man with an Old Suitcase, Puppet No. 1 and Operetta Singer. Seán has also been engaged by the Irish National Opera Chorus for Irish National Opera’s productions of Rossini’s ‘Guillaume Tell’, Gounod’s ‘Faust’, Puccini’s ‘La Bohème’ and Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’. Seán will perform in INO’s 24/25 season in the INO Chorus for Verdi’s Rigoletto, Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman and Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. 

In oratorio, Seán has performed as tenor soloist in Handel’s ‘Messiah’, Carl Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana’, Beethoven’s ‘Choral Fantasia’, Emanuele D’Astorga’s ‘Stabat Mater’, and Haydn’s ‘Die sieben letzten Worte des Erlösers am Kreuze’. 

Seán was awarded the Patricia Eberhart Aria Prize for his performance of ”Ah! Mes amis… Pour mon âme” from Donizetti’s ‘La Fille du Régiment’ in the 2023 Irené Sandford Award for Singers. Seán immensely enjoyed his time as a participant in “Celebrating the Voice” with international star mezzo-sopranos Tara Erraught and Angela Brower as part of Drogheda Classical Music. Seán was a quarterfinalist in the 2024 International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition in Jurmala, Latvia and also at the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition 2022. 

Seán’s international opportunities continue to grow. Earlier this year Seán performed as the musical guest at the 33rd Ireland Funds Emerald Isle Ball in The Breakers Palm Beach, Florida – by all accounts a very successful North American singing debut. Seán looks forward to returning to the USA soon for further future engagements. 

DAVID MUNRO

A graduate of Glasgow University, David started his musical life as a concert pianist then turned his attentions to theatre, notably ballet and opera.  He has worked as musical director, repetituer and composer for many ballet and contemporary dance companies including The Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Singapore Ballet, Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Company, Jiri Kylian (NDT), and London Contemporary Dance Theatre.  

Whilst on the music staff of Scottish Opera, he was musical director and of a wide range of works from Rossini through Puccini to Janacek and has composed numerous works for stage and orchestra that have been produced and broadcast throughout the world.  He was chief repetiteur on Calixto Bietio’s ‘Turandot’ which was produced by Northern Ireland Opera and conducted by David Brophy.

He has conducted, collaborated and performed with many orchestras including The Orchestra of Scottish Opera, The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, The National Symphony Orchestra, The RTE Concert Orchestra.

As a long-term collaborator with David Brophy, they have performed with many orchestras throughout the USA and Canada, including: The Spokane Symphony Orchestra, The Vancouver SO, The Toronto SO, The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, West Virginia SO, The Pittsburgh SO, The Utah SO, The Atlanta SO, The Buffalo Philharmonic and The Nashville SO and many more.

A prolific composer, his commissions The Musical Story Book for B.B.C. Radio 4 were nominated for a Sony Award in the UK as have been his many works for Scottish Opera.  His original score for the short film ‘Deadly’, featuring Brenda Fricker, won the award for best original score in 2014 at The Underground Awards. He is also a busy arranger, producer and collaborator with acts as diverse as The Celtic Tenor’s, The Dubliners, Brian Kennedy, Liam Lawton, Sinead O’Conner, Mary Coughlan, Patrick Bergen, Samantha Mumba, and Hayley Westenra. 

David was previously musical director with The Celtic Tenors, achieving several No.1 albums with them as producer and musical director and more recently with The Canadian Tenors, (The Tenors) collaborating on their first No.1 album as well as several tours both in Europe and North America.

David is currently creative producer with Irish ‘super-group’ Celtic Thunder, a large-scale US touring show. His last eight Celtic Thunder productions namely Voyage (2), Mythology, The Christmas Album, Legacy, Emmet Cahill’s Ireland, Inspirational, Celtic Thunder X and Odyssey have been No. 1 albums in both Billboard and iTunes charts in America, Canada and Australia.

David began working with Celine Byrne in the last five years and has produced many arrangements around her Piano Quartet shows in addition to the large-scale orchestrations whenever she performs with orchestras. As ever, it is an absolute pleasure to be performing with her again and I am further delighted to be part of the Drogheda Classical Music series.