Paula Murrihy, mezzo-soprano

Mezzo-Soprano Paula Murrihy is a native of County Kerry, Ireland. She received her Bachelor in Music from DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama in Dublin before going on to study for a Masters in Vocal Performance at the New England Conservatory, where she was the recipient of the prestigious John Moriarty Presidential Scholarship and the Presser Award.

Ms. Murrihy has participated in many young artist programs, including those of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Program, the Tanglewood Music Center, the William Walton Foundation, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and the Sante Fe Opera Apprentice Program. As a participant in the 2003 Vocal Fellowship Program at Tanglewood, she performed in the world premiere of the opera Ainadamar by Osvaldo Golijov, a work which she also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in Disney Hall.

Recent operatic performances include the title role in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the Handel and Haydn Society, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro with Granite State Opera, Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Richtarka in Jenufa with Utah Symphony and Opera. Other stage roles have included Suzy in La Rondine with the Boston Lyric Opera, Hänsel, the Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Nancy in Albert Herring, and Diana in La Calisto with New England Conservatory Opera Theatre.

Ms. Murrihy’s extensive sacred repertoire includes Vivaldi’s Gloria, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle, Schubert’s Mass in C, Mozart’s Requiem, and Bach’s St. John Passion. She was a soloist in the Handel and Haydn Society's highly acclaimed production of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, and made her Boston Symphony Orchestra debut performing in a series entitled A Day in the Life of Vivaldi at Symphony Hall, Boston.

Engagements this season include Messiah with the Charlotte Symphony, Haydn’s Harmoniemesse with the Gabrieli Consort in London, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Handel and Haydn Society and a performance of Brahms’s alto and viola songs with Warren Jones in Boston’s Jordan Hall. This season marks her NYFOS debut.