RPS Music Awards Presenter

Ann Murray

Ann Murray was born in Dublin and studied with Frederick Cox at the Royal Manchester College of Music. She has close links with both English National Opera, for whom she has sung the title roles in Handel's "Xerxes" and "Ariodante" and Donizetti’s “Maria Stuarda”, and with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where her roles have included Cherubino, Dorabella, Donna Elvira, Rosina, Octavian, and new productions of "L'Enfant et les Sortilèges", "Ariadne auf Naxos", "Idomeneo", "Mitridate, Re di Ponto", "Cosi fan Tutte", "Mosé in Egitto", "Alcina" and "Giulio Cesare".

Much sought after as a concert singer and recitalist, she has appeared with the world’s great orchestras and conductors and in the major concert halls. In Great Britain has been a regular guest at the BBC Promenade Concerts and at the major festivals. Her discography reflects not only her broad concert and recital repertoire but also her great operatic roles.

Her operatic engagements have taken her to Hamburg, Dresden, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Cologne, Zurich, Amsterdam, the Chicago Lyric Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, New York. At La Scala Milan her roles have included Donna Elvira, Sextus, Dorabella and Cherubino under Muti. For the Bavarian State Opera, Munich she has sung Cherubino, Dorabella, Sextus, Elvira, the Composer, Octavian, Xerxes, Ariodante, Giulio Cesare and Rinaldo; at the Vienna State Opera Idamantes, Cherubino, Charlotte, Rosina, Octavian and the Composer; and at the Salzburg Festival Cecilio and Sextus under Cambreling, La Cenerentola under Chailly, Nicklausse and Cherubino under Levine, Dorabella and Donna Elvira under Muti and Octavian under Maazel.

In 1997 Ann Murray was made an Honorary Doctor of Music by the National University of Ireland, in 1998 she was made a Kammersängerin of the Bavarian State Opera and in 1999 an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. In the 2002 Golden Jubilee Queen’s Birthday Honours she was appointed an honorary Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.