Geraldine McGreevy

www.geraldinemcgreevy.com

Askonas Holt Ltd
Lonsdale Chambers
27 Chancery Lane
London
WC2A 1PF
Tel. +44 (0)207 400 1700
www.askonasholt.co.uk
info@askonasholt.co.uk

Brief history with Samling Foundation:
"A vocal masterclass week in 2001, in which I took part at very short notice. A phone call a week before, and a short list of opera extracts to attempt to memorise; some Mimi, some Donna Anna. And whatever other songs, arias and oratorio extracts I might choose to bring along. I decided to dig out some problem music, an awkward Elijah extract, a challenging little-known but beautiful Bridge song. A good decision, it turned out".

Quote:
"This masterclass week worked very well for me. I felt looked after and valued, and my general impression was one of comfort, friendliness, seriousness and joyful music-making".

Past acheivements:
Geraldine McGreevy, the 1996 Kathleen Ferrier Award winner, graduated in music from the University of Birmingham and then spent two years living and teaching in Martel, France, before studying as a postgraduate student at the Royal Academy of Music. The Academy awarded her the prestigious DipRAM at her graduation in 1995, the RAM Shinn Fellowship in 1996 and the ARAM in 1999. From 1997-1998 she studied at the National Opera Studio sponsored by English National Opera. She now studies with Richard Smart.

Her operatic roles have included Contessa Almaviva, Vitellia, Rosalinde Fledermaus, Micaela, First Lady and Miss Jessel (Welsh National Opera,); Alice Ford (2001 Aix-en-Provence and 2002 Paris): Fiordiligi (1999 Opera Zuid and 1997 RAM cond. Sir Colin Davis); Female Chorus Rape of Lucretia (Edinburgh Festival); Alcina, Cleopatra Giulio Cesare, Angelica Orlando and Poppea Agrippina (Early Opera Company); Galatea Acis and Galatea; Laurette Le Docteur Miracle; and for British Youth Opera, Donna Anna, First Lady, Mistress Page Sir John in Love and Casilda Gondoliers.
Her recordings for Hyperion include, with Graham Johnson, a disc of Wolf Goethe Leider, two songs in the Complete Schubert Edition, songs by Clara Schumann and ensembles by Robert Schumann; songs by Arthur Bliss with the Nash Ensemble; music by John Blow with Red Byrd and the Parley of Instruments. She has also recorded Consort Songs by William Byrd with Phantasm for Simax and Spanish Renaissance Music with Music Antiqua of London for Naxos. She has broadcast live and recorded recitals for the BBC and for European radio stations. Since her 1997 debut at the Wigmore Hall she has returned there many times, and has also appeared in recital at St John's Smith Square, Frankfurt Opera House and the Klavier Festival Ruhr with Graham Johnson and at the Edinburgh Festival and in Newcastle with Julius Drake.
Recent concert engagements have included The English Concert with Trevor Pinnock, The Academy of St Martin in the Fields with Sir Neville Marriner, the Moscow Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra in Zurich with Jane Glover, the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Kurt Masur, the Sharoun Ensemble and Anne Manson in the Cologne Philharmonic and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchetra with Petr Altrichter and Libor Pesek.

Forthcoming activities:
2002 December 6 and 10, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Messiah with City of Birmingham Choir
December 17, Wigmore Hall, International Songmakers with Graham Johnson

2003 January 24 to Feb 11, La Monnaie, Brussels, Ghita, Zemlinsky's Der Geburstag der Infantin
March 23 to April 5, Frankfurt Opera, Ellen Orford, Peter Grimes.
June 5 to July 19, Welsh National Opera, Donna Anna, Don Giovanni
September 27th to December 13, Welsh National Opera, 1st Flower Maiden, Parsifal
November 4 to December 13, Welsh National Opera, Contessa Almaviva, Le Nozze di Figaro

Press reviews:
Hyperion's exemplary devotion to the art of the German lied continues with this fine recording of those settings of texts by Goethe suitable for the female voice. McGreevy ..... is a refined singer. She opens with a sensual Ganymed, setting the tone for her consistent relish throughout of Wolf's chromatic harmonies and acute response to words..... In songs passionate and comic, savage and gentle, profound and lightweight, the pair give performances - and they seem like performances, not anodyne cuttings and pastings - that invariably hit the appropriate spot.
Stephen Pettitt, The Sunday Times

But it was Geraldine McGreevy’s wonderful O let me weep that was the highlight and still centre of the evening....... It’s hard to imagine this being better or more movingly performed.
Robert Thicknesse, The Times (Purcell's The Fairy Queen , Wigmore Hall)

McGreevy's Lachen und Weinen is simply the best performance I know. Her sharply deliniated characterization places the protagonist somewhere between Rossini's Italian girl and Wolf's.
Eric Van Tassel, International Record Review (Hyperion Schubert Edition Volume 35)

The unnatural, here represented by Geraldine McGreevy (Miss Jessel) and Paul Nilon, the one stoic in her hell,....throughout have the advantage. Both sing with superb control and power, words insinuating and fearful in their clarity.
David Blewitt, The Stage

McGreevy's soprano provided equal joy. Wolf's setting of Die Spröde positively danced out of her larynx.
Geoff Brown, Times, November 1999 (International Songmakers at the Wigmore Hall)

The other outstanding voice was Geraldine McGreevy as Poppea: warm, richly coloured sound and witty characterisation, recognising that Handel was always at his best when writing for amorous women.
Rodney Milnes, Times

Geraldine McGreevy's soprano purity gave the Female Chorus a miraculous spiritual coherence.
Tom Sutcliffe, Evening Standard

She has a beautiful voice, packed with tonal variety which enables her to float a line weightlessly or deliver it with considerable dramatic impact...one of her strengths, clearly, is her command of characterisation....
Michael Tumelty, The Herald (BBC Recital, Glasgow)

As Donna Anna, Geraldine McGreevy had stage presence and a confident, flexible voice.
Fiona Maddocks, Observer

[Geraldine] sang a "Per Pietà" which would grace any stage in Europe: she is already an artist of maturity and poise, evidently destined for great things.
Hugh Canning, Opera Magazine

.. and a miraculous Fiordiligi. Geraldine McGreevy...was devastating in Per Pietà, the aria that exposes all the character's vulnerability. With limpid top register, fast light passagework and a warmly coloured, telling lower register, she is certainly a compelling new star in the firmament.
Tom Sutcliffe, Evening Standard

Few are those actively interested in discovering how new performers cope with an exceptionally difficult score as, say, the song cycle Of Challenge and of Love by Elliott Carter and the answer is that soprano Geraldine McGreevy and pianist Chris Gould fare so astonishingly well that one starts to think of the piece as native to the repertoire. McGreevy has enviably limpid diction, phrases with obvious intelligence, and has a top that is bell-like without being fragile........McGreevy made them all [Nicholas Maw's Six Interiors] compelling. Paul Driver, Sunday Times

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