The Irish soprano Virginia Kerr has sung throughout Europe and in the Far East and the United States, winning acclaim on the operatic stage, on concert and oratorio platforms and as a recitalist. For the Royal Opera she has sung Guinevere in Gawain, Jenifer in The Midsummer Marriage and Ortlinde in Die Walküre. Her other British operatic engagements have included Julia in The Jacobin, the title-role of Jenůfa, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Salome and Helmwige in Die Walküre for Scottish Opera, Grete Der ferne Klang for Opera North and The Governess in The Turn of the Screw and Elettra in Idomeneo for Opera Northern Ireland. European operatic engagements have included Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and Violetta in La traviata for Opera Cork, The Governess in The Turn of the Screw and Vendulka in The Kiss for OTC Dublin, Anita in Jonny spielt auf and Donna Elvira for Leipzig, Countess Almaviva in Malta and Ortlinde in Die Walküre in Nantes. She has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the London Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Hallé and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with concert engagements ranging from Beethoven’s Choral Symphony to Tippett’s A Child of Our Time. Virginia Kerr has made her most significant impact in the field of contemporary music and she is much in demand for her interpretations of new and recently composed works, with a number of stage premières to her credit in Ireland and throughout Europe. She has given masterclasses in Mexico, Georgia and the United States and is a frequent performer on radio and on television.

July 2004