Dr Ingrid Surgenor MBE

The pianist Ingrid Surgenor has enjoyed world-wide acclaim as Official Accompanist for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. Equally renowned in song and opera repertoire, she spent nine seasons as Head of Music Preparation at the world famous Bayreuth Festival in Germany.

Born in Belfast, she studied at the Royal Academy of Music London ,and with the legendary piano accompanist Gerald Moore. Her career in opera began at the Glyndebourne Festival and in addition to a long association with Welsh National Opera, has worked at the Vienna, Taormina, Wexford, Buxton and Hong Kong Festivals and at the Staatsoper Stuttgart. She worked for nine years at the Bayreuth Festival, with six seasons as head of music preparation for Parsifal, working with legendary conductors Giuseppe Sinopoli and Pierre Boulez and directors Wolfgang Wagner and Christoph Schlingensief.

As a recitalist she has performed in Aix-en-Provence , Beijing, Berlin, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, San Francisco and Stockholm and at opera houses in Brussels, Marseille, Munich, Oslo, the Teatro Amazonas, Brazil and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. She has made many recordings including collections of the songs of Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi with the tenor Dennis O’Neill.

Ingrid’s television and radio performances have included career documentaries, song recitals and the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition where she enjoyed much acclaim as official accompanist from the outset of the competition for almost twenty years.

Ingrid is a senior coach at the Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Nationl Opera Studio, a visiting coach at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and was, for over twenty years, principal opera coach at the Royal Academy of Music, London

She has been a jury member for the Kathleen Ferrier and Richard Lewis Prizes in London, Frederic Cox Competition in Manchester, Northern Ireland Opera’s Festival of Voice in Glenarm, the Veronica Dunne and John McCormack Prizes in Dublin, Llangollen International Eisteddfod, the International Opera Competition in Beijing and the Chinese Song competitionin Shanghai. Since 2013, She has been a member of the first selection panel for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.

Ingrid is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. In June 2000 she received an MBE for services to music from the Queen and in July 2018 an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Ulster.