Margaret Bridge

Mezzo-soprano Margaret Bridge is a former Northern Ireland Opera studio artist (2018-19 season) and winner of the 2018 NI Opera Young Opera Voice Prize. On the opera stage, her repertoire ranges from early baroque through classical and romantic, right up to contemporary music and her roles include Flora (La Traviata, Northern Ireland Opera 2022), Dorinda (The Tempest, Henry Purcell Society of Boston), Mrs Monday (If You Can Find Me – Sondheim Revue, Northern Ireland Opera Studio), Maddalena (cover) (Rigoletto, Northern Ireland Opera), Melanto (The Return of Ulysses, Opera Collective Ireland), Elaine (Later the Same Evening, Opera Memphis), Prince Charmant (Cendrillon, NEC), Agrippina (Agrippina, NEC), Hen/Pasek’s wife (Příhody lišky Bystroušky, NEC), Erisbe (L’Ormindo, RIAM), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte, extracts, RIAM), Journalist (Sensational!, RIAM), and the Cock (The Cunning Little Vixen, RIAM). Margaret has also workshopped a number of new operatic works, most recently Luke Murphy and Jerome Begin’s Arts Council funded research project, Mujina, in Dance Limerick in March 2020.

Highlights from her concert career so far include Handel’s Messiah in a semi-staged performance with Sestina (April 2022), Philip Wilby’s An English Passion with Belfast Cathedral Choir (April 2022), De Falla’s El Amor Brujo with the Ulster Orchestra (September 2018), Corigliano’s Fern Hill and DiOrio’s All Is with Back Bay chorale Boston (March 2018), Bach’s Cantata 63 (Dec 2015) and Weihnachtsoratorium (Dec 2014) with the Goethe Institut choir in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, and Vivaldi’s Gloria at Léran Music festival, France, (June 2013).

An avid ensemble singer, Margaret has sung for numerous projects with the Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Handel and Haydn Society Boston, under the baton of Harry Christophers, and Chamber Choir Ireland. On the operatic stage, she has sung with the choruses of Wexford Festival Opera, Irish National Opera, Chautauqua Opera USA, and Wide Open Opera, and was due to sing with Glyndebourne Opera for the 2020 Festival, which was cancelled due to COVID-19.
Margaret holds a B.A. in Musicology and Theory with first class honours and a foundation scholarship from Trinity College Dublin as well as graduate degrees in vocal performance from the Royal Irish Academy of Music and New England Conservatory, Boston. Outside of singing, Margaret also conducts and was a participant in the 2019-21 NCH Female Conductor’s Program, sponsored by Grant Thornton. She is also a grateful recipient of a Northern Ireland Opera Artist development grant to further her conducting studies in 2023. Margaret used the COVID-enforced career break to pursue a Higher Diploma in Computer Science at University College Dublin and now enjoys juggling a day-job as a software engineer with an active performance career.

Highlights this season include staged performances of Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder for Northern Ireland Opera’s Salon series in venues around Northern Ireland (next performance Derry, October), a European tour of Berlioz’s Les Trojens with the Monteverdi Choir in August, and performances as the alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Ulster Consort in December.