The festival features public recitals and events, including three concerts in partnership with and broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and culminates in a vocal competition hosted by Northern Ireland Opera Patron and BBC Radio 3 presenter Sean Rafferty.
The 14th Festival of Voice will take place in Glenarm from 23rd to 25th August 2024.
BBC Radio 3 Recitals
The BBC Radio 3 recitals are free and open to members of the public to come and watch and listen in St Patrick’s Church. These three recitals are recorded live by BBC Radio 3 and subsequently edited into four lunchtime concerts which are broadcast nationally on BBC Radio 3 a few weeks after the festival.
The BBC Radio 3 Recital for 2024 will feature mezzo soprano Niamh O’Sullivan, baritone Liam Bonthorne and baritone Ben McAteer with pianist Michael Pandya who will also curate the recital series. These recitals will be broadcast as the Lunchtime Concerts on BBC Radio 3 in September 2024.
Vocal Competition
Singers are chosen from applications from across the island of Ireland after submitting a recording and they spend four days working with top opera and song professionals who in 2024 will be Dr Ingrid Surgenor, Professor Mark Wildman and baritone Ben McAteer – the first ever winner of the competition in 2010 and now Vice Patron of the Glenarm Festival of Voice.
The singers and pianists involved with the Glenarm Festival of Voice competition benefit from a highly focused experience and the opportunity to perform and make contacts with opera professionals. The winner of the competition is awarded the Deborah Voigt Opera Prize, and becomes the NI Opera Young Opera Voice for that year. The judges also choose the winner of the Song Prize, sponsored by The Priests Charitable Foundation, and the audience vote for the winner of the Kathryn Harries Audience Prize.
The 2024 Finalists are sopranos Zoë Jackson and Hannah McKay, tenor Peter Thomas O’Reilly and baritones Seamus Brady and John Johnston, with Orlaith Sharkey joining them as the Peter Rankin Piano Intern for this year’s competition.
You can read their biographies by clicking here.
Patrons of The Glenarm Festival of Voice
Patrons: The Earl and Countess of Antrim
Vice-Patron: Ben McAteer, baritone and winner of the first Glenarm Festival of Voice in 2010.
Click through our gallery below to see some images from previous Festivals over the last ten years.
