Northern Irish baritone Brian McAlea graduated from the University of Oxford where he read Music and sang with the Choir of New College. He subsequently won a scholarship to The Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studied under Robert Dean and graduated with Distinction. Brian is currently supported by BBC Northern Ireland, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Exitex Ltd.
Brian is a regular concert soloist and recitalist. Notable highlights include Handel’s Messiah (Irish Baroque Orchestra/Peter Whelan; Instruments of Time and Truth/Edward Higginbottom); Handel’s Israel in Egypt (Oxford Early Music Festival/Daniel Hyde); Mozart’s Requiem(The Ulster Orchestra/The City of Derry International Choral Festival); Haydn’s The Creation (Oxford Orpheus/Robert Dean) and Bach’s St John Passion (Sestina/East Cork Early Music Festival; The Oxford Bach Soloists/Tom Hammond-Davies).
Operatic roles include Endimione/La Calisto (Longborough Festival Opera); Starveling/A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Nevill Holt Opera); Liberto/L’incoronazione di Poppea(Loughborough Festival Opera); Tobias Mill/La Cambiale di Matrimonio (Northern Ireland Opera); Figaro – Cover/Le Nozze di Figaro (Nevill Holt Opera); Zuniga – Cover/Carmen (The Grange Festival); and Aeneas/Dido & Aeneas(Sestina Music).
Brian has also performed with some of the most notable ensembles in the UK and Ireland including the Gabrieli Consort, the Choir of the Age of Enlightenment, the Dunedin Consort, Britten Sinfonia Voices, Chamber Choir Ireland and is a founding member of Northern Ireland’s award-winning ensemble, Sestina.
