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Biography
Mezzo soprano Jane Irwin studied at Lancaster University and at the RNCM. Her many prizes include the 1993 Singers' Competition at the Geneva International Music Competition and the 1991 Decca Kathleen Ferrier Prize.
As a concert and recital singer Jane Irwin has appeared regularly in Britain, Europe and America. In November 2002 she made her Carnegie Hall debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by Mariss Jansons. This followed on from highly successful concerts in 1999 of Mahler Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen with the same forces at the BBC Proms and the Berlin Festival. She returned to Pittsburgh in 2006 for Mahler Das Lied von der Erde with Sir Andrew Davis. She made her debut with the San Francisco Symphony singing Handel Lucrezia in 2005, returning in 2006 for Mozart Coronation Mass and in January 2007 sang Chausson Poème de L’amour et de la mer for the American Symphony Orchestra under Leon Botstein in New York.
She has sung Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra under Michael Gielen and Mahler Das Lied von der Erde for the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Kent Nagano, the BBC Philharmonic with Vassily Sinaisky and Elgar Sea Pictures and Gerontius with the Philharmonia and Sir Andrew Davis.
She has worked with the Orchestre de Paris, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the San Diego Orchestra, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Spanish National Orchestra (Zemlinsky Eine Florentinisches Tragödie and Schreker Funf Gesänge), Finnish Radio Symphony, Academia di Santa Cecilia in Rome (Mahler Das Klagende Lied), Sao Paolo Symphony, and with Semyon Bychkov, Libor Pesek, Donald Runnicles, Antonio Pappano, Matthias Bamert, Trevor Pinnock, Mark Elder, Paul Daniel, Joseph Swensen, Richard Armstrong and Jakov Kreizberg. She has given recitals at the Châtelet, Paris, London, Geneva, Aix-en-Provence and Japan.
Jane Irwin has sung regularly at the Edinburgh International Festival, most recently Mahler Kindertotenlieder (arranged by Edward Harper) with the Hebrides Ensemble and the title role in Dido and Aeneas at the 2007 Festival.
Other concerts at the Edinburgh Festival have included Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and Jonathan Nott, recitals at the Queen’s Hall, Mahler Rückert Lieder and Das Lied von der Erde, Honegger Le Bucher de St Jeanne, the title role of Poro by Handel with Emmanuelle Haïm, Verdi Requiem with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Myung Whun Chung, a Beethoven evening with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Günther Herbig, and Britten Phaedra at the Queen’s Hall with the Scottish Ensemble.
With the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra she sang Wagner Wesendonck Lieder with Walter Weller, and Elgar Dream of Gerontius, The Apostles and The Kingdom, Mahler Das Lied von der Erder, Bernstein Symphony No 1 Jeremiah and Mahler Symphony No 2 with Sakari Oramo. Other engagements have included Mahler Symphony No 2 and Rückert-Lieder under Gerard Schwarz with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Elgar Dream of Gerontius, Sea Pictures and The Music Makers with the Hallé and Mark Elder (the latter recorded on the Hallé’s own label); Brahms Alto Rhapsody with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Frankfurt and London also with Mark Elder.
She has sung Elgar Sea Pictures with the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig, The Music Makers with the Dutch Radio Philharmonic, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Zurich Tonhalle and Ivor Bolton, Schoenberg Gurrelieder in Barcelona, Das Lied von der Erdein Madrid, and Honegger Le Bucher de St Jeanne for the Orchestre National de Lyon both with Jun Märkl.
She has also worked with the BBC Philharmonic (Elgar The Kingdom and Mahler Das Lied von der Erde), BBC National Orchestra of Wales (Berlioz La Mort de Cléopâtre), the BBC Symphony Orchestra, (Elliott Carter Of Rewaking in the presence of the composer and conducted by David Robertson), London Sinfonietta (European première of Carter’s In the distances of Sleep), Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra (Tippett’s A child of our Time and Mahler Kindertotenlieder), the English Concert, the Gabrieli Consort and Players, and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields (Handel Lucrezia and Resphighi Il Tramonto at the Wigmore Hall).
In 1995 she made her debut at the ROH in a new production of Götterdämmerung/Second Norn under Bernard Haitink, and returned in the Autumn of 2003 to sing Suzuki/Madam Butterfly. In the summer of 2000 she made her debut at the Bayreuth Festival in Die Walküre.
For Scottish Opera she has sung Suzuki/Madam Butterfly in a new production by David McVicar, Maddalena in Rigoletto and Waltraute/Götterdämmerung in a hugely successful Ring Cycle directed by Tim Albery and conducted by Richard Armstrong at the 2003 Edinburgh International Festival, Fatima in Weber's Oberon at the 2004 Edinburgh Festival and Thea in Tippett's The Knot Garden. For Opera North she sang Fenena in Nabucco in concert, which was recorded by Chandos.
For English National Opera she sang Brangäne/Tristan und Isolde with great success and in the Autumn of 2006 she made her US operatic debut singing Brangäne for San Francisco Opera. In 2007 she made her debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago singing Mère Marie in Dialogues des Carmélites.
Future concerts include The Apostles and Light of Life by Elgar with the Dutch Radio Philharmonic, Frank Martin “In terra Pax” with the Ensemble Orchestral de Park, Mahler Symphony No 3 on tour with the Mahler Youth Orchestra, Mahler 2 with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven 9 with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic at the Proms, and Tippett A Child of our Time with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the 2008 Edinburgh International Festival, where she will also sing Anezka in The Two Widows by Smetana with Scottish Opera..
Last update
April 2008