Northern Irish baritone Brian McAlea graduated from the University of Oxford where he read Music and sang as a Choral Scholar with the Choir of New College. He is currently on a scholarship at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he is studying for a postgraduate degree in Vocal Studies with Robert Dean for which he is kindly supported by The Peter Nutting Charitable Trust, The George Heim Memorial Trust, The John S Cohen Foundation, The Michael James Music Trust and The John Wates Charitable Trust.
Brian is a regular concert soloist and recitalist. Notable highlights include: Handel’s Messiah (Instruments of Time and Truth/Edward Higginbottom; Irish Baroque Orchestra/Peter Whelan); Handel’s Israel in Egypt (Oxford Early Music Festival/Daniel Hyde); Haydn’s The Creation and Mozart’s Requiem (Oxford Orpheus/Robert Dean); MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross (Britten Sinfonia/Eamonn Dougan); Bach’s St John Passion (The Oxford Bach Soloists/Tom Hammond-Davies); Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 (The Armonico Consort/Christopher Monks); Wood’s St Mark Passion (Charles Wood Festival & Summer School/David Hill); Brahms’s Requiem (The Blenheim Singers/Tom Hammond-Davies); and Haydn’s The Seasons (Oxford University Chorus).
This year, Brian has been selected for the Young Artist Programme at Longborough Festival Opera in which he will be singing the role of Liberto in Monteverdi’s L'incoronazione di Poppea. Opera companies Brian has worked for include Nevill Holt Opera, where he will be returning this summer to cover the role of Figaro in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro; The Grange Festival, where he also covered the role of Zuniga in Bizet’s Carmen; NI Opera; New Chamber Opera; Barefoot Opera and Sestina.
Brian also performs with some of the country's most notable ensembles including the Gabrieli Consort, the Choir of the Age of Enlightenment, the Dunedin Consort, Britten Sinfonia Voices, Chamber Choir Ireland, the Armonico Consort, the Theatre of Early Music, Aurum Vocale and is a founding member of Northern Ireland’s award-winning ensemble Sestina.
