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Alison Darragh
Mezzo Soprano

Alison (Ali) was born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland and studied singing at the City of Belfast School of Music. She later went to the University of St Andrews where she held a choral scholarship for four years and graduated with a Joint degree of English Literature and Art History. She has since performed with many of the leading early music ensembles, with highlights including performances of Bach’s St Matthew Passion (with Collegium Vocale, Gent /Philippe Herreweghe, and the Dunedin Consort/John Butt) and Blow’s Venus and Adonis (with The Musicians of the Globe Theatre, London/Phillip Pickett). She sings regularly with the Gramophone and MIDEM award-winning Dunedin Consort in works such as Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s B Minor Mass and with which she recently made her solo CD debut in a recording of Bach’s St Matthew Passion released by Linn Records. She sings regularly with The Exon Singers (Matthew Owens), and with Chorus Angelorum (Gavin Carr), recently performing Olivier Messiaen’s Trois Petites Liturgies de la présence divine in Turin Opera House.

Ali is increasingly active as a soloist and recitalist, with recent highlights including performances of Vivaldi’s solo cantata Nulla in Mundo with Philharmonia of Edinburgh and Brahms Liebesleider Walzer in Glasgow and at the Edinburgh Festival. In the Southwest of England she has recently given recitals as part of the Exon Singers Festival in Tavistock, at Stogursey Parish Church, the Bishop’s Palace in Wells, Wells Cathedral, in Bristol and in Bath. She performs regularly as a soloist with choral societies with recent performances including Mozart’s C Minor Mass; Requiem; Haydn’s Nelson Mass; Handel’s Messiah and Acis and Galatea; Bach’s St Matthew Passion, B Minor Mass and Magnificat; and Karl Jenkins’s The Armed Man. Recently Ali was a soloist in a Gala Concert with Wells Cathedral Choir and soloists Dame Emma Kirkby, James Bowman, Daniel Norman and Neal Davies (Bach’s Magnificat and Handel Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate).

Ali is heavily involved with Music in Hospitals – a registered charity whose mission it is to improve the quality of life of adults and children in hospitals and care homes through the joy and therapeutic benefits of live music.

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