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 with Robert Dean. Brian is currently supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Mark Allport of Exitex Ltd.
Notable highlights include Handel’s Messiah (Irish Baroque Orchestra; Instruments of Time and Truth); Handel’s Israel in Egypt (Oxford Early Music Festival); Mozart’s Requiem (The Ulster Orchestra/The City of Derry International Choral Festival); Haydn’s The Creation (Oxford Orpheus; Bach’s St John Passion (Sestina/East Cork Early Music Festival; The Oxford Bach Soloists); and Wood’s St Mark Passion (Charles Wood Festival & Summer School).
Opera companies Brian has worked for include Nevill Holt Opera, where he will return this summer to sing the role of Starveling/A Midsummer Night’s Dream, having previously covered the role of Figaro/Le nozze di Figaro last year; Northern Ireland Opera, singing the role of Tobias Mill in Rossini’s La Cambiale di Matrimonio for their Studio; The Grange Festival, covering the role of Zuniga in Bizet’s Carmen; Sestina, singing the role of Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas; New Chamber Opera; and Barefoot Opera.
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.