Finalist in the International Handel Singing Competition in 2020, Ruairi is much in demand as an interpreter of Early music in the UK and abroad, collaborating with some of the leading conductors in the field including Stephen Layton, Emmanuelle Haïm and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. An experienced evangelist of Bach’s Passions, Ruairi made his debuts at Wigmore Hall, Bachfest Leipzig and Snape Maltings with Solomon’s Knot, with whom he joined for Bach’s Weihnachts Oratorium last winter.
On the operatic stage, he debuted Prologue/Quint in Britten’s Turn of the Screw at Barnes Music Festival and took on multiple roles in Purcell’s The Indian Queen with Le Concert d’Astrée at l’Opera de Lille in 2019, to be revived in Caen, Antwerp and Luxembourg next year. He returned to Barnes for the role of Satvayan in Holst’s Savitri last Spring, and will feature as Forêt in Sivan Eldar’s Like Flesh at Opéra national de Montpellier in 2022.
Recent highlights in Song include a recital on Innocence & Experience with Anna Tilbrook, performing Tippett’s Cantata Boyhood’s End and Finzi’s A Young Man’s Exhortation for Finzi Friends at Ashmansworth. He also performed on themes of The Games & Battles of Love for Recitals at Raynham and The Grange Festival, featuring Monteverdi Songs of Court directed by Michael Chance. He continues his studies with Nicky Spence and Caroline Dowdle.