Voice & PianoMatt Mannion
Rising Stars recipient Matthew Mannion is originally from Billings, Montana but relocated with his family back to Ireland where he began and completed his studies, receiving his Undergraduate and Masters in Music Performance from the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Matthew has over a decade of performance experience and has performed with companies such as Irish National Opera, Opera Theater Company, Nouvel Opera Fribourg, Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, Wide Open Opera, Ulysses Opera, Lyric Opera Ireland, Opera Collective Ireland, and the Cork Midsummer Festival. Most recently Matthew has performed in the Ballaghaderreen Arts Festival, Summer Festival of Opera in Killruddery House, and performed with the Dublin City Choral Union, Wexford Festival Singers, Guinness Choir and the Goethe Choir.
He has performed many roles including Masetto in Don Giovanni, Melisso in Alcina, Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, and two world premiere roles Owen in The Stalls and Liam in Backstage both written by Tom Lane. His small and secondary roles include Morales in Carmen, Marchese in La Traviata, Un Chasseurin Guillaume Tell, Kellner 4 in Der Rosenkavalier, 2nd Prisoner in Fidelio, Victorian 4 in William Todd’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly. Matthew has also sung as a soloist in oratorios such as The Messiah, Elijah, Stanford’s Mass in G, Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Mass in C, Charpentier’s Messe de Minuet, C.P.E. Bach’s Magnificat, and Haydn’s Die Sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze. Matthew has been a finalist in the Bernadette Greevy Bursary, Glenarm Festival of Voice, Trench Award, and received 3rd place in the 2017 Irene Sanford Competition. He also was granted the Agility Award in 2022 by the Arts Council of Ireland to further fund his operatic studies.
As a teacher Matthew has multiple years of training and experience to enhance his teaching style. He has taught privately and at the Dublin School of Music for many years mentoring and guiding pupils through their RIAM and ABRSM grades, as well as junior and leaving certificate practicals with much success. Matthew also is a vocal tutor in Dublin City University. Most recently Matthew undertook the Singer’s and Teachers Training course run by Classical Voice Training to further hone his pedagogical skills and continues to look for ways to constantly improve. His belief is a teacher is a forever learner and to adapt to each individual student that comes through the door. His classroom is a fun and safe environment as learning music should enrich the lives of those studying it.