Dr Aisling Kenny

Dr Aisling Kenny completed a B.Mus at Maynooth University in 2005. As an undergraduate, she sang in the University Choral Society and Chamber Choir. She went on to gain a Ph.D. on the Lieder of Josephine Lang under the supervision of Prof. Lorraine Byrne Bodley in 2010. During her doctoral studies, she was awarded a John Hume Scholarship from Maynooth University and a Postgraduate Scholarship from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. She presented numerous lectures and lecture-recitals in Ireland, the UK, and Europe, and in 2011, organised the first major international conference on women and the nineteenth-century Lied. She went on to co-edit the first book to deal predominantly with the area together with Susan Wollenberg (University of Oxford) for publication by Ashgate/Routledge. She contributed eighteen articles on Irish singers to the Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland (UCD Press, 2013).

During her postgraduate studies, Aisling studied singing with Mary Brennan and performed several recitals and lecture recitals of Josephine Lang’s Lieder.  She was a member of Christ Church Cathedral Choir and joined the professional choir, Resurgam directed by Mark Duley, in 2008. After graduating, she went on to work as a part-time lecturer in music at St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, an examiner for the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and a vocal coach in several Dublin schools before being appointed as assistant lecturer in music at Dundalk Institute of Technology in 2012 where she lectured in musicology, analysis and vocal studies, founded and co-directed the Chamber Choir, and staff choir, and co-directed several shows including South Pacific and No No Nanette.

Since leaving DkIT in 2015, Aisling has focussed on vocal performance, especially that of early music and historically informed performance. She studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, a centre of excellence for early music performance, with renowned soprano, Evelyn Tubb. Aisling is now established as a soloist, recitalist and ensemble singer specialising in early music. She frequently performs sacred and chamber works of the baroque and classical eras, in particular the music of J.S. Bach. She has sung as a soloist with leading Irish and European ensembles including Collegium Vocale Gent, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Balthasar Neumann Chor, Sestina, Resurgam, Camerata Kilkenny and Chamber Choir Ireland, Irish Chamber Orchestra and Staatskapelle Halle. An experienced ensemble singer, she has also sung with Vox Luminis, RIAS Kammerchor, Zürcher Sing-Akademie, Ensemble Marsyas and Atalante.

Performance highlights as a soloist include Johannespassion in Eisenach, the town of Bach’s birthplace, with Collegium Vocale Gent, directed by Philippe Herreweghe, Mozart’s Coronation Mass with Balthasar Neumann Chor and Ensemble at the Laieszhalle, Hamburg directed by Duncan Ward and a solo Bach cantata concert with Irish Baroque Orchestra directed by Peter Whelan at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.

A dedicated recitalist, she has performed Dowland’s lute songs with Thomas Dunford in Paris and Kilkenny, as well as concerts with historical harpist, Siobhán Armstrong, at Galway Early Music Festival and East Cork Early Music Festival, and a recital at Oxford University with Cecily Lock for Clara Schumann’s bicentenary. Aisling recently curated and performed in a concert of Dowland’s songs in their original settings for multiple voices, alongside Italian madrigals by Marenzio, Monteverdi, and Barbara Strozzi at the Hugh Lane Gallery supported by a Music Bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland. Aisling was artistic resident at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris in March 2019 supported by Music Network and the Arts Council. Aisling appears as a soloist on Irish Baroque Orchestra’s recording for Linn Records, The Hibernian Muse. Music for Ireland by Purcell and Cousser, with Sestina, directed by Peter Whelan and on Sestina’s debut recording, Master and Pupil with Resonus Classics.
When not performing, Aisling enjoys her work as a vocal coach and regularly facilitates vocal technique workshops for choirs of all ages.

For more information see aislingkenny.com