Aebh Kelly Mezzo-soprano

Biography

Irish mezzo-soprano Aebh Kelly was born in Dublin and is a graduate of the Royal Irish Academy of Music, where she received her Bachelor's degree with First Class Honours (Prof. Virginia Kerr and Dearbhla Collins). She is currently a member of the International Opera Studio at the Hamburg State Opera. During her studies she participated in the finals of the international singing competition Neue Stimmen. Over the years she has worked closely with the Irish National Opera, appearing in several productions including 20 Shots of Opera and A Thing I Cannot Name.

She recently returned to the company for her debut as Flora in La Traviata. In 2022, she won second prize in the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition, as well as the Dublin Song Series Prize and the Dermot Troy Prize. In 2021, thanks to the generous support of Maria Manetti-Shrem, Aebh Kelly joined the Mascarade Emerging Artist Program in Florence. During this time she performed excerpts from The Barber of Seville and La Cenerentola at La Fenice in Venice, the role of Popova (Walton's The Bear) at the Lerici Music Festival, and made her German debut as Olga (Eugene Onegin) at the Theater Heidelberg.

In the summer of 2024 she participated in the Georg Solti Accademia and made her debut as Dido (Dido and Aeneas), a co-production between Opera Collective Ireland and Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg. Recent and future engagements include the roles of Hänsel (Hänsel and Gretel), Anna Kennedy (Maria Stuarda), the Page of Herodias (Salome), Dryade (Ariadne auf Naxos), the Innkeeper (Boris Godunov), Annina (La Traviata), Kate Pinkerton (Madame Butterfly), Wowkle (La Fille du Far-West), the Sandman (Hänsel et Gretel), Kürdchen (Die Gänsemagd) and the Second Squire (Parsifal).

Debut at the Opéra National de Paris