Ciara Hendrick | mezzo-soprano
Ciara studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, ENO Works and the Opera Studio of the Opéra National du Rhin.
Opera engagements include the title role in Handel’s Susanna, Second Witch in Dido and Aeneas, Daphne in Actéon for The Early Opera Company, Il Pastor fido for La Nuova Musica at the Handel Festival, La Périchole for Garsington, Hansel and Gretel for Iford Festival Opera, Yeomen of the Guard in the Buxton Festival, Theodora at St Martin in the Fields, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro and Lazuli in L’Étoile for Les Jeunes Voix du Rhin. She also created the role of Margarida in Julian Philips’ The Yellow Sofa for Glyndebourne Festival Opera.
Ciara is a regular soloist at St Martin in the Fields, where her oratorio engagements include Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Bach’s Magnificat, Monteverdi Vespers, as well as Bach’s St John Passion at the Royal Hospital Chelsea and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at St John’s Smith Square.
As a recitalist, Ciara works frequently with Baroque ensembles, including La Nuova Musica, The Early Opera Company, L’Avventura London, the Solomon Consort and The Musicke Companye, specialising in works from the Renaissance and Baroque periods and performing at festivals and venues throughout the country including the Handel Festival, the Wigmore Hall, the Foundling Museum and at Lille Opera House for Le Concert d’Astreé. With Sholto Kynoch she has appeared regularly at the Oxford Lieder Festival, most recently in Schumann’s Liederkreis Op. 39.
As a solo recording artist, Ciara has worked with the LSO, recording the title track of the Oscar-nominated film Incendies. Other contemporary works include a performance of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, working with composers from Oxford University as part of the Oxford Lieder Festival and the Witch in the première of a new version of Hansel and Gretel by John Barber and James Redwood for Glyndebourne Education.
Future plans include Candlelit Opera Galas with Opera Brava, Tweedledum in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (world première) for Opera Holland Park, a concert at the Handel House Museum, Dixit Dominus and Messiah at St Martin in the Fields, the St John Passion with La Nuova Musica, an opera tour of China, and The Coronation of Poppea for Opera North.