Classical Journey: Solo debut for soprano Mary O’Shea at the Cathedral next Sunday 17 April 5pm

Thursday, 7 April 2011

Solo debut for soprano Mary O’Shea at the Cathedral next Sunday 17 April 5pm

A very versatile soprano:
Mary O'Shea

Mary O'Shea is an aspiring young Soprano from Somerset, whose beautiful baroque and classical singing has been heard many times on Phonic FM. She will be giving her first public solo performance at Evensong at the Cathedral on Palm Sunday, 17 April.

Regular listeners to Phonic FM will be familiar with the voice of Mary O’Shea. On 16 August last year Mary joined Martin Hodge on ‘Roots and Shoots’ to sing her own compositions from her album ‘DollyO’.

It quickly became apparent that Mary is a very talented classical singer. Her next appearance was on the ‘Classical Journey’ with Luch Càise-Dearg on 5 October. She immediately amazed us all with ‘Nulla in Mundo Pax Sincera’ by Vivaldi, and proceeded to perform two hours of beautiful singing ranging from Bach to Schumann to Reger. Following that success she teamed up with another Phonic FM regular, pianist John Scarfe, and returned on 15 March this year for an outstanding session of baroque and classical music starting with Alessandro Scarlatti’s "Già il sole dal Gange" and ending with Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’.

Mary studied music at Winchester University. She trained as a soprano but also plays several instruments including the violin. After graduating she spent time in Ireland where she learned traditional Irish violin styles. She is also a very accomplished dancer. As she herself puts it, she is simply passionate about music.

Mary now lives in Somerset. She is regularly in Exeter to perform with the St Peter’s Singers at the Cathedral under the direction of David Davies. David has clearly recognized her talent as she has been chosen to sing the solo soprano part in the ‘Sequence of Music for Palm Sunday’ which will be performed at Anglican Evensong service in the Cathedral at 5pm on Sunday 17 April.

Mary has also recorded her own, classically inspired, modern compositions for the album CD ‘DollyO’ which is on sale to raise funds for the Cenon Perez Education Project in Luzon in the Philippines.

Copies are on sale at Bar Venezzia on the quay in Exeter or available online at www.dollyo.com