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The English mezzo-soprano, Martha McLorinan, was born in Shrewsbury and grew up in the West Country. She trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where she held a scholarship with the BBC National Chorus of Wales, won the Margaret Tann Williams Prize, and graduated with first class honours (Bachelor of Music degree, 2004-2008). She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the judges’ discretionary prize at the Thelma King Award and the ensemble prize at the Royal Over-Seas League. She is a versatile singer and enjoys a varied career of opera, oratorio, consort work, session work and recitals.
Martha McLorinan has extensive experience on the concert platform across both the UK and Europe. Solo highlights include J.S. Bach's St.Matthew Passion (BWV 244) and St. John Passion (BWV 245) at Birmingham Symphony Hall (Ex Cathedra/Jeffrey Skidmore), George Frideric Handel's Messiah at Birmingham Symphony Hall (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Simon Halsey) and at Cadogan Hall (English Chamber Orchestra/Nigel Short), Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem at Abbatiale Saint-Ouen (Tenebrae/Nigel Short), Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria at St. Stephen’s Walbrook (Gabrieli Players/Paul McCreesh), J.S. Bach’s Magnificat (BWV 243) at St. John’s Cathedral, Malta (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/James Burton), Sergei Rachmaninov’s Vespers at Sherborne Abbey (Tenebrae/Nigel Short) and at Milton Court (Ex Cathedra/Jeffrey Skidmore), Johannes Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes at Kings Place (The Sixteen/Harry Christophers), and G.F. Handel’s Jephtha (Storge) in Maynooth, Ireland (US Berkshire International Choral Festival/Joseph Cullen). She regularly appears as a soloist with choral societies across the country singing a broad range of repertoire, including works such as Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius and Verdi’s Requiem. Future engagements include three performances of G.F. Handel’s Messiah in the USA with Tenebrae in November, and another performance of G.F. Handel’s Messiah with Dame Emma Kirkby in Kings Lynn in December. Plans for 2017 include appearing as a soloist with The Sixteen in Holland singing Haydn’s Harmoniemesse in Utrecht, Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
Martha McLorinan's operatic roles include The Notary’s Wife and Anna (cover) in R. Strauss' Intermezzo and Lotinka in Dvorak’s The Jacobin for Buxton Festival Opera, Second Witch in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Wigmore Hall (Tenebrae/Trevor Pinnock), and at St. John’s Smith Square (La Nuova Musica/David Bates), Mrs.Noye in Benjamin Britten’s Noye’s Fludde for a community project in Somerset, Dorabella in W.A. Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte for Opus Opera, Alto 2 soloist in Stockhausen’s Mittwoch Aus Licht for the BBC Proms, Tenth Ewe in Birtwistle’s Yan Tan Tethera for Britten Sinfonia, Lazuli in Chabrier’s L’Etoile and Mrs. Nolan in Menotti’s The Medium, both for the RWCMD. She has also worked for Opera Holland Park for two seasons as a member of the chorus. She has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 singing Third Lady in excerpts of W.A. Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte for Charles Hazelwood’s Discovering Music programme. In February 2017, she will sing the role of Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas at Birmingham Town Hall with Ex Cathedra.
Martha McLorinan is also in demand as a consort singer. She was a member of Cambridge Singers (Director: John Rutter). Her work with Tenebrae (Director: Nigel Short) has taken her to The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where she sang in a quartet of female voices for Joby Talbot’s ballet Alice in Wonderland. Last year, she toured Betrayal: A Polyphonic Crime Drama with I Fagiolini (Director: Robert Hollingworth), and she recently toured How Like an Angel (a show with seven acrobats and nine singers) with them in Norway.
Martha features on various recordings, and can be heard as a soloist in Garcia’s Missa Pastoril (Brazilian Adventures, Ex Cathedra/Jeffrey Skidmore), Alec Roth’s Hymn to Gaia (Shared Ground, Ex Cathedra/Jeffrey Skidmore) Paul Mealor’s Salvator Mundi (A Tender Light, Tenebrae/Nigel Short), Gorczycki’s Conductus Funebris and Litania de Providentia Divina (Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki, The Sixteen/Eamonn Dougan) and in Mass in G Minor (Ralph Vaughan Williams: A Cappella Choral Works, Laudibus/Mike Brewer). She recently recorded solos in Daniel Lesur’s Cantique des cantiques and Jean Francaix’s Ode a la gastronomie with I Fagiolini, and was the mezzo-soprano soloist in Tenebrae’s recording of Judith Bingham’s The Drowned Lovers (Music of the Spheres, Tenebrae/Nigel Short). She also frequently records with both Synergy and London Voices (Director: Terry Edwards).
2016 saw Martha McLorinan perform as a soloist at York Early Music Festival (lute songs from Anne Boleyn’s Songbook with Jacob Heringman and Kirsty Whatley broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 from York Minster), Aldeburgh Festival (J.S. Bach’s Magnificat (BWV 243) with Les Siècles and London Voices conducted by François-Xavier Roth at Snape Maltings Concert Hall), and the Barbican Festival (Copland’s In The Beginning and MacMillan’s Seven Angels with Ex Cathedra conducted by Jeffrey Skidmore at St. Giles’, Cripplegate). She currently lives in London, England. |
