Ann Murray (born 27 August 1949) is an Irish mezzo-soprano.
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Life and career
Murray was born in Dublin. Having won a number of prizes at the Feis Ceoil, she studied singing at the College of Music (now the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, Dublin) with Nancy Calthorpe, as well as arts and music at University College Dublin. In 1968, she made her Irish opera debut performing the shepherd role in a concert performance of Tosca. She pursued further studies with Frederic Cox at the Royal Manchester College of Music and made her stage debut as Alcestis in Christoph Willibald Gluck's Alceste in 1974. Murray made her debut in 1981 at the Salzburg and the Zurich Festivals. She has since sung at all major opera houses and is particularly noted for her performances in works by George Frideric Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss.
Murray performs mainly at Covent Garden (where she performed as Siphare in Mozart's Mitridate, re di Ponto), the English National Opera and the Bavarian State Opera. Murray was the featured singer in volume three of the Hyperion Schubert Edition, Hyperion Records' complete Franz Schubert lieder project, in 1988, led by pianist Graham Johnson.
She maintains her links with Ireland and was a patron of the Young Associate Artists Programme of Dublin's Opera Theatre Company. In September 2010, she was appointed professor of singing at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she was previously (since 1999) an honorary fellow.
Awards and honours
She received an honorary doctorate in music from the National University of Ireland in 1997. She was made Bavarian Kammersängerin in 1998.
In 2002, she was made an Honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Diamond Jubilee Honours for her services to music.
She was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit in 2004.
Personal life
Murray was married to the English tenor Philip Langridge. The couple had one son, Jonathan, also a tenor.
Recordings
Mozart: Mass No. 18 in C Minor KV427 (with Amor Artis Chorale, English Chamber Orchestra, cond. Johannes Somary: LP, Vanguard, 1976)
Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (with Ambrosian Opera Chorus, New Philharmonia Orchestra, cond. Jesús Lopez-Cobos: LP, Philips, 1977; re-issued CD, 1991)
Verdi: La Battaglia di Legnano (with Austrian Radio Chorus & Symphony Orchestra, cond. Lambert Gardelli: LP, Philips, 1979; re-issued CD, Philips, 1989)
Gay: The Beggar's Opera, arr. Bonynge/Gamley (with London Voices, National Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Richard Bonynge: LP, Decca, 1981)
Charpentier: Te Deum H.146, Magnificat H.74, with Academy Chorus of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, conducted by Neville Marriner. CD Emi Classics 1991
Stravinsky: Songs (with Ensemble Intercontemporain, cond. Pierre Boulez: LP, Deutsche Grammophon, 1982; re-issued CD, 1992)
Haydn: Stabat mater (with Lausanne Vocal Ensemble & Chamber Orchestra, cond. Michel Corboz: LP, Erato, 1983)
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas (with Arnold Schoenberg Choir, Vienna Concentus Musicus, cond. Nikolaus Harnoncourt: LP, Telefunken, 1983)
Gounod: Romeo et Juliette (with Midi-Pyrenées Regional Choir, Toulouse Capitole Chorus & Orchestra, cond. Michel Plasson: LP, HMV, 1985)
Offenbach: Les Contes d'Hoffmann (with Chorus & Symphony Orchestra of the Brussels Opéra National du Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, cond. Sylvain Cambreling: LP/CD, EMI, 1988)
Brahms/Schumann: Voices of the Night (The Songmakers' Almanac: CD, Hyperion, 1989)