Irish soprano Aisling Kenny discovered her love of singing in the Cathedral Choir of her native Galway and later as a music student in the choirs of Maynooth University. She is now a versatile soloist, recitalist and ensemble singer specialising in historically informed performance. As a soloist, she has performed with prominent Irish and European ensembles including Collegium Vocale Gent, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Resurgam, Det Norske Blåseensemble, Balthasar Neumann Chor, Camerata Kilkenny, Chamber Choir Ireland, Ricercar Consort, Ensemble Passio, Sestina, Staatskapelle Halle and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. She has worked with renowned conductors including Philippe Herreweghe, Peter Whelan, Grete Pedersen, Monica Huggett, Christian Curnyn and Teodor Currentzis. Aisling is a recent recipient of a Music Bursary Award from the Arts Council of Ireland and a Creative Practitioner Bursary from Galway City Council, and gratefully acknowledges this support.
Aisling’s international performances as a soloist include Bach’s Johannespassion at Thüringer Bachwochen in Eisenach and Cantata BWV 73 at Bachfest Leipzig in the Thomaskirche with Collegium Vocale Gent under Philippe Herreweghe. She has performed the roles of Spirit and Second Witch in Dido and Aeneas with Collegium Vocale Gent and Ricercar Consort, directed by Philippe Pierlot at Le Rivage de Voix Festival, and given a recital at the Finding a Voice Festival at the University of California, Irvine, with pianist Lorna Griffitt.
She appears regularly as a soloist with the Irish Baroque Orchestra and its Artistic Director, Peter Whelan, including a solo Bach cantata concert at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, and the orchestra’s Irish performances of Handel’s Alexander’s Feast in 2025. Recent engagements include recitals of Dowland and Purcell in Wrocław and Szaniec, St Matthew Passion with Manchester Baroque, Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 2 with the Gealán Quartet for Music for Galway’s Midwinter Festival, and a tour of Couperin’s Leçons de ténèbres with Sestina.
Aisling curates recital programmes and collaborative projects for festivals and concert series. These include a programme of Dowland songs and Italian madrigals at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, supported by an Arts Council Music Bursary in 2021. In March 2019, she was artist-in-residence at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris through the Music Network/CCI Music Performance Bursary.
Aisling also enjoys performing contemporary music. She was soprano soloist in the 2021 world premiere of Rhona Clarke’s The Second Coming with ConTempo Quartet, and in the Irish premiere of James MacMillan’s Stabat Mater with Chamber Choir Ireland and the Irish Chamber Orchestra.
As a dedicated recitalist, Aisling performs a diverse range of repertoire. Her work includes Lieder and art-song recitals with pianists Judith Gannon and Una Hunt, Dowland’s lute songs with Thomas Dunford in Paris and Kilkenny, frottole with lutenist Andrew Maginley at the National Gallery in London, and several collaborations with historical harpist Siobhán Armstrong.
As an ensemble singer, Aisling has sung with the Gabrieli Consort, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The English Concert, Academy of Ancient Music, Instruments of Time and Truth, The Hanover Band, Vox Luminis, RIAS Kammerchor, Utopia Choir, Zürcher Sing-Akademie and Ensemble Marsyas. She has worked with directors and conductors including David Brophy, John Butt, Laurence Cummings, Iván Fischer, Edward Higginbottom, David Hill, René Jacobs, Paul McCreesh, Lionel Meunier, Paavo Järvi, Erin Headley, Patrick Ringborg and Masaaki Suzuki.
Aisling has performed at venues and festivals around the world, including the Salzburger Festspiele, Bachfest Leipzig, Berlin Philharmonie, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Barbican Centre, Leipzig Gewandhaus and La Scala. In Ireland, she has appeared at festivals including Galway Early Music Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival and Cork International Choral Festival. She also performs regularly with choirs and choral societies across Ireland, including Dublin Bach Singers, Galway Baroque Singers and Culwick Choral Society.
Aisling studied music at Maynooth University and vocal performance at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel with Evelyn Tubb and Ulrich Messthaler. She has participated in masterclasses with Paul Farrington, Margreet Honig, Emma Kirkby, Christine Schäfer and Andreas Scholl, and in recent years has studied with James Platt, Janice Chapman and Gary Coward. When not performing, she enjoys her work as a vocal coach and helping amateur choirs to develop their vocal technique.
Aisling appears as a soloist on acclaimed recordings including Weelkes: Anthems and Services with Resurgam (Resonus, 2023) and Cousser’s The Universal Applause of Mount Parnassus with the Irish Baroque Orchestra (Linn Records, 2022).
Aisling Kenny 