Bernie Sherlock is an Irish choral conductor, adjudicator, teacher, and lecturer in music.

Biography

Bernie Sherlock is an Irish conductor of

choral A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

music who is conductor of the multi-award-winning chamber choir

New Dublin Voices New Dublin Voices, an award-winning chamber choir based in Dublin, Ireland, was founded by conductor Bernie Sherlock in October 2005. New Dublin Voices, whose concerts range in style and period from the medieval to the contemporary, takes speci ...

which she founded in 2005, and of the Culwick Choral Society. She received her training in choral conducting from Ildikó Herboly Kocsár and Peter Erdei during two years of study in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. She subsequently continued her studies with

Gerhard Markson Gerhard Markson is a German conductor. His most recent post was Principal Conductor of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, but his term ended in May 2009. Biography He studied at the Frankfurt Academy of Music. During the 1970s he participat ...

and earned a Masters in Conducting from

NUI Maynooth The National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM; ga, Ollscoil na hÉireann Mhá Nuad), commonly known as Maynooth University (MU), is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. It w ...

. Sherlock has extensive experience directing a wide range of choirs. She was for ten years the Choral Director at the

Dublin Institute of Technology Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT, ga, Institiúid Teicneolaíochta Bhaile Átha Cliath) was a major third-level institution in Dublin, Ireland. On 1 January 2019 DIT was dissolved and its functions were transferred to the Technological Un ...

Conservatory of Music & Drama, during which time she led the DIT Chamber Choir to numerous first prizes at the

Cork International Choral Festival The Cork International Choral Festival is held annually in Cork, Ireland and features choirs from all over the world. About 5,000 choristers take part every year; they come from all over Ireland, from Britain, from the European continent, and s ...

and at Dublin

Feis Ceoil Feis Ceoil ( ; "Festival of Music") is an Irish music organisation which holds an annual competitive festival of classical music. It was first organised in Dublin in 1897 by Dr. Annie Patterson and Edward Martyn for the purpose of stimulating musi ...

. Under Sherlock's direction the Chamber Choir was the Conservatory's first ensemble to record a CD when ''Carols for Christmas'' was released to great acclaim in December 2000. She also conducted the larger DIT Choral Society in performances of the mainstream oratorio repertoire. In 2007, she was appointed Musical Director of the Culwick Choral Society in 2007, the oldest choir of its type in Ireland, with which she continues to explore the major repertoire for large choir. Her choir

has established itself as one of Ireland's leading chamber choirs since its formation in 2005. Known for its television, radio and recording work, and for its innovative concert programming, New Dublin Voices is also prominent on the international competition circuit with invitations to prestigious festivals in France, Switzerland, Spain, and the US, as well as major prizes from competitions in France, Germany, Hungary, Finland and Italy, including the Grand Prix at the 2009 Budapest International Choir Competition where Sherlock was also awarded the prize for best conductor. New Dublin Voices was awarded 1st prize in the 2015 Fleischmann International Competition at the

where Sherlock also won the International Jury Award. New Dublin Voices was the 2010 winner of the RTE lyric fm Choirs for Christmas Competition and a multiple prize-winner at the 2011 International Choir Contest of Flanders-Maasmechelen (Belgium). Sherlock is a lecturer in Music at the

Conservatory of Music and Drama. She also lectured for many years in the School of Music,

Trinity College, Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, where she was conductor of the Dublin University Choral Society from 1999 until 2008. Under her direction the choir released its first CD, a recording of Under No Circumstances by the late Brian Boydell. Sherlock has an international profile as an adjudicator, choral animateur, teacher of conducting and aural training and she has won several international prizes for her conducting and interpretation. She is Artistic Director of Educational Programmes for the Association of Irish Choirs including the annual Conducting Summer School, and is the Irish representative on the World Choir Council.

New Dublin Voices

Sherlock founded

, an international award-winning chamber choir based in Dublin, in October 2005.

Other Choirs

D.I.T. Chamber Choir

The DIT Chamber Choir comprises full-time Conservatory music students and performs a diverse repertoire ranging from 16th-century madrigals to contemporary music. Under the directorship of Sherlock from 1995 to 2005, the choir established itself on the competition circuit, twice winning first prize in the Cork International Choral Festival Chamber Choir Competition. The choir also won the festival's Perpetual Trophy for single best performance of an individual work (2004), the Perpetual Trophy for the Performance of Irish Contemporary Choral Music (2003), and the Philib Uí Laoghaire Trophy for excellence in the performance of a part-song in Irish (2002). The choir also won the Feis Ceoil Culwick Cup for best chamber choir on six occasions since 1996, and released its first CD, Carols for Christmas, to great acclaim in December 2000.

University of Dublin Choral Society

Sherlock is a lecturer in Music in the DIT Conservatory and an honours music graduate of

, where she lectured in the School of Music and was conductor of the University of Dublin Choral Society from 1999 to April 2008. She was just the tenth conductor of this 170-year-old choir. Sherlock and the UDCS released their first CD, the late

Brian Boydell Brian Patrick Boydell (17 March 1917 – 8 November 2000) was an Irish composer whose works include orchestral pieces, chamber music, and songs. He was Professor of Music at Trinity College Dublin for 20 years, founder of the Dowland Consort, con ...

's Under No Circumstances, composed in honour of the choir's 150th anniversary in 1987. In April 2006 Sherlock was the first conductor to bring the UDCS to the

National Concert Hall The National Concert Hall (NCH) (An Ceoláras Náisiúnta) is a national cultural institution, sometimes described as "the home of music in Ireland". It comprises the actual concert hall operation, which in various chambers hosts over 1,000 ...

where it performed to a full house. The choir returned to the

with Carmina Burana in April 2007 and again sold out. On 31 March 2008 Sherlock conducted her final concert with the UDCS in the National Concert Hall, Dublin: a performance of Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem/A German Requiem, and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms.

References

New Dublin Voices – Conductor

Culwick Choral Society – Conductor

External links

New Dublin Voices – Official Website

ICC interview with Bernie Sherlock

Bernie Sherlock Biography – DIT website

The Culwick Choral Society – Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherlock, Bernie 21st-century Irish conductors (music) Irish choral conductors Living people Alumni of Maynooth University Year of birth missing (living people) Musicians from County Kilkenny