Dáirine Ní Mheadhra is a cellist, conductor, and founder of the Queen of Puddings Music Theatre.

Life and works

Born in

Cork (city) Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the island of Ireland. It is located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster. Following an extension to the city ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, Dáirine Ní Mheadhra began music lessons at the age of four. She began performing with the Irish National Symphony Orchestra as a cellist at the age of 17. She studied at Marseille Conservatoire after developing an interest in conducting. She founded a contemporary music ensemble, Nua Nós, in 1990 along with Rosie Elliott and Michael Taylor. She also studied at

Pierre Monteux School The Monteux School and Music Festival for conductors and orchestra musicians, founded by conductor Pierre Monteux, is a 6-week summer orchestra program located in Hancock, Maine, United States. History Pierre Monteux's (1875-1964) first forays i ...

before immigrating to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in 1993, where she married pianist John Hess. The couple co-founded the Queen of Puddings Music Theatre in 1995 with the goal of commissioning, developing and producing original Canadian opera. The company produced a number of groundbreaking operas. This included the 1999 work ''

Beatrice Chancy ''Beatrice Chancy'' is a Canadian chamber opera in four acts composed by James Rolfe. The libretto by George Elliott Clarke is based on his verse play of the same name. The opera was premiered in Toronto on 18 June 1998 by the Queen of Puddings Mu ...

'' (1999), the first opera about Canadian slavery (with a libretto by

George Elliott Clarke George Elliott Clarke, (born February 12, 1960) is a Canadian poet, playwright and literary critic who served as the Poet Laureate of Toronto from 2012 to 2015 and as the 2016–2017 Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. His work is known large ...

, music by James Rolfe, and launching the career of singer

Measha Brueggergosman Measha Brueggergosman (née Gosman; June 28, 1977) is a Canadian soprano who performs both as an opera singer and concert artist. She has performed internationally and won numerous awards. Her recordings of both classical and popular music ha ...

), as well as ''The Midnight Court'' (2005), based on the famous Gaelic poem of the same name (and featuring music by

Ana Sokolovic Ana Sokolovic ( sr-cyr, Ана Соколовић; born 1968) is a Canadian music composer based in Montreal, Quebec, whose contemporary pieces have won several awards in Canada. Career Sokolovic studied composition under Dušan Radić at t ...

). When interviewed about the challenges of producing original work, Ní Mheadhra remarked: "We would never put on anything without thinking of its future life." She was nominated for a

Dora Award The Dora Mavor Moore Award (also known as the Dora Award) is an award presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts which honours theatre, dance and opera productions in Toronto. Named after Dora Mavor Moore, who helped estab ...

in 2009 for Outstanding Musical Direction, and she and Hess were co-nominated in 2012 for the

work ''Svadba-Wedding''. The company closed in 2013, with Ní Mheadhra and Hess issuing a statement:

The end of our season in August 2013 feels like a very natural artistic ebbing point, and thus feels like the right moment to close the company. We want to conclude in a year like this, which is full of artistic pleasure, highlights, and fulfillment of our goals, with continued financial stability due to a deficit-free track record.

Ní Mheadhra continued to work as a musical director in partnership with other Toronto-based theatre companies, including ''All But Gone: a Beckett Rhapsody'' in 2016. Dáirine Ní Mheadhra was Artistic Director of Tionscadal na nAmhrán Ealaíne Gaeilge/Irish Language Art Song Project, a collection of 50 new Irish language art songs, commissioned from Irish and International composers.

Awards

Molson Prize The Thomas Henry Pentland Molson Prize for the Arts is awarded by the Canada Council, Canada Council for the Arts. Two prizes are awarded annually to distinguished individuals. One prize is awarded in the arts, one in the social sciences and human ...

Canada Council for the Arts The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal in ...

, 2012

References

External links

Interview with Dáirine Ní Mheadhra and John Hess about their production of ''Beckett: Feck it!''

Queen of Puddings Music Theatre (The Canadian Encyclopedia)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ní Mheadhra, Dairine Music directors (opera) Canadian women theatre directors Irish women theatre directors Viol players Canadian women classical cellists Canadian classical cellists Musicians from Cork (city) Irish women conductors (music) Canadian women conductors (music) 20th-century Irish conductors (music) 20th-century Canadian conductors (music) 20th-century Canadian women musicians 21st-century Canadian conductors (music) 21st-century Canadian women musicians Irish emigrants to Canada Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century cellists 21st-century cellists