This article is from page 11 of the 2013-04-23 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
CLARE newest singing super star will be the focus of an hour-long radio documentary which will be aired this Friday, April 26.
Over the last five years Ballyvaughan’s Naomi O’Connell has become one of the brightest young stars in world opera. Having recently graduated from the prestigious Juilliard School in New York, Naomi is currently starring in a production of Offenbach’s ‘La Périchole’ with the New York City Opera.
Naomi began her singing career at just 13 years of age when she joined the Lismorohaun Singers. While with the Lismorohaun she quickly became the prize student of Lisdoonvarna’s Archie Simpson, who continued to tutor her while she was in Ireland.
Naomi graduated from the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama in Dublin, where she won a host of national and international singing competition under the guidance of Mary Brennan and then undertook a four-year post graduate course at the Juilliard School. After all of her practice, she finally made her Carnegie Hall debut last month. Her story will be told in the hour-long documentary ‘Witches, Bitches and Women in Britches’ which will be aired on RTE’s Lyric Fm this Friday at 7pm.
The documentary was produced by Doireann Ni Bhriain who visited Naomi’s home in the Burren to get a sense of her early influences and also travelled to New York to spend a few days with the singer as she prepared for her Carnegie Hall recital.
She also spoke with many of Naomi’s current mentors and admirers in New York including opera director Stephen Wadsworth, composer Christopher Berg and Steve Shaiman of Concert Artists Guild.