Baritone

David Kennedy

Biography

David will continue into his second year on the Irish National Opera Studio 25/26. In his first year, he covered the roles of Belcore in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore (2025) and Dr.Falke in Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus (2025). He had the opportunity to perform these roles in full during the rehearsal process. In this upcoming season with INO, he will cover the Badger/Poacher/Priest in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. David is also in his second year of the Wexford Opera Factory throughout the Wexford Festival Opera 2024/5, He has performed the roles of Don Alvaro in Il Viaggio a Reims (2025), Demetrius in Britten’s A Midsummer Nights Dream (2025), Declan in Andrew Synnott’s The South Main Street (2025), Belcore in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore (2024) and Silvio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (2024). Notable Opera Mentors include; Isabel Leonard, Joseph Calleja, Simon Keenlyside, Tara Erraught, Luca Canonici.   

David was selected for the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme 2025 at Snape Maltings this July, where he was awarded the P E Wood and H Stevens Bursary. David was the first Irish scholar at the Lied Akademie with the Heidelberger Frühling, Germany, where he studied under the artistic direction of esteemed baritone Thomas Hampson for the classes of 2022/23 and 2023/24. Other Notable programmes include the International Academy in duo with Elitsa Desseva at LIEDBasel, Switzerland (2024) and Savonlinna Festival International Music Academy in Finland (2023), where he received mentorship on Chinese art song from Changyog Liao (President of the Shanghai Conservatory). A concert highlight for David was performing at the Pierre Boulez-Saal, Berlin in duo with Susan Mannoff in a recital featuring Schubert and Wolf, as part of their ‘Young Artist Series’, and another was his performance from part of Jörg Widmanns cycle Das heiße Herz to commemorate his 50th Birthday celebration at the Heidelberger Frühling Festival of Lied. David was honoured to be selected to compete at the Semi-final of the Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition 2024 with collaborative pianist Jong-Sun Woo, London. Notable Song Mentors include; Hartmut Höll, Malcolm Martineau, Roderick Williams, Gráinne Dunne, Jörg Widmann, Thomas Hampson, Susan Manoa, Thomas Allen, Julius Drake, Julia Faulkner. 

 September 2025