Gavan Ring read Education and Music at St Patrick’s College, Dublin, and after postgraduate studies at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, trained at the National Opera Studio in London. He was a Jerwood Young Artist at the 2012 Glyndebourne Festival Opera and second prize winner at the 2013 Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition.
In 2020, Gavan transitioned from baritone to tenor, quickly establishing himself on the international stage. Highlights include his debut at La Monnaie, Brussels, as Don Gasparo in Donizetti’s La Favorita; Jacquino in Fidelio for Glyndebourne on Tour; Gastone in La traviata for Opera North; Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Lighthouse for Irish National Opera; and Ferrando in Così fan tutte for Garsington Opera. Concert engagements have included the Evangelist in Bach’s St Matthew Passion, a New Year’s Day concert with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Stephen McNeff’s The Celestial Stranger with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and Handel’s Messiah in Monte Carlo.
Upcoming engagements for 2025–26 include Mr Perks in the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s The Railway Children at Glyndebourne, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni at the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, and Haydn’s Nelson Mass with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias.
Recent opera appearances include his ENO debut as First Armed Man in The Magic Flute; returning to La Monnaie as Cecil in Bastarda in a new production based on Donizetti’s Tudor operas; Gustav Adolph Ekdahl in Fanny and Alexander by Mikael Karlsson; and his Glyndebourne Festival debut as First Commissioner and cover of the Chevalier de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, as well as Steuermann in Der fliegende Holländer for Irish National Opera.
Previous tenor appearances in Ireland include White King in Alice’s Adventures Under Ground for Irish National Opera; Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance at Cork Opera House; La bohème, Così fan tutte, and La traviata; Juan in Massenet’s Don Quichotte; and Azim in Stanford’s The Veiled Prophet for Wexford Festival Opera. He has also appeared frequently on RTÉ Radio, performing repertoire including Lensky (Eugene Onegin), Alfredo (La traviata), Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), and Macduff (Macbeth).
Gavan is kindly supported by Howard Gatiss, the Arts Council of Ireland/An Chomhairle Ealaíon, the Skellig Six 18 Distillery, Andrew and Lucy Penny, Dominic and Corina Buckwell, Hugh and Adah Sachs-Simpson, and Michael and Giancarla Alen-Buckley.
August 2025
