GAVAN RING

Irish tenor Gavan Ring read Education and Music at St Patrick’s College, Dublin, and, following 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 won second prize at the 2013 Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition.

In 2020, Gavan transitioned from baritone to tenor and has since established himself on the international stage. Recent highlights include Mr Perks in the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s The Railway Children at Glyndebourne, subsequently performed at the Aberystwyth Festival with the orchestra of Welsh National Opera conducted by Iwan Teifion Davies; Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni at the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival; Haydn’s Nelson Mass with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias; and the world premiere of Stephen McNeff’s Ballads of a Bogman at Wigmore Hall with pianist Fiachra Garvey.

His opera 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. He has also appeared at English National Opera as First Armed Man in The Magic Flute; returned to La Monnaie as Cecil in Bastarda, in a new production based on Donizetti’s Tudor operas; performed Gustav Adolph Ekdahl in Mikael Karlsson’s Fanny and Alexander; made his Glyndebourne Festival debut as First Commissioner and covered the Chevalier de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites; and sang Steuermann in Der fliegende Holländer for Irish National 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. 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).

Upcoming engagements include The Marquis in Prokofiev’s The Gambler for Wexford Festival Opera, Howard Boucher in Dead Man Walking for Opera North, and a New Year’s Day Concert with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra at the National Concert Hall, Dublin.

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 2026