Menu
Andrew Irwin is a Northern Irish tenor based in Hamburg, Germany. He is a longstanding ensemble member at the Stadttheater Bremerhaven and has appeared internationally in the UK and Ireland. Irwin began his musical education at the Chetham’s School of Music before studying at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and later continued his training at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater „Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy“ as part of an ERASMUS exchange.
At Stadttheater Bremerhaven, Irwin has performed a wide variety of roles, including Anthony in Sweeney Todd, Boni in Die Csárdásfürstin, Truffaldino in Die Liebe zu den drei Orangen, and Frank Abagnale Sr. in Catch Me If You Can. His previous performances there include Freddy Eynsford-Hill in My Fair Lady, Pang in Turandot, Valzacchi in Der Rosenkavalier, Camille de Rossillon in Die lustige Witwe, and Orpheus in Orpheus in der Unterwelt.
He has also portrayed Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Killian in Der Freischütz, Spoletta in Tosca, Malcolm in Macbeth, and Harlekin in Der Kaiser von Atlantis. In the UK, Irwin has appeared with Longborough Festival Opera as Pastore in L’Orfeo and Telemaco in Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria. He has also worked with Scottish Opera and Welsh National Opera. In 2021, Irwin released his debut album Lough Erne’s Shore with pianist Ruth McGinley, produced by Michael Keeney.
He also featured in Northern Ireland Opera’s “Northern Songs” project, available on YouTube and other streaming platforms. As a concert soloist, he has appeared at the 2024 Leipzig Bach Festival as the Evangelist in Bach’s Johannespassion, broadcast by MDR and on YouTube, under the baton of Diogo Mendes. He has also performed on NDR as tenor soloist in Bach’s Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen with the Stadtkantorei Bremerhaven under Eva Schad, and on BBC Radio Ulster with the Ulster Orchestra under David Brophy.
Equally at home on the concert platform Andrew has performed works by Schütz, Mozart, Rossini
and Stainer. A keen recitalist, his repertoire includes Schubert Die Schöne Müllerin, Schumann Dichterliebe, Britten
Winter Words, Vaughan Williams Songs of Travel and Finzi Oh Fair to See. He has recorded Irish songs for BBC Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Opera and recently released a disc of Irish, English and German songs with Ruth McGinley, piano.
Andrew won the 2017 Forde Taylor prize for
Gilbert & Sullivan at the Feis Ceoil (Dublin)
and the E.A. Redman prize for German Lieder
performance at the RWCMD. He is grateful for
the loyal support of The Fermanagh Trust, The
Viola Westminster Bursary, The Joan Trimble
Award and Mr Christopher Ball. Most recently
he was awarded the Audience Prize at the Northern Ireland Festival of Voice.
He returns to Longborough Festival Opera in 2023 to sing roles in L’Orfeo.
