Biography

Irish soprano Sandra Oman was the 2004 recipient of the Margaret Burke Sheridan Memorial Award for her contribution to opera in Ireland. Born in the heart of the Liberties, Dublin, she graduated from the DIT Conservatory of Music, Dublin with the Ely O'Carroll Gold Medal, the Conservatory's highest award, having studied with Edith Forrest and Alison Young. Since then, she has studied with the late Graziella Sciutti in London and for many years now, her singing teacher has been none other than her husband, Conor Farren, one of Ireland's leading voice teachers. She further has a degree in Italian and French from University College, Dublin. With the assistance of the Arts Council of Ireland, Sandra travelled to Siena, Italy, to the Carlo Bergonzi masterclasses. Having won major awards at all the national festivals (Feis Ceoil, Ballymena Music Festival, Sligo Feis Ceoil and Fr. Matthew Feis, Dublin), she reached the final stages of the National Mozart Competition in the United Kingdom.

Sandra has performed extensively in opera and concert in Ireland, UK, USA, Italy, Faroe Islands, Latvia and Poland. Her roles include Susanna The Marriage of Figaro, Despina Cosi Fan Tutte, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, Illia Idomeneo, Semele Semele, Ismene Mitridate, Papagena Die Zauberflote, Gilda Rigoletto, Mimi and Musetta La Boheme, Liu Turandot, Suor Genovieva Suor Angelica, Micaela and Frasquita Carmen, Tisbe La Cenerentola,Adele Die Fledermaus, High Priestess Aida, Valencienne Die Lustige Witwe, Mabel The Pirates of Penzance, Dew Fairy/Sandman Hansel and Gretel, Tebaldo Don Carlo, Anna Nabucco, Flora Bervoix La Traviata, Clotilde Norma, Rychtarka Jenufa, Eunice Hubbell A Streetcar named Desire, and Adina L'Elisir d'Amorewith companies such as Opera Holland Park (UK), Longborough Festival Opera (UK), Opera Project (UK), Lismore Music Festival (Irl), Lyric Opera (Irl), Co-Opera (Irl), Opera 2005 (Irl), Opera Interludes (UK) and Opera in the Open (Irl). A favourite with Opera Ireland, she is proud to have performed principal roles with them in ten different seasons, including roles in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Helena), Cosi Fan Tutte (Despina), La Cenerentola (Tisbe), Dead Man Walking (Kitty Hart), A Streetcar named Desire(Eunice Hubbell), Don Carlo (Tebaldo).

On the concert platform she has sung with virtually all of Ireland's major choral societies - Dublin County Choir, Culwick Choral Society, Goethe Institute Choir, Guinness Choir, Lassus Scholars, Bray Choral Society, Easy Cork Choral Society - in works by Bach, Handel, Mozart, John Rutter, Rossini, Haydn and Faure.

In the field of classical crossover, Sandra has performed as guest artist with the Celtic Tenors, at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, University Concert Hall, Limerick, the Cork Opera House and also in the National Opera House, Riga, Latvia. Sandra performed to a television audience of over a million people last July when she performed "Barcelona" at Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh at the momentus Barcelona-Hearts soccer match. , She was the soprano soloist at the hugely successful South African "Queen at the Ballet" which ran for two weeks at The Point Theatre, Dublin and most recently toured Ireland with the highly successful Mario Lanza tribute "The Loveliest Night of the Year". She has appeared on the Late Late Show and has appeared in concert with both the National Symphony Orchestra and the RTE Concert Orchestra.

Recent engagements for Opera Ireland included her interpretation of Helena in Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream which was hailed "outstanding" by Opera Now magazine. In June of 2010, the New York Metropolitan Opera's magazine Opera News declared "Oman, recipient of he prestigious Margaret Burke-Sheridan Memorial Award in 2004, particularly strikes me as a talent to watch". Engagements in 2011 include a Haydn/Mozart recital at Salterbridge House as part of the Lismore Music Festival, a recital of Mauro Giuliani songs for voice and guitar with Redmond O'Toole, also for Lismore, the roles of Micaela and Susanna for Opera in the Open, and further Lanza concerts at the NCH, Dublin.