Hilary Cronin

“The British Baroque soprano of the moment” (Opera News), Anglo/Irish soprano Hilary Cronin won both First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2021 London Handel International Singing Competition.

She made her debut at the Halle Handel Festival in Francesca Cuzzoni: Handel’s Diva and at Teatro La Fenice singing Fauré’s Requiem. Highlights of her career have included Galatea Acis and Galatea, Oriana Amadigi, Brockes Passion and Virtú / Damigella L’Incoronazione di Poppea with The English Consort; Arianna Arianna a Creta with La Nuova Musica; Piacere Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno with Early Opera Company at Buxton International Festival; B Minor Mass, Christmas Oratorio and L’Allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato on tour with English Baroque Soloists; the Christmas Oratorio with Oxford Bach Soloists; the St John Passion with BBC Philharmonic; J. S. Bach Cantatas with London Handel Orchestra; Bach, the Universe and Everything and Mendelssohn Symphony No. 2 with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; Barber Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with The Royal Orchestral Society; Handel Dixit Dominus with La Nuova Musica; Messiah with Britten Sinfonia, English Chamber Orchestra, the Hallé, Huddersfield Choral Society, London Handel Orchestra, London Mozart Players and The Sixteen; Haydn Nelson Mass at the Newbury Festival; Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Ode to Purcell with Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. She joined Academy of Music for Command Performance: Music for an Empress and Florilegium for Café Zimmermann at St Magnus Festival.

Engagements during 2024 / 2025 included the title role in Semele for Waterperry Opera Festival, J.S. Bach Cantatas with The English Concert and London Handel Orchestra, the St John Passion with Polyphony, the St John Passion in Westminster Abbey, the St Matthew Passion with Norwich Baroque, Bach & Charpentier: A Baroque Christmas on tour with English Baroque Soloists, Messiah with Huddersfield Choral Society and London Handel Orchestra, First Harlot / Queen of Sheba Samson with Gabrieli Consort & Players, Haydn Nelson Mass with The Sixteen and Belinda Dido and Aeneas with Gabrieli Consort Roar. She also recorded Messiah with Irish Baroque Orchestra, sang Elena Langer’s Love and Endings at Leicester International Music Festival and made her debut at BBC Proms singing Handel Alexander’s Feast with Irish Baroque Orchestra.

During the 2025 / 2026 season, Hilary Cronin made her debut at MusikTheater an der Wien singing the title role in a new production of Cesti’s L’Orontea. Her current engagements further include Melissa Amadigi di Gaula for Buxton International Festival and both Iole Hercules and Haydn Nelson Mass with The English Concert. With Polyphony, she sings J. S. Bach Christmas Oratorio and Messiah; with Springhead Constellation, she will tour J. S. Bach Easter Oratorio and Mendelssohn Lobgesang; with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, she sings J. S. Bach St John Passion; with Waterperry Opera Festival, she sings J. S. Bach B Minor Mass; with Royal Northern Sinfonia, she sings Mahler Symphony No. 4; and with Gabrieli ROAR, she appears in Baroque Masterpieces. She will also join Irish Baroque Orchestra to sing Messiah; The King’s Consort to sing Coronation of King George and Messiah; and return to Newbury Festival to sing Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, a work she also sings for City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. At the London Handel Festival, she sings Nine German Arias and appears in Splendour and Devotion. She will also perform music by Elena Langer and Valentin Silvestrov for anothermusicfestival DISPLACED and sing Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Engagements during 2026 / 2027 currently include Gabriel in Errollyn Wallen’s A Christmas Miracle with Mahogany Opera; J. S. Bach B Minor Mass with Springhead Constellation; J. S. Bach Christmas Oratorio, St John Passion and Handel Messiah with Polyphony; St John Passion with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra; St Matthew Passion and Messiah with Royal Northern Sinfonia; St Matthew Passion with Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Handel Chandos Anthems with Arcangelo; Dixit Dominus with Dunedin Consort; Messiah with Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, The Sixteen and Kioi Sinfonietta Tokyo; and Mahler Symphony No. 2 with Northumberland Orchestra. She also joins Sholto Kyoch in recital at Barber Institute, Birmingham, and Wolfson College, Oxford.

Selected by BBC Music Magazine as a “Rising Star of 2022,” Hilary Cronin studied at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and was a Robinson Hearn, Trinity College London and Dame Susan Morden Scholar. Conductors with whom she has worked include Sofi Jeannin, David Bates, Harry Bicket, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Harry Christophers, Jonathan Cohen, Jonathan Cohen, Laurence Cummings, Christian Curnyn, Maxim Emelyanychev, John Eliot Gardiner, Wolfgang Katschner, Nicholas Kraemer, Stephen Layton, Paul McCreesh, Christophe Rousset, Sir András Schiff, Dinis Sousa and Peter Whelan.

Her recordings include J. S. Bach Christmas Oratorio with English Baroque Soloists on DG CD; Finzi In Terra Pax and Requiem da Camera on Hyperion CD; Handel Chandos Anthems with Arcangelo on Alpha Classics CD; Messiah with Irish Baroque Orchestra on Linn CD; Howells Sine nomine on Hyperíon CD; Second Lady Dido and Aeneas with La Nuova Musica on Pentatone SACD; Telemann Donner-Ode with Solomon’s Knot on cpo CD; and Charpentier: Baroque Christmas on SDG CD.