Aebh is currently based at the Staatsoper Hamburg in the International Opera Studio
"Anna, Maria's confidante and loyal until her death at the executioner's axe, was sung by Aebh Kelly with a beautifully warm mezzo-soprano voice. She also enriched the excellent, rousing sextet at the end of the first act and the quintet in the final act."
Kaspar Sannemann - Oper-Aktuell
"The young mezzo-soprano Aebh Kelly brings all her skills to the table, including flawless technique, great high notes and the ability to expand dramatically"
Online Merker
The 2025/26 season will see Aebh make her role and house debut as Nancy Tang in Adam's Nixon in China at the Opéra national de Paris
About
Dublin born mezzo-soprano Aebh Kelly is currently based at the Staatsoper Hamburg as a member of the International Opera Studio. In the 2024/2026 seasons Aebh will make numerous role debuts including Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), The Page of Herodias (Salome), Dryade (Ariadne auf Naxos), Anna Kennedy (Maria Stuarda), Annina (La traviata), Kate Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Schenkwirtin (Boris Godunov), Sandmännchen (Hänsel und Gretel), Knappe 2 (Parsifal), Wowkle (La Fanciulla del West) and Kürdchen (Die Gänsemagd). In February 2026 Aebh will make her role and house debut as Nancy Tang in John Adam’s Nixon in China at the Opéra national de Paris. Aebh is a graduate of the Royal Irish Academy of Music where she achieved a first class honours degree and studied with Virginia Kerr and Dearbhla Collins.
During her undergraduate degree, Aebh qualified to compete in the final round of the international singing competition, Neue Stimmen where Brian Dickie, opera aficionado and former director general of Lyric Opera Chicago, lauded her as ‘...a remarkable young singer.’
For the 2020/2021 season Aebh joined the Irish National Opera’s opera studio where she became the youngest ever studio member. She featured in a variety of productions including the 20 Shots of Opera and A Thing I Cannot Name. More recently she returned to INO and made her role debut as Flora in Verdi’s La traviata. Aebh was awarded second prize at the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition 2022 as well as the Dublin Song Series Prize and the Dermot Troy Prize.
Commencing in 2021, Aebh became a Mascarade Emerging Artist in Florence, Italy where her place was generously sponsored by Maria Manetti-Shrem. During her time there she performed extracts from Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and La Cenerentola at Teatro La Fenice, Popova in Walton’s The Bear at Lerici Music Festival and made her German debut as Olga in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at Theater und Orchester Heidelberg. In the summer of 2024 Aebh attended the prestigious Georg Solti Accademia as well as making her role debut as Dido in Dido & Aeneas in a co-production with Opera Collective Ireland and Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg.
Upcoming
"Aebh Kelly commands attention with her beautiful dark mezzo timbre and her portrayal of a surly, undisciplined, and suspicious maid."
Forum Opera
"The young lyric mezzo-soprano Aebh Kelly, a new member of the international opera studio of the Hamburg State Opera, sang Maria's confidante Anna Kennedy with a warm, clear voice that caught the audience's attention."
Wolfgang Schmidt - IOCO
