Derry born conductor at Irish Opera Festival

Darren, who hails from Galliagh, is a former pupil of St Patrick’s P.S., Pennyburn and St. Columb’s College.

He will be conducting at the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival in Lismore, Co. Waterford.

The festival is held in the beautiful surroundings of Lismore Castle and Gardens on the shores of the Blackwater River.

Darren, who studied piano and conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London, will raise his baton for a much-anticipated production of the comic opera, ‘Don Pasquale’, by Gaetano Donizetti.

The Opera Finale will take place on Saturday, June 1.

Darren has studied conducting at both the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana in Italy and the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in Switzerland.

He conducted the world premiere of Gerard McBurney’s opera, ‘The Airman’s Tale,’ at the Imperial War Museum in London and later became assistant head coach at the Internationales Opernstudio Zurich.

Darren is also a much sought-after pianist and assistant for distinguished conductors and in this capacity has worked at the Wexford Opera Festival, Opera Northern Ireland, Le Grand Theatre Geneva and the State Opera in Prague.

The Blackwater Valley Opera Festival was established in 2010 by a small group of opera professionals and is Ireland’s only summer opera festival.

It is renowned for combing emerging new talent alongside international stars of the classical music world.