Winner of both First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2021 London Handel International Singing Competition, Anglo / Irish soprano Hilary Cronin made her debut at the Halle Handel Festival in Francesca Cuzzoni: Handel’s Diva. Concert highlights have included tours of J. S. Bach B Minor Mass, Christmas Oratorio and Music of Consolation – Music by J. S. Bach, Schein and Schütz with English Baroque Soloists, St John Passion with VOCES8 and St Matthew Passion with Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and Sestina, Beethoven Choral Fantasia with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Blow and Purcell with The English Concert, Fauré Requiem at Teatro La Fenice, Handel Chandos Anthems with Arcangelo, Dixit Dominus with La Nuova Musica, Messiah with English Chamber Orchestra, Irish Baroque Orchestra, London Handel Orchestra, London Mozart Players and The Sixteen and Silete venti for the London Handel Festival, Ode to Purcell on tour with Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Telemann Cantatas on tour with Solomon’s Knot, Vaughan Williams Benedicite with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and her debut at St Magnus International Festival with Florilegium.

Recent engagements have included Galatea Acis and Galatea, Oriana Amadigi, Brockes Passion and Virtú / Damigella L’Incoronazione di Poppea with The English Consort, Piacere Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno with Early Opera Company at Buxton International Festival, the B Minor Mass 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, Messiah with Britten Sinfonia, the Hallé and Huddersfield Choral Society; Haydn Nelson Mass at the Newbury Festival; Command Performance: Music for an Empress with Academy of Ancient Music.

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 makes 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 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 appear in Splendour and Devotion and she will also perform music by Elena Langer and Valentin Silvestrov for anothermusicfestival DISPLACED.

Selected by BBC Music Magazine as a Rising Star for 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, Nicholas Kraemer, Stephen Layton, Christophe Rousset, Sir András Schiff and Peter Whelan.

Her recordings include J. S. Bach Christmas Oratorio with English Baroque Soloists on DG 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.

For Scottish Chamber Orchestra, she has previously sung Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Photo credit: Helena Cooke