Junior Finalist: Aimee Banks
We are really looking forward to the finals of our Song Competition in St. Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral, Armagh, on Saturday 11th March. Tickets are now available and can be purchased here.
Over the next two weeks, we will profile each of our ten finalists, commencing with Aimee Banks from the Junior Class.
Aimee is a 21 year old soprano from Galway, Ireland. She is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Music Performance under the tutelage of Kathleen Tynan, Head of Opera and Vocal Studies and répétiteur Grainne Dunne at The Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin. She has attended Masterclasses with Ricardo Tamura, Stefania Dohvan, Mark Sampson, Bruno Caproni and Julian Evans, Imelda Drumm and Della Jones.
An award-winning vocalist, Aimee currently holds a number of vocal titles and has been awarded The Irene Sandford Award and Bursary 2022, The Birr Lions Club Bursary at Birr Festival of Music 2022, The Vladimir Piontkovsky Memorial Scholarship at Saluzzo Opera Academy 2022, The Eimear Noonan Music Bursary Award 2020 and The Most Promising Performer and Bursary at The Irene Sandford Award 2020.
She was a multi-award winner at Dublin Feis Ceoil 2022, including the Nancy Calthorpe Memorial Cup for French Song. Aimee was also a finalist in the Gervase Elwes Competition and The Charles Wood Song Competition 2022. Aimee received a Silver Award in the 1st Vienna International Music Competition 2019, she is also the most recent Overall Junior Vocalist at Sligo Feis Ceoil.
Aimee is no stranger to solo performances and concerts and has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, New York USA, The Norman Rockwell Museum USA, The National Concert Hall, Christchurch Cathedral and The National Gallery of Ireland. Aimee also performs regular concerts in her hometown of Galway. She has had the honour of performing at the Irish Government’s launch of the 1916 Commemorations in Dublin’s Convention Centre, National Famine Commemoration in 2020 and has also performed at Áras an Uachtaráin for the President of Ireland, Micheal D. Higgins.
Aimee debuted as the young Giordano Bruno in Roger Doyle’s opera, Heresy, where she received commendation from Opera World, The Irish Times and Opera Today. She played the roles of Amore and Damigella in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at Saluzzo Opera Academy 2022, and is singing the role of Damigella in RIAM Opera’s upcoming production of La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina, written by Francesca Caccini.