Ava wins the Yves Paternot prize at 2023 Verbier festival
ENO HAREWOOD ARTIST
Irish soprano Ava Dodd has been praised by critics for having a “golden voice”. She has performed in renowned opera houses and concert halls in Ireland and internationally.
Ava is a multiple prize winner. She is the recipient of the Yves Paternot Prize at Verbier Festival 2023, she was a dual prize winner in the Hans Gabor Belvedere International Singing competition 2022, the winner of the Boston District Round of the Met Opera Competition 2022 and the RDS Music Bursary Competition 2020.
Operatic highlights include: Tilburina in The Critic at Wexford Opera Festival, Fennimore in Le Lac D'Argent with Opera National de Lorraine, Rosina in The Barber of Seville with English National Opera, The High Priestess in Aida with Oper Frankfurt, Ann Truelove in The Rake's Progress at Verbier Festival and Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, where she was the resident soloist in 2023.
In concerts Ava has performed with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, The National Symphony Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, The Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, and The Latvian National Symphony Orchestra.
She released her Debut EP ‘GEMS’ with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Synnott in May 2024.
Ava is delighted to be a Harewood Artist with English National Opera for the 2025/2026 season where she will perform Adina in The Elixir of Love and Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro.
As an associate artist with The Mozartists, she will sing Sandrina in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiera in Cadogan Hall, London.
She looks forward to performing with Katherine Jenkins and Vladimir Jablokov in the 3 Arena in December and to returning to Oper Frankfurt in March 2025 where she plays Madeleine in Le Postillon de Lonjumeau.
“Vocally Impressive”
“Soprano Ava Dodd, in particular, captured the attention with her lively and beautiful singing in the role of Tiburnia, which she supported with an amusing and bold acting performance, characterizing her as aloof, bored and self-important. Her essaying of the fairly simple mad scene proved to be one of the singing highlights of the evening, giving her the opportunity to show off her tonal beauty and the ability to fashion detailed lines while convincingly drawing attention to her emotional detachment from the performance.”
“It is Ava Dodd, who is given the most important part with a series of soliloquies of which the Irish soprano masters (...) she possesses a ductile tone, all with agility. She showcased great talent as an actress in the hilarious parodic madness scene as well as in the pathetic love scene.'“
"Ava Dodd performed her initial pastoral aria with charm and elegance while imbuing the vocal line with a sumptuous tone. She switched seamlessly between irritation with Puff's interruptions and the inflated love music of the opera"
- Robert Beattie: Seen and Heard International
"Ava Dodd as Tilburina was the consummate actress, managing to successfully portray boredom with having to repeat her lines and yet somehow also singing with grace and elegance."
"The improbable tale of a Governor's daughter Tilburina, a superb Ava Dodd"
"The divinely diva-ish Dodd deliciously lampoons the pastoral, Disney innocence of a young woman whilst also being vocally mesmerising. A spellbinding lovers duet again sees singing undercut by humour, but never undermined."
- Chris O'Rourke: The Arts Review
“The young Irish soprano Ava Dodd shines in the role of Oscar as a secret audience favorite”
– LOOKLIVE
“The Irish soprano Ava Dodd sings the forest bird with a crystal-clear, very bright soprano”
“Soprano Ava Dodd from the Wexford Factory young artist programme was cast as Perdita. She possesses a strong, fresh voice with a engaging timbre, which she used successfully to develop a sympathetic portrait of the young lover in an energetic performance which belied her relative inexperience. Her ability to spin out lyrical, bright, beguiling lines and deliver pleasing coloraturas with apparent ease was particularly impressive.”
“Dodd was equally impressive […] Possessing a golden voice, her virtuosic octave leaps and vocal gymnastics were dispatched with tremendous verve and panache, wooing both the audience and her Prince”
“Dodd was dramatically convincing as the love-struck Perdita and she brought an enchanting lyricism and enormous vocal agility to the music […] there is no doubt that this was an impressive performance”