About

Kathleen Nic Dhiarmada is an Irish freelance soprano based in Berlin. She also performs regularly in Ireland and the UK.

During the 2025/2026 season, Kathleen performed the role of Intercom in the newly commissioned opera Hysterically Shopping! To Some Sort of End…, composed by Aran O’Grady and created by Taste in Your Mouth Theatre Company and Glasshouse Music Ensemble for the Dublin Theatre Festival.

In 2025, Kathleen made her debut with the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland, singing as part of their lunchtime concert series.

In 2024, Kathleen was a Jerwood Young Artist at Glyndebourne, where she sang in the chorus and covered the role of Papagena in Die Zauberflöte. Later that year, she sang Nedda in I Pagliacci as a member of the Wexford Factory at Wexford Festival Opera.

Prior to this, Kathleen was a Young Artist at Irish National Opera, where she covered the roles of Norina and Fiordiligi. She was also an Alvarez Young Artist at Garsington Opera, where she performed the role of Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte as part of their annual OperaFirst performance for schools.

While studying at Royal Academy Opera, Kathleen sang the roles of Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Zerbinetta in the prologue of Ariadne auf Naxos, and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi. She also premiered the role of the Green Death Witch in Freya Waley-Cohen’s Witch.

Kathleen has also performed the roles of Poppea in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Morgana in Alcina and Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro with Ensemble Orquesta. She has also sung Musetta in La bohème with Hampstead Garden Opera. Her concert repertoire includes Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Haydn’s The Creation and Handel’s Messiah.

Alongside her performing career, Kathleen has worked as a singing teacher at the Dublin School of Music and has maintained a private teaching studio since 2016, working with students of all ages. She has studied with Kate Paterson and Raymond Connell at the Royal Academy of Music, and more recently with James Schmidt (Haus of Schmizzay) and Antoni Staneic.