Dr Róisín Blunnie is a native of Carrick on Shannon, Co Leitrim, but is now based in Dublin, where she is a Lecturer in Music at Dublin City University. She is the Programme Chair of the MA in Choral Studies at DCU. This part-time course is the first of its kind in Ireland, and combines conducting and choral leadership with composition, historical approaches to choral music, and studies in cultural policy and Ireland's arts landscape. Róisín also teaches on a wide range of undergraduate modules and supervises PhD research in Music.
Róisín conducts the award-winning chamber choir, Laetare Vocal Ensemble. The choir's recent album, Ghost Songs: Contemporary Music and Words from Ireland, is a 35-track collection of choral works interspersed with readings by poets Paula Meehan and Dairena Ní Chinnéide, playwright Marina Carr, and broadcaster Carl Corcoran, and also featuring harpist and sean-nós singer Síle Denvir. Róisín was the DCU team lead for the EU-funded Erasmus+ project PRESTO, creating free online learning resources for choral music (available at www.kodalyhub.com/presto), and she is currently co-editing the book Perspectives on Conducting with orchestral conductor Dr Ciarán Crilly.
