Tenor ⁦Gavan Ring has been appointed Artistic Administrator of Drogheda Classical Music. 

Ring will replace Pauline Ashwood as Administrator of the 2023-24 series. Ashwood guided the series to great success since its inception in 2012 and left at the end of the last season to take up a job with the Irish National Opera.

Ring is a leading tenor in Ireland and an arts producer, activist, and academic. He has worked with organizations and institutions such as the Irish National Opera, Cork Opera House, RTÉ Lyric FM, Chapman University Los Angeles, Kerry County Arts, and the Cahersiveen Festival of Music and the Arts.

Ring has also curated and delivered acclaimed classical music events both at home and abroad such as the momentous resurrection of Robert O’Dwyer’s forgotten Irish language opera Eithne in 2017 and the commissioning of Stephen McNeff’s 2022 work Ballads of a Bogman.

In a statement Ring said, “I have also made no secret of the incredible regard I have for Drogheda Classical Music as a cultural powerhouse; for the superlative bar of excellence Pauline Ashwood and her team have set with regard to the regionalisation of classical music in Ireland and concurrently how the festival has greatly enriched the social and cultural fibre of the north east of the country. I am honored and humbled to be joining the Drogheda Classical Music team and becoming a part of the next chapter in the story of this festival’s already incredible legacy.”