School Management Team

Head of Discipline - Vocal Opera Drama Studies

Email: Sandra.OmanFarren@TUDublin.ie

PhD, MMus, LTCL

 

Dr Sandra Oman-Farren commenced her musical studies at VEC College of Music, Chatham Row in violin with Catherine Briscoe.

As the VEC College of Music evolved into the DIT Conservatory, she switched her focus to vocal studies from the age of fifteen, with Edith Forrest and Alison Young, where she was later awarded the Ely O’Carroll Gold Medal, the Dermot Troy Award and the Messiah Cup.  She subsequently studied with the renowned La Scala soubrette Graziella Sciutti, in London.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and Italian from University College Dublin, a licentiate in performance from Trinity College London, and a  Master of Music and a Doctor of Philosophy in Opera Studies, both from TU Dublin Conservatoire of Music and Drama.  She was awarded an Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Scholarship for her PhD studies.

Joining the staff of TU Dublin Conservatoire in 2023, Dr Oman-Farren lectures in Stagecraft, Professional Studies, and Academic Supervision.  She produced the Conservatoire’s semi-staged production ‘Love, Actually’ featuring students of Stagecraft and her Stagecraft students have been engaged to perform at the Loughcrew Opera Festival and in the Dublin Arts Office initiative ‘Opera in the Open’ at the Civic Amphitheatre.  For the latter, she has also directed performances, casting and mentoring young artists. 

Dr Oman-Farren has embraced a portfolio artistic career.  On the operatic platform, she has performed over 40 operatic roles both nationally and internationally, and has performed in concert in Ireland, UK, Germany, Poland, Latvia, the Faroe Islands, and USA.  An experienced broadcaster, she has performed as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, and the Combined Bands of the Defence Forces.  She has enjoyed long associations with Opera Ireland, Lyric Opera Productions, and Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, as a performer and opera educator, and has performed extensively throughout the country as an oratorio soloist and recitalist.  As a producer, she has presented multiple semi-staged concert performances at the National Concert Hall Dublin and nationwide, frequently featuring students of TU Dublin Conservatoire.  In the realm of academia, she was the Administrator of Perform_Live, an Irish Research Council supported conference festival held at the National Concert Hall, Dublin. 

 

Research/Performance Interests and Expertise

Dr Oman-Farren’s specific areas of interest include operatic characterisation, and  performance preparation and execution.  Her PhD thesis, entitled ‘Puccini’s Manon: An Holistic Approach to Role Preparation and Execution’ asks ‘How can the conscientious singer-actor ‘become’ the character of ‘Manon Lescaut’ in Puccini’s 1893 opera of the same name?’ A mixed-methodological approach was adopted, incorporating traditional musicological methodology and performance-practice research.  Drawing on the expertise of nineteen international interpreters of the role (sopranos, directors, and conductors), reflexive qualitative analysis was conducted on in-depth, original interviews with these industry professionals.  Interviewees included Richard Bonynge, Kristǐne Opolais, Elizabeth Llewellyn, Nelly Miricioiu, Rosalind Plowright, Nuccia Focile, and Marco Zambelli.  She is currently preparing a book proposal, based on her research, for Peter Lang Publishers, for inclusion in the Performance Research Ireland book series.

She has presented academic papers at conferences nationally and internationally.

 

Professional Affiliations

• A key figure in Dublin City Council’s ‘Opera in the Open’ summer festival over a 25-year period, performing, casting, and directing productions for this community initiative
• A member of the Birr Festival of Music Trench Award scholarship board, 2022 & 2023. Sat on a three-person panel and assessed scholarship applications; adjudicated the final competition
• Adjudicator at competitions nationally
• Director, Loughcrew Festival Opera

 

Upcoming Research Outputs 

Two forthcoming publications, 2025:

• Book chapter entitled ‘Puccini’s Manon: the role’s dramatic challenges through the lived experience of nine international interpreters’ in a book of select conference papers from the ‘Musicology in Progress’ International Music and Musicology Students Conference, published by the Università di Pavia, Cremona, Italy
• Book Chapter entitled ‘Embodying Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, based on lived-experience interviews with international interpreters’, for a monograph entitled:

The Sound Body: Mapping Musical Embodiment in Training, Performance, Listening and Gestures, to be published by Brepols, Turnhout, Belgium.

        

Awards

• Bank of Ireland/Vocal Heritage Society of Ireland Margaret Burke Sheridan Award for excellence in the field of opera
• Student Excellence Award for her Masters in Music dissertation
• Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Scholarship for her PhD research

 

Forthcoming Performances

• The role of Berta in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia for Lyric Opera Productions at the Grand Opera House, Belfast, in February 2026