Irish soprano Elizabeth Hilliard is a leading exponent of contemporary vocal music, described in Opera Today as a ‘veritable tour de force of vocal sound, experimentation and expression. She has worked in close collaboration with composers including Gráinne Mulvey, Jennifer Walshe, Christopher Fox and David Bremner and champions Irish art, music and composers, achieving recognition in the US and UK as well as her native country. She has been supported in her career with bursaries and residencies from the Arts Council / An Comhairle Ealaíon, Creative Ireland, South Dublin County Council and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

From 2023-2024 she is artist in residence in the Music Department of Maynooth University.

Current projects include a collaboration with Louise Manifold and David Bremner for Dublin International Chamber Music Festival, development work on a work to celebrate the work of Florence and Edith Stoney, a performance in collaboration with Jennifer Walshe, Panos Ghikas and Nick Roth following on from our Oscailt tour with Music Network in 2023, investigation into sonic meditation and applying to performance work, investigation into the role of imagination in my performance work, Support Salon in association with Kirkos.

Highlights of her career to date include: An invitation to London with the Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland to perform in both The Irish Embassy in London and Cafe OTO for the 2018 launch of CMC’s promotional album new music::new Ireland three; presentation of and musical director of Béal 2016, a 2-day festival of the unaccompanied vocal-ensemble music by Jennifer Walshe, including the Irish premiere of much of her music and a newly-commissioned work; musicial director and creator of the Dublin version of Stockhausen’s Stimmung (Tonnta, 2019), Gráinne Mulvey’s Great Women – world premiere filmed in State Apartments Dublin Castle (directed by John Comiskey/Helene Montague) for Dublin International Chamber Music Festival – live premiere at New Music Dublin, with the UK premiere at sound festival, Aberdeen.

Her debut album Sea to the West in 2016 was acclaimed by Colin Clarke in Fanfare Archive as ‘a highly specialized but massively rewarding disc’. She performed in Jennifer Walshe’s Ireland: A Dataset in the Imagining Ireland series live-streamed by the National Concert Hall of Ireland, which was highlighted by Alex Ross in the New Yorker as one of the Top 10 Performances of 2020.