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They began with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs featuring baritone Andrew McTaggart. He clearly articulated George Herbert’s devotional poems…

Five Mystical Songs, Edinburgh International Festival, Susan Nicckalls, The Scotsman

Andrew graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow in 2012, where he attended the Alexander Gibson Opera School and studied with George Gordon and Kathleen McKellar Ferguson. Awards at the RCS included the David Knox Memorial Prize, the Governor’s Recital Prize for Singing, and the Florence Veitch Ibler Prize for Oratorio Singing. Andrew was also the first RCS student to win the Joaninha Trust Award for Singing.

While at the RCS, roles included Papageno Die Zauberflöte, Don Carlos in Prokofiev’s Betrothal in Monastery, Badger Cunning Little Vixen (joint production with Scottish Opera/RCS), Matveyev War & Peace, which was performed both in Scotland and Russia (joint productions with Scottish Opera & RCS), Antonio Le Nozze di Figaro, Coppelius Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Captain Eugene Onegin.  Opera scenes included title role Billy Budd, Marcello La Bohème and Golaud Pelléas et Mélisande. Andrew also created the role of Duncan in the European première of Tom Cunningham’s chamber opera The Okavango Macbeth (recorded on Delphian Records).

Andrew has participated in masterclasses with Sir Thomas Allen, Malcolm Martineau, Lisa Milne, Jane Eaglen and Roderick Williams.

Cunning Little Vixen, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 2009

Cunning Little Vixen, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 2009

Five Mystical Songs, Usher Hall, 2019

Five Mystical Songs, Usher Hall, 2019

Andrew’s Edinburgh International Festival debut was singing Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs in the Usher Hall in 2019. Other notable concert engagements include Mozart’s Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall, London and the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, as well as performing Belshazzzar’s Feast with the National Youth Choir of Scotland and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in the Usher Hall. 

He has performed in recitals for Westbourne Music, Musikfestspiele Saar, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Glasgow Cathedral Festival, Le Blanc et Noir festival and Haddo Arts.

Andrew looks forward to premiering Philip Cooke’s Gloria at the Cumnock Tryst with Eamonn Dougan later in 2023.

His roles have included the title roles of Figaro & Falstaff (Opera Bohemia) Bottom A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Samuel The Pirates of Penzance, Garibaldo Rodelinda, Yamadori in MadamaButterfly, (all Scottish Opera) Gianni Schicchi title role (Opera Bohemia) Lakai in Ariadneauf Naxos (Opera de Lorraine), Gasparo Rita (West Green Opera) and Noye in NoyesFludde (Lammermuir Festival). Andrew returned to the Lammermuir Festival to create the role of Traveller in the premiere of An Cadal Throm with McOpera whilst working with the community groups to create the performance. Returning to Opera de Lorraine in 2019, Andrew gave a sang the role of Josef in Bernard Herman’s Wuthering Heights.

Wuthering Hights, Opera de Lorraine, May 2019.

Wuthering Hights, Opera de Lorraine, May 2019.