Dean scoops John McCormack bursary at Feis Ceoil 2010

A CLARECASTLE tenor has scooped the €7,000 Count John McCormack vocal bursary and second prize in the prestigious Dramatic Cup at the ESB Feis Ceoil 2010.
Twenty-four-year-old Dean Power beat off tough competition from 19 other classically trained singers in the Cuisine de France Count John McCormack Vocal Bursary in the RDS last Friday and went on to take second place in the Dramatic Cup and Tony Quigley Awards at the Feis Ceoil on Saturday.
Dean, son of Chris and Maureen, is currently studying for his Masters with Mary Brennan and Mairéad Hurley at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, having received a BA Mus (first class honours) from the Conservatory of Music and Drama at the Dublin Institute of Technology.
He has already secured a place on the prestigious Young Artists Programme in Munich which he hopes to take up after the summer, when his Masters is complete.
For the John McCormack award, he sang six well-known songs, Thomas Moore’s Mid Hour of Night; J S Bach’s Deposuit from Magnificat; Il Mio Tesoro from Don Giovanni; Schumann’s Mondnacht; Duparc’s Le Manoir de Rosemonde and finished with the male chorus from the Rape of Lucretia.
As well as wowing adjudicators with his vocal ability and drawing comparisons with John McCormack, he also had to convince the judging team about how he would put the €7,000 to good use.
“Because I have my place on the Young Artists Programme in Munich secured, I’ll put the money towards the funding of my continued training costs, including accommodation and all the costs that go with living abroad,” Dean said.
He added, “I’m absolutely over the moon with this award. It means so much and I’m overwhelmed that judges compared my voice to that of John McCormack. What a compliment.”
He was not disappointed at his second-place spot in the Dramatic Cup.
“I sang a seven-minute Russian aria, known as Linsky’s Aria. Marcella Walsh from Belfast was the overall winner in that cup and she was fantastic and thoroughly deserved first place,” he remarked.
Dean began singing at a very young age and trained under Archie Simpson with the Clare Music Makers. He has sung on many occasions with the Lismorahaun Singers.
Just last weekend, he was singing in Carnegie Hall in New York and only arrived home on Wednesday morning, hours before the first round of the Feis Ceoil in Dublin’s RDS.
“I was jetlagged for the first round but I kept telling myself I’d be delighted if I got through to the top five from the original 20 contenders, so I’m really happy. I didn’t expect to win the award, so I’m really delighted. The competition was very strong, so I am very lucky,” he commented.