Veronica Dunne

Veronica Dunne (2 August 1927 – 5 April 2021), also known as Ronnie Dunne, After a successful operatic career at the Dublin Opera and the Royal Opera House in London, she focused on voice teaching in Dublin, where she trained future international singers. The triennial Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition was established in 1995. She received the National Concert Hall Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.

Early life Dunne was born in Dublin on 20 August 1927. She was the youngest of three children of a well-to-do family. Her father worked as a master builder whose construction firm built the church in Foxrock in the early 1930s. She returned to the stage in 2002 to appear as Countess in Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin. and The Táin (1970) by James Wilson.

Dunne was appointed a vocal teacher at the then Dublin College of Music (today Technical University Conservatory of Music and Drama) in 1962. She was awarded an honorific doctorate in 1987. Orla Boylan, Colette McGahon, Anthony Kearns, and Finbar Wright, who have all sung in the major international opera houses. In 2014, aged 87, she continued to teach 39 hours a week.

The triennial Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition, established by the Friends of the Vocal Arts in Ireland in 1995, Recipients have included Orla Boylan, Sarah-Jane Brandon, Tara Erraught, Pumeza Matshikiza and Simon O'Neill.