Ann Murray was born in Dublin. She has close links both with the English National Opera, for whom she has sung the title roles in Handel’s Xerxes and Ariodante and Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, and with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where her roles have included Cherubino, Dorabella, Donna Elvira, Rosina and Octavian and she has appeared in new productions of L’Enfant et les sortilèges, Ariadne auf Naxos, Idomeneo, Mitridate, Re di Ponto, Così fan tutte, Mosé in Egitto, Alcina and Giulio Cesare. Her international operatic engagements have taken her to Hamburg, Dresden, Cologne, Berlin, Munich, Paris, Zurich, Brussels, Amsterdam, Milan, Vienna, Salzburg, the Chicago Lyric Opera, Los Angeles Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, New York.

In concert she has appeared with the world’s great orchestras: her recital appearances have taken her to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Geneva, Dresden, Zurich, Frankfurt, Madrid, London and Dublin, the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Munich and Salzburg Festivals, and both the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna. Her discography reflects not only her broad concert and recital repertoire but also many of her great operatic roles.

In 1997 Murray was made an honorary doctor of music by the National University of Ireland; the following year she was appointed a Kammersängerin of the Bavarian State Opera, and in 1999 she was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. In the 2002 Golden Jubilee Queen’s Birthday Honours, she was appointed an honorary Dame Commander of the British Empire. In 2004 Murray was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit.