Sonya Keogh: ‘I’ve always embraced the joy in life... but I had to measure my thirst for living’

The challenge of capturing, in writing, the quintessence of a powerhouse such as Sonya Keogh is knowing where to begin. After two hours of deep conversation that spanned a lifetime of experiences, it still felt as though we had only skimmed the surface. But here goes.

Sonya Keogh was born in Cork and reared in Dublin. Having trained as a mezzo soprano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, she moved back to Cork at just 18 to study voice with the acclaimed Bobby Beare at the Cork School of Music.

“I never didn’t believe my singing wouldn’t happen,” she says simply. “So, I practised every single day in anticipation of the work that would follow.”

Her professional debut came through Kinsale’s Frank Buckley. For many years, Sonya balanced a demanding portfolio career: opera singer, vocal teacher at the City Music College on Drinan Street, choral conductor, and student at the Cork School of Music.

“I was always a grafter and worked very hard. I had a portfolio career and absolutely loved it!”

She was also a trailblazer. “I was the first singer to pass through the newly established B.Mus course at CSM,” she says. When she graduated alongside classmates John O’Brien and Alan Gray, the trio became acutely aware of the lack of opera being produced in Cork. Rather than wait for opportunities, they created their own, founding Opera Works. The company staged full productions with orchestra, adult chorus, and later a children’s chorus.

“The starting premise for our Cork Children’s Chorus was social outreach and inclusion,” explains Sonya.

In 2005, they were delighted to be part of the opening civic ceremony of Cork 2005.

Artistically, the company flourished. Financially, it did not.

Eventually, Opera Works disbanded. John and Alan moved on to other artistic endeavours, but Sonya continued developing the children’s chorus.

One day, a Japanese woman arrived unannounced at Civic Trust House, asking to meet Sonya. She explained she represented a company seeking to build cultural relationships between Japan and Europe through the arts, and wanted Sonya to travel to Japan to show them how to develop children’s choirs and youth arts festivals.

“I was intrigued,” Sonya recalls. “In my naivete, I thought ‘this will be lovely’ but had no idea what I would do when I got there.”

The following week, an email arrived with flights, dates, and a packed itinerary. It was clear they meant business.

In a single week in Japan, Sonya worked with over 9,000 children, delivering workshops and meetings at a relentless pace.

“At the end of the week, they said if they could get me into European Capitals of Culture, could I set up transcontinental festivals, involving Japan, China, Asia and Europe.”

They offered to bankroll her to do it.

Almost overnight, Sonya found herself needing to establish a company capable of managing large-scale international funding.

ARTlifeCULTURE was born.

“For me, art and culture feed life,” she says. “So, it felt like a happy and honest name.

“Those were the headiest 10 years of my life,” reflects Sonya. “I did nine Japanese tours a year, travelled around Asia at least once a month, with groups of musicians, my children’s choir (up to 100 kids at a time), minders, my artistic team, and with a multimedia crew.”

As her international profile expanded, Sonya felt a strong pull to create something rooted at home. From that instinct came summer SING, a festival founded on the belief that children from all backgrounds deserved access to world-class musical experiences.

“Our fundamental ethos was social engagement and equality,” she says,

Summer SING brought young people together with leading international musicians and conductors in some of Cork’s most iconic spaces, including St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, the Crawford Art Gallery, and the Freemasons’ Lodge.

The festival showcased the city, boosted cultural tourism, and was supported by Cork City and County Councils and the Arts Council.

Today, summer SING continues to thrive under Sinéad Dunphy of Eventi Management.

Internationally, Sonya’s ARTlifeCULTURE aligned with Irish government initiatives promoting cultural diplomacy.

“At the time, there was a big drive for us to be global citizens. It is only since the pandemic that we have begun to turn inwards again.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs took particular interest in her international youth arts programmes and Sonya received an invitation to design cultural content for the Ireland Pavilion at Shanghai World EXPO in 2010. Further support from Culture Ireland, the Arts Council, and Cork City and County Councils followed.

“They saw it as an exciting initiative,” she says.

In 2015, ARTlifeCULTURE was designed again for the Ireland Pavilion at Milan World EXPO. The following year, they were in New York’s Lincoln Centre to mark Ireland’s 1916 Centenary as part of the Government’s I AM IRELAND global campaign.

Professionally, Sonya was soaring.

Personally, her life was unravelling.

Her marriage sadly ended in May, 2016. She buried herself in work, pushing through the summer SING festival on sheer momentum.

One of the guest mentors that year was from the Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus in New York. After the festival, she mentioned she’d love to see the Giant’s Causeway.

Sonya drove her and her six children the 11 hours round trip to see it.

When they returned to Cork, Sonya sat down on the couch and felt a ferocious pain tear through her chest.

“I knew instantly I was having a heart attack,” she recalls.

She spent ten days in hospital and, over the following years, suffered multiple cardiac episodes.

Still, she kept going.

“It wasn’t that I had no choice. Rather, I chose to keep going!

“My friends were superb to me. I hit a hard wall and didn’t know if I would heal.”

Four years later, while still under cardiology care, Sonya asked to have her medication adjusted due to her deteriorating vision. Her consultant sent her immediately for an MRI.

“In typical fashion, I came out of the brain scan and ran to collect a child from swimming lessons,” she says. “I was on my knees - in every sense - when the cardiologist rang and said, ‘Don’t be alarmed, but you are going to get a call from a neurologist shortly’. He told me I had a giant aneurysm and needed open brain surgery. The risks were terrifying. I had six children. I was the bread-winner. I needed to work.”

Her late mother’s words echoed in her mind. “She used to say, ‘You always have a choice, Sonya. You may not like the choice, but you do have one’.”

Open brain surgery was a hard no.

Instead, Sonya asked the surgeon a startling question: could she fly? She then used all she had to take her children on a two-week holiday in the sun.

“I drank them in,” she says. “The joy of them, the closeness they had - and still have. I thought, they’ll be okay.”

On her return, she received another call. A visiting surgeon from Johns Hopkins Hospital in the U.S was offering a far less invasive procedure, and Sonya was a strong candidate.

She took the leap.

Recovery was brutal. The fear has never fully left her voice when she speaks of that time. After surgery, she struggled to walk, to speak, to form words.

“I had to relearn everything.”

Doctors recommended rehabilitation. Sonya decided she would rehabilitate herself. She returned to college, rebuilding her cognitive and professional life from the ground up.

“I’ve always embraced the joy in life. Gratitude. I choose to see it like this. But I did have to measure my thirst for living.”

A Level 9 Masters in Professional and Change Management Coaching proved transformative.

“The course made me see my own self-limiting thoughts and biases, and allowed me to grow and heal.”

Despite her deep love for the arts, they were not sustaining her family. She recalled a pivotal moment, years earlier, when, overwhelmed, she broke down to her colleague and mentor, Tony Power of Cork City Council.

“I love the arts,” she had cried.

“But do the arts love you, Sonya?” he retorted.

That question changed everything.

Sonya reassessed what she needed to survive - not only creatively, but practically. She hired a team to support her career transition and to prepare her for the interview process.

“Looking back over my life, I realised I’d never actively made a decision about my career,” she says. “I just followed the opportunities.” She was terrified but determined.

Today, she works as Senior Governance and Capital Portfolio Reporting Analyst with Gas Networks. She has been promoted three times in three years. She values the work, the stability, and the clarity it brings.

Once her professional life steadied and her children were thriving, Sonya wondered if it was time to be open to love again.

Shortly after making that decision, she was leaving Sunday service at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral. As is customary, the Very Reverend Nigel Dunne, Dean of Cork, stood at the door greeting members of the congregation.

She shook his hand.

“I was immediately struck by how lovely it felt,” she says. “It was like I had opened myself to love - and there he was.”

They had known each other for years and, by their own admission, had not been impressed.

“I thought she was a nightmare,” Nigel insists.

“I thought he was stuffy and stuck-up,” replies Sonya with a laugh.

Before their first date, Sonya texted: “I didn’t think I could offer anything romantically, but good company was hard to find.”

Fate had other ideas.

They fell wildly in love.

When photographs of their recent nuptials in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral emerged, it felt like the closest Cork would come to a royal wedding. Celestial voices and exquisite music in such glorious Gothic surrounds only added to the sense of occasion.

For Sonya, it was a profound pinch-me moment: marrying the man she loves, and stepping into a life she would not have believed possible for decades.

Today, her heart is healed, and she lives in the Deanery with Nigel.

Between them, they share eight children - seven sons and one daughter - and a deep, hard-won happiness.

Sonya is launching her coaching practice for people who feel overwhelmed, stuck, or unsure how to navigate life’s obstacles. She plans to work with just two clients individually at any one time. For a consultation, call: 0876616577 or DM via insta @sonya_keogh