A joyous DiDonato receives RIAM’s top award

“I wish my parents could have been here to share this honour with me today,” said mezzo-soprano superstar Joyce DiDonato after being awarded the Royal Irish Academy of Music’s highest award last week.

In accepting the Fellowship Honoris Causa, an overjoyed DiDonato, who was born in Kansas into a family of seven Flaherty children, referred with pride to her Irish ancestry.

In the last decade, DiDonato has soared to the top of the ...