The soprano, born in Ireland and raised in South Africa, started her musical training in the subjects cello, singing and piano at the University of Johannesburg, completing her studies at the Detmold University of Music.  

Contracts as a soprano took her to Mannheim, Düsseldorf and Berlin, where she was a member of the ensemble at the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1994 to 2012. Her diverse repertoire includes all of the important roles for lyric sopranos, she sang e.g. Suor Angelica (at the Komische Oper Berlin in 1993), Juliette in Gounod’s "Roméo et Juliette", Sharp-Ears in Janacek’s "The Cunning Little Vixen" (directed by Katharina Thalbach), Manon in Massenet’s "Manon", and Zdenka in "Arabella" (Deutsche Oper Berlin).  

She gave her debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1997, in the role of Pamina. In 2000, she made her debut in Geneva as Fiordiligi in "Cosi fan tutte", followed by Eva in the "Meistersinger von Nürnberg" at the Volksoper in Vienna, later also in Brussels and Antwerpen, and as Alice Ford in "Falstaff" in Montpellier. Multiple performances at festivals have taken her to Schwetzingen, the Hamburg Opera Week, the “Festival de Radio France et Montpellier” and to Vienna, to the “Schloss Schönbrunn” festival.  

She featured as Woglinde in the "Ring des Nibelungen" under Christian Thielemann at the Bayreuth Festival from 2006 to 2008. This production was recorded for CD in 2009.  

The artist is also a regular concert singer. Her CD recording of Brahms’ A German Requiem in the piano arrangement with timpani was released by Glor Classics in 2009. During the festival “25 Years of the Berlin Konzerthaus”, she sang soprano in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under Lothar Zagrosek. She took part in “Ruhr 2010” with Richard Strauss’ "Four Last Songs".  

In 2011, a CD recording of Stavinsky’s "Les Noces" conducted by Sylvain Cambreling was released by Glor Classics and ACOUSENCE Records released a LP/CD “Tempelhof” with the Horenstein Ensemble and Vaughan Williams’ song cycle “Merciless Beauty”.

Fionnuala McCarthy has been Professor of Singing at the Rostock University of Music and Drama since October 2013.