Aoife Nic Athlaoich

Dublin-born Aoife Nic Athlaoich enjoys a versatile musical career, dividing her time between both modern and Baroque cello. Since moving back to Ireland in 2013 Aoife joined the Irish Chamber Orchestra and has made solo and chamber music debuts at some Ireland's leading festivals including Galway Early Music Festival, Ardee baroque Festival and the East Cork Early Music Festival. Aoife is a member of the highly acclaimed Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique with whom she has toured the USA and Europe as well as performing at the BBC Proms. Aoife has performed with the orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, la Serenissima, the avison ensemble, Irish baroque orchestra, Scottish chamber orchestra, classical opera company and was a member of the London Mozart Players from 2010-2013. Aoife teaches cello at the Cork school of music, the University of Limerick, and at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin. 

Carl roewer

Irish bassoonist Carl Roewer is currently studying his Bachelor degree at the Musikhochschule Freiburg with Prof. Henrik Rabien. He began his studies with Emma Neal at the MTU Cork School of Music in 2018, and since then has become a prominent performer in Ireland, the UK and Germany. In the summer of 2022, Carl made his solo concerto debut accompanied by the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, an ensemble in which he was also the Principal Bassoon. He performed with them again in September of the same year in front of the Irish president, and since then, was invited as soloist performing with the 1885 Orchestra in London. Carl is the current Principal Bassoon of the Ulster Youth Orchestra, and regularly performs as a guest with the 1885 Orchestra, the Kammerorchester der Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, and Kammerphilharmonie Freiburg. Carl is also a keen pianist and studied for many years with Mary Beattie at the MTU Cork School of Music. Since 2022 he has hosted and produced the Killaloe Music Festival Podcast, and is delighted to be appearing as the ‘Rising Star’ in this year’s festival.

carol mcgonnell

Carol has performed chamber music with musicians including the Danish String Quartet, the Modigliani Quartet, the Elias String Quartet, Jonathan Biss, Kit Armstrong, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Midori, Daniel Hope, Barbara Hannigan and Frederica Von Stade. The American public broadcaster PBS recently released a documentary in which Carol, Kirill Gerstein, Leila Josefowicz and Paul Watkins are featured performing Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. As soloist, Carol was featured in Nico Muhly’s Carnegie debut and in John Adam’s In Your Ear Festival at Carnegie Hall. She has also performed at Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series. Invitations from festivals have taken Carol from Mecklenburg Festival (Germany) to Suntory Hall Chamber Music Garden (Japan), from Djúpid Festival (Iceland) to many renowned places in the USA. She is a frequent guest at various Irish festivals. Carol co-founded Argento New Music Project in 2000 with whom she has premiered dozens of new works. It was dubbed ‘An essential source of adventurous new music’ by Alex Ross of The New Yorker. She recently produced a video performance of Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint for the opening of the new home of the New York Philharmonic. Carol is on faculty for contrabass clarinet at Juilliard.

Dermot Dunne

diane daly

Diane is in demand as a chamber musician, director and improvisor at home and abroad. She enjoys devising her own work and has been invited to perform world premieres of works by leading Irish composers, including Sam Perkins, Linda Buckley and Deirdre Gribbin. In other genres, she has performed and recorded alongside some of the biggest names in rock and leads her own gypsy jazz trio. Passionate about education, her teaching focus is on the development of the whole musician as a creative artist, fostering joy-filled music making, autonomy and self-expression. She is a qualified Dalcroze Eurhythmics teacher and recently became Europe’s first accredited string-playing Body-Mapper. In 2022, her doctoral research was awarded the inaugural Aloys Fleischmann prize for outstanding practice-based research, developing the concepts of embodiment, presence, creativity and connection in string playing. Diane is currently Head of Strings at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

Far flung trio

fiachra garvey

1st prizewinner at the 2012 Jaques Samuel Competition, London, Fiachra made his Fazioli Auditorium (Italy) and Wigmore Hall debuts in 2013. He has also been a prizewinner at AXA Dublin International Piano Competition, EU Piano Competition Prague, 3rd Soirees-Concours Internationales de Piano a Collioure, France, and Feis Ceoil Dublin. The National Concert Hall Dublin awarded Fiachra the “Rising Star” prize in 2011 which led to a number of solo and concerto debuts. Fiachra graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, London in 2013 with 1st class honours and distinction in the M.A. in Music Performance. Concerto appearances include the Janáček Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, RTE Concert Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra, RIAM Symphony Orchestra, and UCD Symphony Orchestra working with eminent conductors including John Wilson, Duncan Ward, Theodore Kuchar, Stephen Bell and Mihhail Gerts.

Joachim roewer

Born in East Germany, Joachim Roewer graduated from the Hochschule für Musik “Franz Liszt” Weimar and the Orchesterakademie of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, having performed frequently with this world class orchestra in Berlin and internationally. During his studies in Germany (and just after the fall of the Berlin Wall) he was invited to lead the viola section of the International Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra under Claudio Abbado in concert halls throughout Europe.In 1994 Joachim moved to Ireland to become principal viola with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. Over the last few decades he appeared on numerous occasions as soloist with the orchestra. Joachim is a passionate teacher, a member of the Esposito String Quartet and was frequently invited to perform with the Vogler Quartet, the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet and the Contempo Quartet. Joachim teaches viola and chamber music on the MA programme in Classical Strings at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick.

MALACHY ROBINSON

Malachy’s performing career began at a very young age, as he sang principal roles in the Dublin Children’s Opera in the RDS in 1982 & 1983. Starting out in the Irish Youth Orchestra, Malachy blossomed into a wonderful musician and pursued his studies in London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama and later at the University of London. A dedicated chamber musician, Robinson is a founding member of many renowned groups from the Crash Ensemble to the Irish Baroque Orchestra. Principal double-bass with the Irish Chamber Orchestra since ‘95, Malachy also has a plethora of solo accolades to his name. His album 'The Irish Double Bass' was released in 2021.

Marmen quartet

With the courage, vitality and intensity of its performances, the Marmen Quartet is fast establishing itself as one of the most impressive and engaging talents in chamber music, demonstrated by recent first prizes at the prestigious Bordeaux and Banff International String Quartet Competitions. The quartet has performed at leading European venues including Wigmore Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Stockholm Konserthuset and Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, with festival appearances at BBC Proms, Rheingau and Heidelberg festivals and the Amsterdam and Gulbenkian Foundation String Quartet Biennales. Committed to new music, the quartet has given the world premieres of several commissions, including Salina Fisher’s Heal, composed for them in the wake of the pandemic, and Hannah Kendall’s How ruin nested inside each thimbled throat / & made it sin. Most recently they gave the premiere of Garth Knox’s Secret Letters, written for them as a companion piece to Janáček’s Intimate Letters. The quartet is an official Pirastro Artist. Its debut recording for BIS Records will be released in 2024, featuring works by Ligeti and Bartók, with future plans including Debussy, Ravel and Takemitsu.

simon mulligan

Pianist Simon Mulligan is, according to The Times of London ‘the most abundantly gifted of pianists’, to Steinway & Sons he is ‘the world’s most versatile pianist’; Pulitzer prizewinning composer Paul Moravec calls him ‘a pianist with complete mastery of the instrument’. In addition to his extensive discography, his collaborations include performances and recordings with Yehudi Menuhin, Joshua Bell, Leonard Slatkin and Sting. He has performed all over the world, most notably at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Wigmore Hall and Royal Albert Hall in London, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, as well as private performances for Her Majesty the Queen and President Barack Obama. His keen interest in film composition led to a long association with composer Michael Kamen, culminating in his performance on the soundtrack to Spielberg’s Band of Brothers. He has led his own jazz quartet since he was thirteen, which has performed in major international festivals. His eclectic work has led to profiles in Downbeat, JazzTimes, BBC Music, Classic fM, and Gramophone magazines, among others. Simon is a recipient of the prestigious Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music, and his teachers include Alexander Kelly, Murray Perahia, Alfred Brendel and Alexis Weissenberg.

Yseult Cooper Stockdale

Yseult is a cellist with an especially varied career. Favouring more intimate ensembles, she has performed as a chamber musician at several festivals and series including West Cork Chamber Music, Music for Wexford, Belfast International Arts festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival and more with ensembles such as Ficino, the Vanbrugh, Trio Cantare, and Musici Ireland. She is also a member of the Ora String quartet, supported by the National String Quartet Foundation. Yseult has a special interest in performing new music, working with the Quiet Music Ensemble, Evlana, and Crash. With her own experimental group, Kirkos, she has performed countless premieres, and has been invited to play self-devised works at festivals such as Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Sound Festival Aberdeen, and New Music Dublin.