Category: Core Members

Multi-instrumentalist Matthew Berrill leads a diverse career as a performer, improviser, composer, arranger and curator. He is an integral member of numerous ensembles in the jazz, improvised and traditional Irish music spheres, including The Irish Memory Orchestra and Ensemble Ériu, with whom he has recorded three critically-acclaimed albums for Raelach Records.

He plays in trio with Cormac McCarthy and Iarla Ó Lionáird, and is a regular performer with the acclaimed singer Mick Flannery. In 2022, he graduated with Distinction in the Master’s in Arts course from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he was awarded the Benjamin Doéniger Jazz Scholarship.

Recent highlights include world premieres at Boyle Arts Festival and at the National Concert Hall as part of New Music Dublin, and soundscape composition for the award-winning spectacle theatre company Macnas for their production of Con Mór. Matthew has worked with RTÉ Concert Orchestra, The National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and Northern Ireland Opera.

Matthew curated Galway Music Residency’s 3 Saturdays: 3 Kinds of Music Series for four years from 2018 until 2021, and in partnership with Galway Music Residency and ConTempo Quartet, he instigated the JazzTempo project.

Matthew is grateful for the generous support of the Arts Council. 

Jack Talty is a traditional musician, composer, producer, and educator from Lissycasey in county Clare. As a performer Jack has traveled extensively throughout Europe, the United States, Australia, and Asia, and has contributed to over 50 albums to date as a musician, producer, composer, arranger, and engineer. A regular contributor to traditional music programmes on television and radio, Jack has worked with musicians such as Tommy Peoples, Finbarr Dwyer, Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill, Frankie Gavin, Noel Hill, Tony Linnane, Sharon Shannon, Mairtín Ó Connor, Téada, Steve Cooney, Séamus Begley, Brendan Begley, Le Chéile, Bobby Gardiner, Jesse Smith, Colm Gannon, Alec Finn, Liam Ó Maonlaí, Geraldine Cotter, The RTÉ Concert Orchestra with conductor David Brophy, and Dave Flynn’s Irish Memory Orchestra.

In 2011 Jack released the critically acclaimed Na Fir Bolg with fellow concertina player Cormac Begley on his own Raelach Records label, and also formed Ensemble Ériu with double bass and flute player Neil O’ Loghlen. The band’s eponymous debut album, released by Raelach Records in October 2013 was described by Jim Carroll of the Irish Times as “one of the best Irish albums of 2013”. In January 2015, Ensemble Ériu were announced as winners of the prestigious Gradam Comharcheol TG4 (musical collaboration award presented by Ireland’s national Irish language broadcaster).

With a musical upbringing in purely traditional uilleann piping, Mark Redmond has gained vast experience in recent years as a performer who fuses with a range of various genres. He has performed as soloist on numerous occasions with the RTE Concert Orchestra; The RTE National Symphony Orchestra (including the historic state visit of Queen Elisabeth II to Ireland); Camerata Ireland (under the direction of Barry Douglas);
The Savannah Philharmonic, USA and the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne, France.

Mark has also toured globally as a soloist performer in his own right as well as with renowned stage shows, namely Riverdance and Celtic Legends.

Over the years he has also joined other touring ensembles such as The Irish Memory Orchestra, The Irish Harp Orchestra and a host of provisional ensembles on behalf of Culture Ireland and the Department of Foreign Affairs to promote Ireland overseas and demonstrate its rich culture.

Mark was appointed Principal Uilleann Piper of the Irish Memory Orchestra in 2017 on the recommendation of his predecessor and mentor Mick O’Brien.

Aisling Agnew is a flautist from Belfast. She performs internationally and has performed at prominent festivals such as the National Flute Association’s 40th Convention at Caesar’s Palace Las Vegas, Jeonju International Sori Festival in Korea, Sarajevo Winter Festival and closer to home at New Music Dublin, British Flute Convention in Manchester, Celtic Connections in Glasgow, and Belfast International Festival as both a soloist and chamber musician. Aisling is also host of the successful podcast The Flute NI and has interviewed many other performers, teachers and makers about their experiences.

Aisling has made many successful recordings featuring CDs, radio broadcasts and live performances and she specialises in playing a wide range of flutes, performing on silver and wooden concert flutes as well as baroque and Irish flute and whistle. Her latest solo album recording ‘Alone’ is due for release in 2023. Aisling is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and is the recipient of many awards including the Countess of Munster, Arts Council of NI, Creative Scotland and Belfast Classical Music Bursaries.

Reflecting her passion for contemporary music, Aisling is both flautist and concert manager with Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble in Belfast. As Concerto Soloist she has appeared with various orchestras including the Ulster Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and she regularly freelances with various orchestras in the UK and Ireland. Aisling performs in several chamber groups such as the Clyde Duo with Welsh harpist Sharron Griffiths with whom she has toured extensively.

Aisling is involved with a variety of music education programmes such as the Ulster Orchestra’s Crescendo Project, she teaches at Queen’s University Belfast and has given many international masterclasses and workshops.

Grammy-award winning Congolese guitarist, composer and singer Niwel Tsumbu has emerged as an engaging and innovative musician in constant demand who has gained many admirers around the world.

His recent collaborations with Rhiannon Giddens and the Silk Road Ensemble have brought Niwel considerable international acclaim, including multiple North American Tours and live TV performances on Jimmy Kimmel Live and CBS Mornings. He won a Grammy award for his role as lead guitarist on the 2022 Best Folk Album They’re Calling Me Home by Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi.

Since moving to Ireland in 2004 from the Democratic Republic Of Congo Niwel has settled with his wife and three children and has quickly become a prominent face on the Irish music scene. He has been hailed as ”an exceptional guitar player” by Europe’s leading online Jazz magazine All About Jazz and his music “enchanted” The Irish Times.

He has collaborated with many celebrated Irish musicians such as Sinéad O’Connor, Liam O’Maonlai, Donal Lunny, Glen Hansard, as well as international stars such as Ma Xiaohui (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon soundtrack), Senegalese legend Baaba Maal, Richard Bona and Nigel Kennedy amongst others.

With influences from far and wide, his elegant and fluent guitar playing draws from his past excursions with African rhythms, rumba, jazz, classical and much more besides.

He spent 5 years working with the Abbey Theatre and performing with a number of Opera productions, before refocusing on his own music, working with his long time collaborator Eamonn Cagney on percussion.

His debut appearance with the Irish Memory Orchestra at London’s Cadogan Hall in 2018 was the latest in a line of collaborations Niwel has had with Dave Flynn including the supergroup DFF and a performance with the Crash Ensemble in Cork Opera House in the world premiere of Flynn’s ensemble work ‘Joy’.

Leading harpist of her generation, Dr Anne-Marie O’Farrell from Dublin has performed all over the world as a solo artist, accompanist and in ensembles, and is regularly featured in broadcasts. On lever harp, she is particularly recognized for her expansion of repertoire and levering techniques, as a result of which the world’s leading harpmakers Salvi Harps redesigned their lever harps to become concert instruments. 

She has performed with numerous orchestras, including the Irish Baroque Orchestra, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the Irish Memory Orchestra, and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. Last year she premiered her lever harp concerto, In Light Anew (commissioned by RTÉ Lyric FM) with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the World Harp Congress in Cardiff.

A prolific recording artist, she has released several CDs, including Just So Bach, Harping Bach to Carolan, The Jig’s Up, My Lagan Love and Embrace: New Directions for Irish Harp; Double Strung and Duopoly with Cormac De Barra; and Harp to Harp with harmonica player Brendan Power. She is frequently invited to give recitals, workshops and masterclasses at international conferences and festivals around the world, in addition to performance at several World Harp Congresses.

She is Head of Harp at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where she runs a thriving harp department. Dedicated to the expansion of repertoire for the lever harp, she has published critical editions for lever harp of Bach’s cello, keyboard and lute repertoire.

Anne-Marie holds a PhD in composition with Piers Hellawell at Queen’s University Belfast and masters degrees in performance, musicology and composition. Recent large-scale commissions include a Civil War Cantata commissioned by UCD, several orchestral works, and a five-movement work for large harp ensemble commissioned by Harp Ireland/Cruit Éireann.

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Anne-Marie O’Farrell’s Eitilt for orchestra chosen to represent Ireland at the International Rostrum of Composers in The Hague https://www.cmc.ie/news/05192023-1229/works-cmc-composers-anne-marie-ofarrell-and-aine-mallon-submitted-rte-lyric-fm

Anne-Marie O’Farrell speaks on ‘My Creative Life’ on Aedín in the Afternoon on RTÉ LyricFM https://www.rte.ie/radio/lyricfm/clips/22252872/

World Premiere The Ocean’s Corner for three pedal harps 28th May 3.30pm, St Iberius Church Wexford, with Aisling Ennis, Richard Allen & Diane Marshall; commissioned by Music for Wexford.

Neil Ó Loclainn is a musician and composer from Ballyvaughan, Clare. His work is dedicated to exploring the contemporary and the universal in the local. He has been described as “a musical seeker” (The Irish Times) and his work as “redefining the possibilities of Irish traditional music” (All about Jazz)

He is co founder of Ensemble Ériu, an award winning (TG4 Gradam ComharCeoil award 2015) group dedicated to developing new conceptualisations in Irish traditional ensemble playing.

He leads his own chamber ensemble group Cuar which explores composition and improvisation within the framework of Irish traditional music. Their debut album Roscanna has been described as “an ear craningly beautiful missive from the new post genre frontier.” (The Irish Times)

He began learning Irish traditional music on the flute and tin whistle at a young age and studied double bass with David Whitla at the Cork school of Music. As a jazz musician he has been bassist of choice for many of Ireland’s leading musicians including Myles Drennan, Richie Buckley, Hugh Buckley, Meilana Gillard, Mike Nielsen. He was a member of the Louis Stewart quartet from 2012 until the guitarists death in 2016.

He has studied Karnatic music at the Brhaddvani Institute, Chennai, India and Ewe music at the Dagara Centre, Medie, Ghana. He has won numerous scholarships and bursaries to attend workshops and residencies including the Banff Centre creative music workshop, Canada, the School for Improvisational Music (S.I.M) workshop, New York and the Cill Rialaig residency, Ballinskelligs. His music has been released by Irish labels Raelach and Diatribe Records.

Maria holds both a B.Mus and an MA from the Cork School of Music (CSM). She has been a prizewinner in numerous competitions including Feis Ceoil, Feis Maitiu and the CSM Concerto and Chamber Music Competition and has been invited to perform as a soloist with the CSMSO. Maria played with the National Symphony Orchestra as part of their mentoring scheme and also as a deputy player.
Along with fellow members of the Chiral Quartet, Maria was awarded the 2014 CSM Directors Prize. The quartet were subsequently named Ensemble in Residence in the CSM. They have been winners of the CSM RTE Vanbrugh Quartet Chamber Music Competition, the KBC Great Music in Irish Houses Residency competition and the Music in Drumcliffe Strings Attached Competition and have studied with both the Vogler Quartet and the Vanbrugh Quartet.

Maria has performed in numerous venues and festivals at home and abroad including the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Killaloe Music Festival, the Music in Drumcliffe festival and in the RDS Rising Stars recital series, the Jenneusses Musicales Festival and Guildhall, London. Maria is also a traditional fiddle player and has been playing fiddle since the age of 8.

She has played in numerous competitions in the Fleadh Cheoil over the years and has received medals at both local and national competitions. As well as preforming, Maria teaches cello and fiddle in the Kerry School of Music and in Cork.

Ciara Ní Bhriain started learning violin with Young European Strings at age three. At age 12, she began studying viola at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Chatham Row.  She later pursued her studies on viola with David O’Doherty in Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), where she was also studying Irish and concert harp with the wonderful Denise Kelly. 

Coming from a musical family, Ciara has had the opportunity to perform internationally with her dad Mick, and with her siblings. Ciara performed as soloist with the Irish Memory Orchestra at the Jeonju International Music Festival in South Korea and has collaborated with Grammy Award-winning producer Judith Sherman on a recording of Dave Flynn’s ‘Stories from the Old World’.

Ciara has toured with artists including Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, Birkin Tree, Carlos Nunez, and Frankie Gavin and the Provenance. She spent two years as resident performer with her band TradGad at Raglan Road, in Disneyland Florida. More recently, Ciara performed as soloist with the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, performing The Princess Grace Suite, composed by Frankie Gavin. A little closer to home, Ciara completed a tour of Ireland in 2022 with Johnny Óg Connolly, performing his composition, An Cosán Draíochta. Solo performances by Ciara include a recent appearance at Ardán at The Séamus Ennis Arts Centre, a series curated by Louise Mulcahy highlighting emerging female traditional musicians.

Ciara is currently studying Audio Production and Music Project Management at Dublin’s Sound Training College. She continues to teach both fiddle and harp, including at DCU’s St Patrick’s Campus. Ciara can be heard regularly on Irish radio and television, most recently appearing on TG4’s Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy.

A founder member of the IMO aged just 15, Ciara has since performed in Moscow and South Korea with us. She assumed lead fiddle duties on our South Korean tour.

Róisín Donohoe is a harpist, fiddler and singer from Kinsale, County Cork.

Born into a musical family, Róisín began learning the fiddle at the age of three. As her passion for music continued to grow, so too did her interest to master a broader range of instruments – she is now an accomplished musician on the violin, harp, concertina, viola and voice. Her first solo TV performance was at the age of ten where she sang self-accompanied on harp in a family talent show on TG4, called “Glas Vegas”. Since then she has performed numerous times on TV alongside her brother Darren (also an accomplished fiddler), fellow musicians of the group ‘Lasair’, as well as the Vienna Youth Orchestra (Austrian TV). Róisín has also been interviewed and performed on radio multiple times during her career.

Róisín studied classical violin and viola in the Cork School of Music under Ruxandra Petcu, Adrian Petcu and Constantin Zanidache and was awarded an LTCL with distinction. Róisín was selected as the main singer for the Irish Memory Orchestra’s debut of Mná Brian Ború at the age of 17 ; she also played fiddle and viola during the various performances of Mná Brian Ború in Ireland and South Korea.

Róisín has been a member of many orchestras including the County Cork Junior where she was the leader, County Cork Youth, Cork Youth, Cork School of Music Symphonic, National Youth, Vienna Youth and most recently the IMO. As a member of ‘Lasair’, an Irish traditional group, she also performed in the National Concert Hall. She has won multiple All Ireland Medals in various disciplines at all age levels.

Currently, Róisín Studies in Université Grenoble Alpes in France as part of her Commerce and French degree in UCC. Her Senior All-Ireland medal in 2017 was complemented by one of her Harp students winning the All-Ireland U12 Slow Airs.