(opens in a new window)Yseult Cooper Stockdale enjoys a versatile career between the UK and Ireland. She has worked with both RTE orchestras, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Welsh National Opera, Southbank Sinfonia and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. She loves performing as a chamber musician and had a spring tour in 2019 with the Alberi Piano Trio, including performances at Music for Wexford and the Crawford Summer Lunchtime Series. She has also been invited to play with Musici Ireland, Crash Ensemble, Ficino Ensemble and London-based Scordatura Collective. In 2018 she played at inaugural Beckett Chamber Music Festival and has also played as a young artist with the Britten-Pears Orchestra and at Bantry Chamber Music Festival and Chamber Music on Valentia. In 2018 her concerto performances included the Schumann Cello Concerto with the Cork Fleischmann Symphony Orchestra, and Beethoven’s triple concerto with Wexford Sinfonia. She has also performed as soloist in the NCH, playing Elgar, and in 2016 toured with the Esker Festival Orchestra performing the Dvoark concerto.

She has a keen interest in exploring new music, and has performed over 50 premieres with Kirkos Ensemble and has performed at 5 ICC concerts. Recent projects include an online collaboration with sound artist Philip Fogarty, in association with Music for Galway and supported by the Arts Council.

Yseult was a recipient of the John Vallery Memorial Prize for highest placed string player at the 2015 Freemasons Young Musician of the Year and was awarded the 2016 Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe scholarship. Yseult has a 1st Class Honours MA, from the CIT Cork school of Music, and BA, from the Royal Irish Academy of Music, where her teachers were Christopher Marwood and Bill Butt. In 2015/16 she studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy”, Leipzig, with Peter Hörr.

(opens in a new window)Michelle O’Rourke is a singer based in Dublin, Ireland. Empowered by a background in Baroque vocal music, and ever-fascinated by the role of voice in the ritual of performance, Michelle maintains a diverse portfolio of work: from contemporary classical music, to devised interdisciplinary projects, to holistic vocal coaching.

Michelle’s natural sound, unaffected expressivity, and technical ability make for an interpreter of rare dynamism. Several Irish composers have created work specially for her, including: Andrew Hamilton, Simon O’Connor, Karen Power, Judith Ring, Anna Murray, Benedict Schlepper-Connolly, and Garrett Sholdice.

Since 2016, Michelle has worked on a number of interdisciplinary projects, including work by Louise White Performance, Rob Heaslip Dance, Tonnta, theatre-makers Oonagh Murphy & Maeve Stone, and choreographer Catherine Young. In 2019, Michelle was co-curator of Listening Bodies, a durational performance event presented by Tonnta and Kirkos.

Michelle has featured on a number of critically acclaimed releases, including: Left Behind: Songs of the 1916 Widows (with Simon O’Connor, Ergodos label) and Andrew Hamilton: Music for People (with Crash Ensemble, NMC label). Michelle can be heard contributing to Inside Out, the recent release by Dutch violinist Diamanda La Berge Dramm (Genuin label). 

Current and upcoming activity includes: the development of new performance collaborations, including a new duo with flautist Lina Andonovska; solo albums featuring work by Andrew Hamilton and original self-composed material; and an album featuring folk-inspired ensemble music with Ficino Ensemble.

Hailed as "a major talent" after her Carnegie Hall debut with Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto, Irish pianist (opens in a new window)Ellen Jansson is quickly establishing herself as one of Ireland’s most versatile and exciting young musicians. She has appeared as soloist with the New York Concerti Sinfonietta, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Esker Festival Orchestra, and the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, as well as giving solo and chamber performances around Europe.

Under the guidance of Mary Beattie at Cork School of Music, Ellen graduated first in her class and Taught MA Student-of-the-Year in 2020 before continuing her studies in collaborative piano with Barbara Moser at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. She is also a past pupil of Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, where she was the winner of the Chetham’s Yamaha Piano Competition. She was awarded a Flax Trust bursary at Clandeboye Festival 2016 and was a finalist in the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Scholarship 2017. Ellen was awarded the second prize in the Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year 2018 and was also recipient of the Cork Orchestral Society Emerging Artist Award that year.

An avid chamber musician, Ellen’s collaborations have included performances with the ConTempo String Quartet, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Ficino Ensemble, Kirkos Ensemble, Vienna Ensemble, and the Winds of Change Quintet. She has performed at the New Ross Piano Festival, Westport Chamber Music Festival, Killaloe Chamber Music Festival, Ortús Chamber Music Festival, Waterford Chamber Music Festival, and the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, among others. In 2024 she spent a month in residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity Interplay programme, where she performed with José Franch-Ballester, Beverley Johnston, and Joel Brennan. 

A passionate advocate for the performance and promotion of music written by women, she has appeared several times at the ‘Finding a Voice’ Festival since its launch in 2018, including giving the first complete Irish performance of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s Das Jahr in 2021, and curating and performing a concert of solo and chamber works by Canadian composer Alexina Louie in 2019. She performs regularly with flautist Miriam Kaczor, and their performance at the Castleconnell Autumn Concert Series 2022 was recorded for national broadcast by RTÉ Lyric FM.

Ellen has been a répétiteur at the International Music Academy Orpheus, the Hans Staud Music Award, Vienna, and the CSM Opera Platform. Since 2020, she is Coach Accompanist to the MA in Classical String Performance at the Irish World Academy of Music, University of Limerick.

(opens in a new window)The Fidelio Trio: The 'virtuosic Fidelio Trio' (Sunday Times) are Darragh Morgan (violin), Tim Gill (cello) and Mary Dullea (piano). Shortlisted for the 2016 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards, The Fidelio Trio broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3, RTÉ Lyric FM, WQXR, and have been featured on a Sky Arts documentary.

Since their debut at London’s Southbank Centre, they have regularly appeared at the Wigmore Hall and Kings Place, at festivals including Spitalfields, Cheltenham, St. Magnus and Huddersfield. In Ireland they regularly perform at National Concert Hall, Dublin, and internationally at Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre, Beijing Modern Music Festival, Hong Kong Chamber Music Society, Singapore, Bangkok, Porto, Paris, Venice, Florence, Johannesburg, Harare, New York City, San Francisco and Boston. Recent appearances include Dark Music Days Iceland, an extensive USA tour including National Sawdust Brooklyn and Music on the Edge Pittsburgh, Cayman International Arts Festival and Little Missenden Festival.

Their extensive (opens in a new window)discography includes a Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice and Critics’ Choice 2022 of Chamber Music by E J Moeran, a composer with whom they are closely associated, and the release of premiere recordings on Mode Records of music by Gerald Barry. 2024 saw a portrait CD of distinguished composer Xiaogang Ye. Other significant releases include 2 French albums of Ravel and Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Chausson and Satie; Philip Glass Head On & Pendulum on Orange Mountain; Korngold and Schoenberg (Verklärte Nacht arr. Steuermann) for Naxos; the complete Michael Nyman Piano Trios for MN Records; multiple releases on NMC, Delphian Records including portrait CDs for composers such as Luke Bedford, Piers Hellawell and Michael Zev Gordon. Their previous release of French Piano Trios for Resonus was also a Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice.

The Fidelio Trio have given masterclasses at Peabody Conservatory, Curtis Institute, NYU, Central Conservatory Beijing, and Stellenbosch Conservatorium South Africa. They have been artists-in-residence at University of Iowa, St. Patrick’s College Dublin City University, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, the State University of New York, SUNY and Tufts University, Boston.

Composers that the Trio have premiered music by include Anna Clyne, Toshio Hosokawa, Charles Wuorinen, Johannes Maria Staud, Michael Nyman, Gerald Barry, Donnacha Dennehy, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Joe Cutler, Ann Cleare, Judith Weir, Piers Hellawell, David Fennessy, Kevin Volans. Gavin Higgins, Linda Buckley, Tom Coult, John Harbison, Sam Perkin, Sebastian Adams, Claudia Molitor, Shirley Thompson, Richard Baker, Robert Saxton, Simon Bainbridge and Alexander Goehr.

Artists the Fidelio Trio have performed with include Nicholas Daniel (oboe), Michael Collins and Julian Bliss (clarinet), Richard Watkins (horn), Rachel Roberts (viola), author Alexander McCall Smith, T.S. Eliot prizewinning poet Sinéad Morrissey and actor Adrian Dunbar. They have developed work in collaboration with Rambert Dance Company and feature in the film of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Sea of Troubles with Yorke Dance Project.

They often perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto including recently with KZN Philharmonic Orchestra South Africa and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and are Artistic Directors of their annual Winter Chamber Music Festival at Belvedere House, Dublin City University.

American-born violist (opens in a new window)Nathan Sherman has been based in Dublin since 1999 and enjoys a career collaborating with other adventurous musicians. His curiosity and eclecticism allows him to present work ranging from Schütz and Purcell, to experimenting with heavy metal and aquariums. Nathan is a tireless commissioner and his “commanding and assured” performances (Journal of Music) have brought him around the world.

As founding member and Artistic Director of the acclaimed chamber group Ficino Ensemble, Nathan performs a vast amount of music and has released two albums. Folk Songs included works by Luciano Berio and was described as “bewitching new interpretations by the Irish chamber group”. (Guardian) The album was included in the Guardian’s Top 10 of 2022 and best of Bandcamp’s contemporary classical. The group also enjoy creating opportunities for younger composers through their yearly workshop series.

Nathan has premiered over 100 works and his work has been presented on radio stations worldwide. Current projects include preparations for a new album with percussionist Alex Petcu. As a duo their fusion of unique sounds and performances have been described as “sheer perfection” (SOUND Scotland) and their debut album Totemic was given four stars in the Irish Times.  In 2024, Nathan will record an album new music for viola and electronics and present it at New Music Dublin and in the USA. Nathan is member of Stone Drawn Circles, a new music group which will debut at HCMF.

Nathan regularly plays with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, and Evlana. In 2013, Nathan and his wife created the Offbeat Ensemble, a community orchestra in Dublin which regularly raises money to buy instruments for children.

(opens in a new window)Ian Wilson (Northern Ireland, 1964) has composed over 250 works including operas, a range of orchestral and chamber music, and multimedia pieces.

His compositions have been performed and broadcast on six continents and presented at festivals including the BBC Proms, Venice Biennale and Gaudeamus and at venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Royal Albert Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. There are over 40 commercial recordings of his music available.

In 1998 he was elected to Aosdána, Ireland’s national association of creative artists, and in recent years he has been AHRB Research Fellow at the University of Ulster and “An Foras Feasa” post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Dundalk Institute of Technology as well as composer-in-association with California’s Camerata Pacifica ensemble, the Ulster Orchestra and the Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble. He was director of the Sligo New Music Festival from 2003 to 2011.

Ian Wilson’s music is published by G. Ricordi & Co. and Universal Edition.

Visit: (opens in a new window)www.ianwilson.ie & (opens in a new window)www.soundcloud.com/wilsonkul

Photo by Andrej Grilc

Described by the Irish Times as "Ireland's most distinctive guitarist", (opens in a new window)Redmond O'Toole was the first to adopt Paul Galbraith’s ‘Brahms guitar’. This groundbreaking instrument and technique uses an 8-string guitar in the position of a cello.  He has performed at major concert halls and events such as Passau Guitar Festival, Rhode Island Guitar Festival, Turku Guitar Society, Austin Classical Guitar and many others. At home he has held residencies at the National Opera House and the National Concert Hall and performed at festivals such as West Cork Chamber Music and Galway Arts Festival. He has performed as soloist with orchestras such as RTE Concert Orchestra, BBC Ulster and the Irish Baroque and has undertaken substantial international tours as guitarist for legendary Irish group The Chieftains and as a founder member of the critically acclaimed Dublin Guitar Quartet. Redmond was also the artistic director of the International Guitar Series at the National Concert Hall and has performed for two Irish Presidents and was part of the televised concert for Queen Elizabeth’s historic visit to Ireland in 2011.

Recent projects include collaborations with world-renowned cellist Raphael Wallfisch, the Vanbrugh String Quartet and violinist Chloe Hanslip . He has also performed with the LA Guitar Quartet, Derek Gripper and Paul Galbraith. He has appeared with many different and varying ensembles such as Crash Ensemble, Esposito Quartet and the UFO Orchestra among others. In 2012 Redmond set up Music Generation Wicklow: part of a national music education programme funded by U2 and the Ireland Funds. Redmond was coordinator for the initial 18 months of the programme.

Redmond O'Toole holds a Doctorate in Performance from RIAM/Trinity College. His principal teacher was Dr Oscar Ghiglia with whom he studied at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena (under scholarship). Prior to that he studied at DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama in Dublin receiving a first class honours degree and masters in performance.  During his time at DIT he won an unprecedented number of awards for guitar, most notably the RDS Music Bursary (Ireland’s largest music prize). In 2008 he was the recipient of an Irish Arts Council Bursary which supported  intensive periods of study over a three-year period with lutenist Nigel North at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana.

Redmond has to date released 4 CDs ; Redmond O'Toole Plays Bach, Movements and Baroque for German label Bornheim Klassik and October on Achill for VGO recordings (San Francisco). He has premiered numerous contemporary works by composers Nico Muhly, Kevin Volans, Marc Melitts and Ian Wilson among others.

Redmond was formerly a teacher at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and his previous students have enjoyed national competition successes and continued to postgraduate studies at internationally-recognised centres such as King's College London and Basel Academy of Music. He was also responsible for setting the syllabus of the RIAM grade exams

(opens in a new window)Lina Andonovska is flautist of 4-time Grammy Award-winning ensemble Eighth Blackbird. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with ensembles including Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Recherche, Crash Ensemble, Deutsches Kammerorchester, stargaze and Southern Cross Soloists. She is critically acclaimed for her interpretation of new music; Rolling Stone Magazine hailed her performance at Bang On A Can Summer Festival as “superbly played, (ranging) from sustained ‘somebody-please-get-that-tea-kettle’ squeaks to the flit and flutter of its beautifully lilting trills...”

As an orchestral and session player Lina has performed with BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Irish Studio Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia and most of Australia’s symphony orchestras, as well as Guest Principal Flute with Ulster Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria, and Guest Principal Piccolo with Australian Chamber Orchestra. She currently performs as Principal Flute with Irish National Opera Orchestra. As concerto soloist she has performed with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, US Navy Band, Dallas Winds, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Deutsches Kammerorchester, Orchestra Victoria, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Southbank Sinfonia.

Performance credits include a solo performance at the Melbourne International Arts Festival that was noted as “re-defining the act of going solo “ (​The Age)​, Brett Dean’s flute concerto ‘Siduri Dances’ with Deutsches Kammerorchester, ‘smonize’ by composer Lucia Kilger for Donaueschinger Musiktage 2024, Tokyo Experimental Festival Grand Prize Winner, Edinburgh International Festival concerts with Crash Ensemble and stargaze, solo and ensemble appearances at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Ultima Festival Olso, Berlin’s acclaimed ​Unerhörte Musik series and a solo recital at Musica Nova Helsinki​.​ Lina released her debut solo album with Diatribe Records label in early 2020, which was described as “brimming with energy and bold textures, though marked throughout by nuance. A name to watch out for.” (All About Jazz).

In 2023, she was Artist-in-Residence at the prestigious Australian National Academy of Music of where she is an alumna. Passionate about mentorship and coaching, she has given master classes internationally, appearing as Guest Teaching Artist at institutions including Yale University, Valdosta State University, University of Michigan, Brigham Young University, University of Texas, Louisiana State University, Ohio State University, University of Alabama, Rowan University, De Pauw University, University of Arkansas, Clemson University, University of Queensland and has been Artist-in-Residence at the University of Western Australia. In 2025, Lina is delighted to be joining the faculty at Emory University (USA) as Assistant Professor of Music.

Lina performs on a Contrabass Flute by innovative flute maker Eva Kingma purchased through Music Network’s Music Capital Scheme, funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Music Network is funded by The Arts Council.

Lina is a Powell Flutes Artist.