Michael Quinn

Michael Quinn, a native of Dublin, began studying organ and piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, continuing his organ studies at the Royal Conservatory, The Hague, with Jos van der Kooy. He has premiered works by Jacques Bank and Tristan Brooks, and collaborated with several composers, including Fergal Dowling and Wim de Ruiter. Michael has appeared as a soloist with the RTE Concert Orchestra in Dublin, and performed in The Netherlands, Germany, England, Spain and the US. He was organ scholar of St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral and of Trinity College, where he studied music. In 2006 he co-founded The Crow Street Consort, a period-instrument ensemble.

Fergal Dowling

Fergal Dowling is a composer of electroacoustic and instrumental music. He studied composition at Trinity College Dublin and, with the assistance of the Elizabeth Maconchy Composition Fellowship awarded by the Arts Council of Ireland, he completed a PhD in composition at the University of York in 2006. He has lectured in music technology and his work as a researcher has produced software-based composition aids and audio processing tools dealing with sound spatialisation and real-time interaction. Many of his works make use of computer-mediated performance strategies to combine 'live' electronic parts with instrumental or vocal forces. His fixed media composition often use ‘granular spatialisation’ to render multichannel works. His works have been presented in concert and as installations in Ireland, England, Germany, Sweden, Canada, the USA, Spain, Portugal, Brazil and Japan and he has performed his own computer-based interactive music with various groups including Ex-Machina (Bra), Concorde (Ire), Ensemble Chimera (Eng), Projektgruppe Neue Musik Bremen (Ger), Electro Acoustic Revue (Ire), Grup XXI (Esp), notes inégales (Eng) and Dublin Sound Lab (Ire).

Marja Gaynor

Marja Gaynor hails from Finland, but has been a resident of Cork since 2002. She completed a MA in Cork School of Music in 2004, and afterwards pursued her interests in early music, Baroque violin and viola studies in the Royal Conservatoire of Den Haag, Netherlands. There, she participated in many contemporary music projects and concerts. Since returning to Ireland, Marja has been busy as a baroque musician, session musician, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and composer. She is a member of the Irish Baroque Orchestra, and plays with Camerata Kilkenny, Crow Street Consort, Musica Poetica (NL), The Wallfisch Band (UK) and Helsinki Baroque Orchestra (FIN). In Cork she is a founding member of Beyond the Pale - a group which specialises in Irish 17th and 18th century music on period instruments - and of Scandinavian roots / East European gypsy band The Polskadots. Marja has played and recorded with numerous bands and singer/songwriters in Ireland, including: Interference, Alphastates, The Frames, Halfset, Paul Tiernan and Maria Doyle Kennedy. Marja has arranged and played string parts on Adrian Crowley's critically acclaimed album "Long Distance Swimmer" and Glen Hansard's Oscar-winning "The Swell Season".

Deirdre Moynihan

Deirdre Moynihan has performed with many operatic, orchestral, choral and chamber music groups throughout Ireland and in Canada, U.S.A, Israel, Brazil, Lebanon, Japan, China and Europe. She performed with the Crash Ensemble as the soprano soloist in Sciarrino's Le Voci Sottovetro and Arvo Part’s Stabat Mater. She has premiered works by Ian Wilson, Rob Canning, Raymond Deane, Marian Ingoldsby, Ben Dwyer and Hugh O’ Neill. She has also been a soloist at The Living Music Festival in works by Messian, Steve Reich, Dusapin and Tippett. She has appeared as featured soloist with the National Chamber Choir and with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, The BBC Ulster Orchestra, The RTÉ Concert Orchestra, The Irish Film Orchestra, The Goethe Institute Choir, The Hibernian Orchestra, Dun Laoghaire Choral Society, Limerick Baroque Players, Dublin's Seafield Singers, and The East Cork Choral Society.

Mercedes Carroll

Mercedes Carroll is an active freelance double-bassist based in London. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she nurtured a love for collaborating with other musicians and artists – from projects involving sitar and tabla, to drum & bass and improvisation sessions with dancers from the London Contemporary Dance School. Previous projects have included performances with the Catapult Dance Company, Fuzzy Logic ensemble, RTE Concert Orchestra, Orchestra of St Cecelia, and the Irish Chamber Orchestra, with whom she worked on a series of workshops in July 2008 based on the music of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. Whilst at GSMD, Mercedes founded the Tradicional Cubano Trio (flute, double bass and latin percussion), who perform regularly and run workshops at schools in and around the London area. She performed Vanhal’s double bass concerto with Situation Opera, London 2009.

Garth Knox

Garth Knox was born in Ireland and grew up in Scotland. Being the youngest of four children who all played string instruments, he was encouraged to take up the viola, and he quickly decided to make this his career. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London with Fredrick Riddle, where he won several prizes for viola and for chamber music. Thereafter he played with most of the leading groups in London in a mixture of all repertoires, from baroque to contemporary music. In 1983 he was invited by Pierre Boulez to become a member of the Ensemble Intercontemporain. He performed with the Arditti String Quartet (1990-98), playing in all the major concert halls of the world and giving first performances of pieces by most of today's leading composers including Ligeti, Kurtag, Berio, Xenakis, Lachenmann, Cage, Feldman and Stockhausen (the famous Helicopter Quartet). He has given premieres by Henze (the Viola Sonata is dedicated to him), Ligeti, Schnittke, Ferneyhough, James Dillon, George Benjamin and many others. He also collaborates regularly in theatre and dance projects and has written and performed shows for children and young audiences. Improvisation is an important part of his musical activity, and he has performed with George Lewis, Steve Lacy, Joel Léandre, Dominique Pifarély, Bruno Chevillon, Benat Achiary, Scanner and many others. He appears on the Frode Haltli CD 'Passing Images'. His own compositions are much in demand for theatre, dance, film scores and concerts. He has recently begun to explore the possibilities of the viola d’amore in new music, with and without electronics, and is in the process of creating a new repertoire for this instrument. His CD D’Amore (ECM New Series 1925) features old and new music for the viola d’amore. Garth Knox now lives in Paris playing recitals, concertos and chamber music concerts all over Europe, the USA and Japan. His solo CD with works from Ligeti, Dusapin, Berio, Kurtág and others (MO 782082) won the coveted Deutsche Schallplaten Preis in Germany.
http://garthknox.org/

Bryan Quinn

Bryan Quinn graduated from the Jacques Lecoq École Internationale de Mime et Mouvement, Paris in 2001. He has worked at home and abroad on stage, screen and radio as an actor, clown, director, movement consultant, musician and writer. Acting credits include: The Trembling Veil of Bones by Matthew Talbot-Kelly (Short) premiered at the 2010 Dublin Film Festival. Puckoon by Spike Milligan, Big Telly Theatre Company, (2009, Ireland and Britain 2011, West End March/April 2011) The Hussey Brothers (Gombeens Theatre, 2009), Clown shows with Mark Doherty and Mikel Murfi for The Galway Arts Festival: The Clerk and the Clown & Shhhhhhh (2006 & 2007), Procrastination by Johnny Kelly (Short, 2007), In 2002 he co-wrote and starred with David O’Doherty (Directorial collaboration with Canadian actor/director Andrew Shaver) in Saddled, a comedy which featured live bicycle repair. For RTE: Maeve Higgins’ Fancy Vittles (2009), The Modest Adventures of David O’Doherty (2007). Bryan directed Mark Doherty’s Trad (2007) in Montreal for the award-winning company ‘Sidemart Theatrical Grocery’ at The Segal Centre for Performing Arts, Montreal, Canada, which received a Mecca nomination for ‘Best Production’ and won the ‘Best Actor’ award that year. Quinn is a long time collaborator with Andrew Shaver, his classmate from Jacques Lecoq École (1999–2001) and Sidermart and SaBooge’s Artistic Director. Together they have worked as actors, directors, musicians and teachers and have toured in Ireland, Canada and the U.S.A. He worked with Clowns Without Borders in South Africa (2005), Lesotho (2006), Palestine & Israel (2008), Somlia (2010), and Durham and Capetown (2011).