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, including as part of composer Dave Flynn’s Irish Memory Orchestra, where Ciara was leader of the viola section. Ciara performed as soloist with the 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.

Danusia Oslizlok is a lecturer in piano, repetiteur and collaborator working with the undergraduate and postgraduate students at the TUD Conservatory of Music and Drama. 

She is much in demand as recitalist and collaborator and has given masterclasses and adjudicated at festivals in Belgium, Poland and at the Cork school of music.

Danusia has performed  in Ireland, UK, Belgium and Poland and has performed concerti with the NSO, DSO and orchestras abroad .She has made television and radio recordings on RTÉ, BBC and Belgian television. Danusia was also involved in the Research Music Foundation in Ireland / DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama recording a CD of Beethoven's Irish Folksongs Revisited and a recording of the John Field nocturnes to mark the recent move to the TUD Grangegorman campus.

David Vesey is an award-winning Irish pianist with a passion for music. An 1848 scholar at the Royal Irish Academy of Music studying with Hugh Tinney, David’s reputation as a rising Irish pianist continues to grow. David graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in 2021 from the MTU Cork School of Music, graduating as the highest-placed student with First Class Honours. While in Cork, David won the Advanced Recital competition in the conservatoire and has since been a recipient of an MTU Arts Office Bursary to support his professional development. David then studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM), completing the Master in Music Performance Degree in June 2023.

David has won national prizes for both classical and traditional Irish music. In 2021, David won the Audrey Chisholm award at the Birr Festival of Music. He has had successes at Feis Ceoil, winning first prize in the John A. Piggott Cup (2021) and Hamilton Harty Cup (2022). David won the Fidelio Cup (2022) and Audrey Chisholm Sonata Cup (2023) during his studies at RIAM and was awarded the prestigious Lucien and Maura Teissier Bursary for young Irish pianists in 2023.

David has performed nationally and internationally at venues such as the National Concert Hall (Dublin), International Sommerakademie at the Universität Mozarteum (Salzburg) and Saline Royale Academy (France). Upcoming performances include a chamber music recital in the Dunamaise Arts Centre on September 16th 2023, and representing RIAM as part of the Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year competition in October.

David is also an accomplished traditional Irish musician, achieving success in the Fleadh Cheoil competitions. In 2020, he arranged compositions by Turlough O’Carolan for solo piano to mark the 350th anniversary of the birth of O’Carolan. David is committed to promoting classical and traditional Irish music through his performances and plans to continue his pianistic development over the coming years.

Lance Coburn has established himself as a charismatic performer with an exceptional facility. He has performed with most of the major Australian orchestras, including the Sydney Symphony, and many international symphony orchestras, including the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and WDR Rundfunkkorchester Köln.

Beginning his studies in his homeland of New Zealand, Lance graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music with the school’s highest honours. He furthered his studies in the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire and the Royal Irish Academy of Music. During his studies, Lance was the recipient of numerous first prizes, including the inaugural Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition, the Australian Young Performers’ Award, the David Paul Landa Scholarship and the Hephizibah Menuhin Scholarship. He won the Australian National Piano award in 1996, returning as a jury member in 2018.

Lance’s reputation as a chamber musician has grown in recent years. He regularly plays with Irelands’ leading chamber musicians and has performed – as both a soloist and chamber musician - in many notable festivals. Highlights include The Beethoven International Festival in Bonn, The Dublin International Piano Festival and The Great Music in Irish Houses Festival.

In 2012, Lance collaborated on a critically acclaimed CD of Esposito Sonatas with violinist Mia Cooper and cellist William Butt for the Champs Hill label. In 2018, he recorded an album of lesser-known, but equally varied and engaging Tchaikovsky solo piano works entitled ‘Potpourri’, released by Naxos. Recently, Modal Citizen Records launched ‘Dreamtime’, a collection of solo piano works ftom the renowned Australian contemporary composer Carl Vine. Soon to be released with the Guild Label will be the complete Cello and Piano works by Beethoven with William Butt.

Frequently adjudicating in Irish music festivals, Lance also gives masterclasses nationally and internationally. He is a piano lecturer in the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. Lance is a Blüthner Artist.

Maria Milstein is a big personality with her own very recognisable sound. This already makes her a rare breed in the violin universe. Her tone is full of nostalgia, depth and a certain fragility “reminiscent of the young Menuhin..." (De Volkskrant, Dutch national newspaper).

She brings her cosmopolitan background to the fore when she steps on to the concert platform. As impressive exploring outside the core repertoire as in it, De Volkskrant newspaper described her as "phenomenal" in her performance of the European premiere of Alexander Raskatov's violin concerto, "In Excelsis", with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic under the baton of Otto Tausk. Maria will next make her debut with the Essen Philharmonic under Music Director, Thomas Netopil, both in Essen, and returning to the Concertgebouw's BankGiro Loterij Summer Concerts series.

Chamber music is a 'must' for Maria and the Milstein Duo, which she has established with her sister Nathalia Milstein, garners considerable attention.  Maria and her sister are developing notable success on their extensive duo tours in the Benelux and France.  In summer 2019, they released their second duo album "Ravel Voyageur" for the Mirare label.

Maria was awarded the Dutch Music Prize in 2018, the highest recognition for a classical musician in the Netherlands awarded by the Ministry of Culture.

Mick O'Brien is a highly regarded performer and teacher of the Uilleann pipes. Mick was born in Dublin into a very musical family, with all five boys playing Irish music. Dinny, Mick’s father, was an accordion and whistle player and nurtured the love of traditional music in all the lads. At the age of nine, Mick started learning the pipes in the famous Thomas Street Pipers club in Dublin, which was also a meeting house for musicians from all over the country. Now much in demand as a tutor, Mick has travelled to Europe, Canada and the USA conducting master classes. 

As a performer, Mick has broadcast on TV and radio extensively both as a soloist and with various artists with whom he has made numerous recordings. Since 1997, he has performed and travelled with the Norwegian group Secret Garden and has recorded on their albums.

In 1996, Mick released his first solo album entitled May Morning Dew to much critical acclaim from the traditional music world. He then went on to record with Dublin fiddle player Caoimhín O’Raghallaigh.

In recent years Mick has researched the music of Canon James Goodman as a member of the Goodman Trio, alongside his daughter Aoife Ní Bhriain on the fiddle and flautist Emer Mayock. The trio have released two albums of music from the Goodman manuscripts to critical acclaim. In 2014, they were awarded the Gradam Ceoil TG4 for their work and recordings.

In 2023, Mick was awarded the prestigious Gradam Ceoil TG4, Ceoiltóir na Bliana (Musician of the Year Award), the highest achievement in Irish traditional music. His music has crossed many boundaries and styles through the years, but it is as a traditional uilleann piper that he is best known. His traditional style shows great delicacy and subtlety, strong in rhythm and enlivened by his unique inflections and nuances. His performances always throw new light on even the most familiar tune.

Mickey Glen Tomas was born in Dublin in 2004. He began to learn piano at the age of 7 in the Newpark Academy of Music. At the age of 13, he moved to DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, now TU Dublin Conservatoire, to continue his musical studies in the junior program.

He is entering Year 2 of the BMus programme at TU Dublin Conservatoire and continues to study piano under Dr David Mooney. 

Mickey has experience in competitions and recitals alike, including Feis Ceoil and the EPTA competition. He has been able to play in venues such as the National Concert Hall and the RDS.

Born in 1995 to a family of musicians, Nathalia Milstein started the piano at the age of 4 with her father Serguei Milstein and entered the Geneva Conservatory of Music in 2009. In 2013, she entered the class of Nelson Goerner at the Geneva Haute Ecole de Musique, where she completed her Bachelor and Master's degrees with distinction. In 2017, Nathalia moved to Berlin to study at the Barenboim-Said Akademie, first with Nelson Goerner, then in the newly created studio of Andras Schiff.

Nathalia launched her international career in 2015 by winning 1st Prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition and has been since then invited to halls such as the National Concert Hall in Dublin, the Zankel Hall (Carnegie Hall) in New York, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig and the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin.

Nathalia is a prizewinner of several youth competitions, such as the “Flame” Competition in Paris and the Manchester International Concerto Competition. Later on she became laureate of the 2013 Grand Concours International de Piano in Corbelin (France) and the 2014 Adilia Alieva Piano Competition in Gaillard (France). She was also awarded the Young Soloist Prize by the Médias Francophones Publics in 2017.

Throughout her studies, Nathalia Milstein has worked with renowned professors and pianists such as Daniel Barenboim, Mikhail Voskressensky, Elena Ashkenazy, Vladimir Tropp, Jan Wijn, Enrico Pace and Menahem Pressler.

Nathalia has given recitals all over Europe, appearing in major festivals such as La Roque d'Anthéron, Flâneries Musicales de Reims, La Folle Journée, New Ross Piano Festival, Lille Piano Festival, Zaubersee Festival and Radio France Festival.

For several years she has been playing in duo with her sister violinist Maria Milstein. Besides a busy concert schedule, they have also recorded two albums together - “La Sonate de Vinteuil” (2017) and “Ravel Voyageur” (2019) - both on the French label Mirare.

In the 2020/2021 season, Nathalia appeared on stage with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Toulon Opera symphonic orchestra and the Geneva Chamber Orchestra. She was also heard as soloist and chamber music partner in the Wigmore Hall in London, in the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, in the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam and in Lyon's Salle Molière, among others.

Piatti String Quartet - Michael Trainor (violin), Emily Holland (violin), Miguel Sobrinho (viola), Jessie Ann Richardson (cello)

The distinguished Piatti Quartet are widely renowned for their ‘profound music making’ (The Strad) and their ‘lyrical warmth’ (BBC Music Magazine). Since their prizewinning performances at the 2015 Wigmore Hall String Quartet Competition, they have performed all over the world and made international broadcasts from many countries. From Autumn 2023, the Piatti Quartet will be in the prestigious position of Resident Quartet at Kings Place, London.

Accolades in 2023 include Gramophone’s ‘Editor’s Choice for the Month’ with NMC, a five-star review from BBC Music Magazine with Delphian and in 2022 they were nominated for ‘Recording of the Year’ with both Limelight and Gramophone for their collaborative disc on the Hyperion label. Their wide-ranging discography and repertoire is thanks to their enthusiasm and curiosity in collaborating with a broad range of artists including some of the most recognisable names in classical music such as Nicky Spence, Julius Drake, Michael Collins, Barry Douglas, Ian Bostridge, Katherine Broderick, and the Belcea Quartet, to name a few.

Major commissions and dedications have stemmed from Mark-Anthony Turnage, Emily Howard, Charlotte Harding, and Joseph Phibbs, whilst they have premiered a mesmerising number of new works over the years beginning with Anna Meredith back in 2009.

The quartet’s name is dedicated to Alfredo Piatti, a 19th-century virtuoso cellist who was a professor at the Royal Academy of Music (the alma mater of the founders of the quartet) and also a major exponent of chamber music and contemporary music of his time.

Valentine Laporte has just completed her third-year of the Bachelor of Music at TU Dublin Conservatoire, studying flute with Ciarán O’Connell. Valentine completed a Musical Studies Diploma with honors in 2019 from the Toulouse Conservatoire in France, where she studied with Jean-Robert Gasciarino.

She has participated in various master classes with flautists such as Magali Mosnier and James Galway. In her previous engineering studies, she had the opportunity to work on a research project on flute acoustics at the Institut d'Alembert in Paris. Valentine was awarded first prize in the TU Dublin Conservatoire Briscoe Cup for concerto performance.

She was named Rising Star 2023, which enabled her to perform at a concert in Limerick University Concert Hall alongside other young artists. She was awarded first prize at the Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year 2022, which has granted her many performance opportunities throughout the year and continues to do so. She made her concerto debut last June with the National Symphony Orchestra playing Ibert's Flute Concerto.

The Vox Amicum Brass Quintet was formed in 2019 by a group of emerging Irish student musicians. The ensemble flourished online in the wake of the lockdown, producing regular video content enjoyed by thousands around the world. Going forward into the future, the group is excited to continue performing around Ireland and working with the Arts Council to perform and record brass music for a modern contemporary audience.

Vox Amicum Brass are regular performers at the Music in Monkstown festival, and have featured in other Irish musical festivals, like the Birr Festival of Music and Voice and the IAYO Festival of Youth Orchestras.