Ellen Jansson & Miriam Kaczor

Hailed as “a major talent” after her Carnegie Hall debut with Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto, Irish pianist 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, and has performed in many prominent Irish venues as well as abroad in Carnegie Hall (New York), Alexela Concert Hall (Tallinn), and the Ukrainian Radio Concert Hall (Kyiv).

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 recently performed with flautist Miriam Kaczor at the Castleconnell Autumn Concert Series which was recorded for national broadcast by RTÉ Lyric FM.

Miriam Kaczor is a Polish-born, Dublin-raised flautist and freelance photographer. She graduated from the Royal Irish Academy of Music as a pupil of William Dowdall and Patricia Morris, followed by a Master’s Degree at Kunstuniversität Graz with Erwin Klambauer. Among her other influential teachers were Michael Cox, Lisa Beznosiuk and Rachel Brown as well as memorable masterclass encounters with Sir James Galway, William Bennett, Peter-Lukas Graf, Lorna McGhee and Felix Renggli. She was a Britten-Pears Young Artist, member of the Grafenegg Academy and a scholarship participant of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra Institute in Toronto. She was the Irish Freemasons’ Young Musician of the Year 2015, inaugural recipient of the RDS Jago Award and a multiple ESB Feis Ceoil prizewinner. Most recently Miriam was awarded the Tile Style Bursary in the Business to Arts Awards 2021.

Miriam has appeared at concert series, e.g., at the National Concert Hall, Haydn Philharmonie and the Vanbrugh Quartet. As a soloist she has featured in flute concerti by Liebermann, Ibert, Nielsen, Mozart, Telemann and Vivaldi as well as a member of the experimental new music group Kirkos Ensemble.