Ireland & Beyond

Cormac Byrne is a critically acclaimed bodhrán player, percussionist, composer and educator from Waterford. He has received many awards for his work, including the BBC Young Folk Award, the BBC Fame Academy Bursary and the John Wray Percussion Prize at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. He was named Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2019 FATEA Music Awards in the UK. He has appeared as a soloist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and he performed as a soloist at the BBC Proms in Royal Albert Hall in 2019. In 2023, Cormac completed an arts practice PhD at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick. Bodhrán performance was the focus of his research. Cormac is a member of the percussion faculty at Birmingham Conservatoire and he guest lectures at several universities and music conservatoires in Ireland and the UK.

Matthew Noone is an Australian-Irish Sarode player and composer. He studied Indian classical music with Sougata Roy Chowdhury in Kolkata and K. Sridhar in the UK for two decades and works in diverse genres of music including Irish traditional music, Indian classical music, electroacoustic music and free improvisation. Matthew completed an arts practice PhD at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick in 2016, and he is currently the course director of the BA in World Music at University of Limerick. Matthew has collaborated with several artists including Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill, Tommy Hayes, Seán Tyrrell, Liam Ó Maonlaí and Steve Cooney.

Adam Summerhayes is a critically acclaimed violinist from England. He performs in many genres of music and has toured internationally as a chamber musician and chamber orchestral director, primarily with London Concertante. He has a wide concerto repertoire including Bach, Vivaldi, Barber, Prokofiev, and a self-composed violin concerto, ‘A Fiddler’s Tale’. He has recorded many albums including premier recordings of Aaron Copland and Alan Bush. He joined the baroque group Red Priest in 2015 and he has performed with many bands and musicians including The Haar, Caro Emerald, Zum, Dodo Street and The Ciderhouse Rebellion. He has also composed music for film and BBC television. Adam was named Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2021 FATEA Music Awards in the UK.

“[Cormac] Byrne is to the bodhrán what Paganini was to the violin while Adam Summerhayes is quite possibly the reincarnation of the master himself” Morning Star.

“Nothing short of pure magic” Hot Press magazine [on Noone]