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Biographies

The Irish Baroque Orchestra / Walter Reiter /Benjamin Bayl / Julia Corry / Laoise O'Brien / Nicholas Milne / Malcolm Proud / DIT Early Music Ensemble / Sandra Collins / Robert Yeo / Isabelle Fahy / Eleanor Jones-McAuley / Concerto Caledonia

The Irish Baroque Orchestra counts amongst its members some of the most talented young players in the international early music scene. Using either baroque instruments or modern replicas, the orchestra explores the playing techniques and stylistic practices associated with music from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. IBO gives Irish audiences the rare and precious opportunity to hear this music in live performances which recreate the vivid colours and textures of the baroque sound world.

Walter Reiter graduated from the Royal Academy of Music and continued his studies under Ramy Shevelov in the University of Tel Aviv and Sandor Vegh in Germany. After working in the Menuhin Festival Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and contemporary music groups in Paris, he devoted himself for six years to the intensive teaching of talented children at the Rubin Conservatory in Jerusalem. His love for the music of the 17th and 18th centuries brought him to the study of 'authentic' performance practice on period instruments, and this has been his passion ever since.

He has led Les Arts Florissants, the Netherlands Bach Society Orchestra, the Hanover Band, the Seville Baroque Orchestra, Barockaner (Oslo), the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, Accademia Daniel, the Gabrieli Consort, the King's Consort, and the English Concert, and was appointed leader of the Orchestra of the Sixteen, under Harry Christophers, in 2003. He has appeared as director and soloist with the Orchestra Barocca Italiana in Rome, the Ensemble Baroque de Limoges, the Varazdin Festival Orchestra, and the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra. Since 1989 he has led the second violins in The English Concert with whom he has toured and recorded extensively, frequently appearing as a soloist.

Walter Reiter has recorded the Recreations of Leclair for Addes, France, and Sonatas by Mondonville for Meridian, a CD which was awarded the ‘Choc’ label by the French CD magazine Diapason. In 1999 he founded Cordaria, whose highly acclaimed CDs to date are of Vivaldi Violin Sonatas Op 2, the Biber Mystery Sonatas, and "Un alma innamorata", a collection of cantatas for voice, violin obbligato and continuo.

Walter Reiter is a dedicated teacher. He has given master classes in France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Canada, Israel, Peru, Mexico and Cuba, and is Baroque Violin Teacher at Trinity College of Music, at the Royal Academy of Music and in the Dartington International Summer School. He believes in spreading the message of music beyond the boundaries of the privileged, and is Visiting Professor of Baroque Violin in the Institite of Superior Arts in Havana. He is also active as a conductor, and has conducted orchestras in Israel, Canada, Croatia. and Cuba, where he is working to establish a Baroque Orchestra, and where he has conducted the Havana Chamber Orchestra and the Estaban Salas Orchestra. He directs Baroque projects with the Andalucian Youth Orchestra in Spain, and was Musical Director of the Linden Baroque Orchestra, with whom he recorded a CD, on the Meridian Label, of music by Fasch.

Since September 2006 Benjamin Bayl has been Assistant Conductor of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, working alongside Music Director Iván Fischer. He is also currently the Assistant Artistic Director of The Gabrieli Consort, collaborating with Paul McCreesh, and Music Director of Orchestra of the City since its foundation in 2003.
founded and conducts the dynamic young early music ensemble, The Saraband Consort. With them he made his Wigmore Hall debut as part of The King’s Consort Young Artists’ Series, and they have also appeared in the Winchester and Cambridge Festivals and at the British Museum’s Michelangelo exhibition, as well as sellout performances of Monteverdi Vespers and Bach St.Matthew Passion in King’s College Cambridge. This year, a recording of Bach keyboard works arranged for the group is planned, as well as concerts in Bilbao and Croatia; they were recently Finalists in the York Early Music Competition. Elsewhere, Benjamin performs, tours and records with The Gabrieli Consort, The King’s Consort, The Sixteen, The Symphony of Harmony and Invention, The Monteverdi Choir, Ex Cathedra, His Majesties Sackbutts & Cornetts, BBC Singers, Polyphony, Northern Sinfonia, RPO, AAM, LSO and CBSO, appearing at festivals such as The Proms, Mostly Mozart at the Lincoln Centre New York, Ravinia and Aldeburgh.

Julia Corry (née Dickson) was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and educated in Sydney, Australia. She attended the Sydney Conservatorium of Music High School before completing a performance diploma and post graduate diploma at the same institution, majoring in flute and traverso. In 1990, she travelled to The Hague to begin studies with world-renowned traverso player, Bart Kuijken. She remained there until 1998, when she moved to Venice where she lived for the next three years, freelancing and giving masterclasses in Italy, Belgium, Spain, and Germany etc. She has played with many well-known early music ensembles and Orchestras, including The Orchestra of the 18th Century under Frans Bruggen, the Academy für Alte Musik Bremen under René Jacobs, Concerto Köln under Evelino Pido, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Concerto Italiano under Rinaldo Alessandrino. Julia taught traverso and lectured in early music performance practice at the Musikhochschule Kahlsruhe from 1998 until 2001. In 2001, Julia came to live in Ireland, where she has been resident ever since. She now plays regularly with the Irish Baroque Orchestra, and teaches flute and traverso in Dublin and Kildare.

Laoise O’Brien studied flute at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama under William Halpin. Having completed her degree, she travelled to the Netherlands where she studied for four years at the International Recorder class of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam under Paul Leenhouts and Walter van Hauwe. In 2005 Laoise completed a Masters in Performance and Musicology at NUI Maynooth.
Laoise is one of Ireland’s leading early wind specialists. She has performed in many capacities; as soloist, chamber musician and consort player in a wide variety of styles. Laoise has performed with many Irish ensembles including the Irish Baroque Orchestra, Camerata Kilkenny, the Irish Consort, Crux, Opera Theatre Company and the Orchestra of St Cecilia. She has toured Europe, North America and New Zealand with groups such as The Royal Wind Music, Amsterdam and Verboden Vrucht. Laoise is recorder tutor and Early Music co-ordinator at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama. In addition, she is in regular demand as a tutor at masterclasses and workshops in Ireland and abroad.

Dublin born Nicholas Milne began viola da gamba studies with Sarah Cunningham in Ireland and later with Wieland Kuijken and Philippe Pierlot at the Royal Conservatory The Hague, The Netherlands. He received his Masters Diploma in performance in June 2005.

He performs as a soloist and chamber musician regularly throughout Europe. He has performed with Concordia Viol Consort , the Little Consort, the Diapente Viol Consort, Collegium Vocale Ghent, Capriccio Stravagante, the New Dutch Academy, Opera Theatre Company Ireland, the Irish Baroque Orchestra, the Spirit of Gambo, the Concertgebouw Kammerorkest under Roy Goodman and the Irish Chamber Orchestra. Festival performances include The Utrecht & Bruges early music festivals, the Kilkenny arts festival, the Sligo & Galway early music festival and the City of London festival.

Nicholas has recorded for BBC Radio 3, AVRO klassiek, Ireland's Lyric FM, and can be heard on a number of CDs with the New Dutch Academy, Jed Wentz's ensemble Musica ad Rhenum, Collegium Vocale Ghent, Cappriccio Stravagante, Musica Temprana and the Irish rock group U2! In October 2003 Nicholas was invited to perform with Wieland Kuijken in his recital to honour his retirement from a long teaching career at The Royal Conservatory, The Hague.

Nicholas has a passionate interest in discovering, performing and editing music for the Lyra Viol.

Malcolm Proud is a lecturer on the BA Degree Course in Music at WIT, and organist and choirmaster at St. Canice’s Cathedral in Kilkenny. Since winning the Edinburgh International Harpsichord Competition in 1982 he has performed as a harpsichordist and organist throughout Europe and has toured North America several times. In 2000 he participated in Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, and he toured Japan in 2001 in the Purcell Quartet’s production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo with tenor Mark Padmore in the lead rôle.

He has given recitals and recorded with many international artists such as sopranos Emma Kirkby, Nancy Argenta, Magdelena Kozena, and Lenneke Ruiten, violinists Maya Homburger, Monica Huggett, Elizabeth Wallfisch, Pavlo Beznosiuk, and John Holloway, flautists Wilbert Hazelzet and James Galway, oboeist Marcel Ponseele, cellist Steven Isserlis and viol player Sarah Cunningham and is a member of the Irish Baroque Orchestra and Camerata Kilkenny.

He has made over thirty CD recordings including Bach’s six sonatas for violin and harpsichord with Maya Homburger, Bach’s Clavier Übung III recorded on the Metzler organ in Stein am Rhein (Switzerland), the Goldberg Variations and Purcell’s harpsichord music. In the last few months he has made CD recordings of Bach’s 5th Brandenburg Concerto with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists and of works by Mozart with Dutch soprano Lenneke Ruiten and the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra conducted by Ed Spanjaard in Amsterdam. Organ recitals on the historic organ in Frederiksborg Castle near Copenhagen and in Charlottesville, Virginia and Boston will take place later in 2009. In 2010 he will record J.S. Bach’s ‘The Musical Offering’ in Belgium with Camerata Kilkenny and Dutch flautist Wilbert Hazelzet.

DIT Early Music Ensemble formed in 2007 with Isabelle Fahy on violin, Sandra Collins on Recorders and David O’Shea playing harpsichord. They were joined in 2008 by violist Robert Yeo. Under the direction of Laoise O’Brien, the ensemble has played numerous performances in Dublin and Kilkenny. In the first term of this academic year the group took tuition with Viola da Gamba expert Andrew Robinson. Future masterclasses include work with Malcolm Proud on the Paris Quartet of Telemann. The Early Music Ensemble primarily concentrates on late Baroque Repertoire but also play early baroque and renaissance repertoire.

Sandra Collins is a 3rd year student in the Bmus performance degree at the DIT Conservatory of Music. She currently studies with Laoise O’Brien and previously studied with Aedin Halpin at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. She is a member of the DIT Early Music Ensemble and participates in the DIT recorder consort. In the past 2 years, Sandra has taken masterclasses with Michael Hell, Yvonne Luisi-Weichsel and Robert Finster in Graz, Austria and with Kamala Bain. She has previously completed a masterclass series with Peter Holstag in Lisbon. Sandra has performed numerous concerts including soloist with the DIT Baroque Orchestra under the direction of Monica Huggett.
Apart from music, Sandra is also interested in horse riding and regularly competes in showjumping and dressage.

A Philosophy and Music graduate of the University of Leeds Robert Yeo is currently studying the piano with Padhraic O Cuinneagain at DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, working for a Master of Music (Performance) degree due to be completed in June 2010. In the last year he has taken masterclasses with Barry Douglas and Douglas Humphreys (Eastman School of Music, USA). Recent successes include first prizes in the Heneghan Trophy and the Lorcan Sherlock Gold Medal in DIT competitions and a concert appearance in the Field Room of the National Concert Hall.
Robert divides his time between practise, teaching, cycling slowly and avoiding writing a dissertation on 19th century piano transcription.
Robert has been a member of the DIT Early Music Ensemble, playing the viola, since September 2008.

Isabelle Fahy (violin) is currently in third year of the bachelor of music performance in DIT studying violin with Brian MacNamara. Previous teachers include Niamh Crowley and Lisa Wiggins and she has partaken in master classes with Simon Fischer, Eyal Kless, Gregory Ellis, Bogdan Sofei and Ian King among others.
For her sixth consecutive season she is a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland and has toured Finland, Switzerland and Scotland. Her successes include multiple first prizes in competitions in Sligo Feis Ceoil and Feis Shligigh, a musicianship award in her penultimate year in school and three TSB high achiever awards for grade examinations.
She has been a member of the Sligo Baroque orchestra for many years and has led the Sligo Academy of Music orchestra and the North-Western Regional Youth Orchestra.
Isabelle has also been a member of the teaching staff in the Sligo Academy of Music and regularly acts as a substitute, teaching Kindermusic, theory, violin and cello.

Eleanor Jones-McAuley began her musical career at the Leeson Park School of Music, where she started playing cello at age 9 under the tuition of Arun Rao. A member of Dublin Youth Orchestra since 2004, Eleanor participated in the Intermediate orchestra tour to Glasgow and the annual Teddy Bear Concerts, as well as performing in the National Concert Hall. She is also a member of the DIT Symphony Orchestra and took part in last year’s performance of Mozart’s Magic Flute. Eleanor is currently studying cello and piano at the DIT and has just begun her studies at Trinity College, where she is pursuing degrees in Music and Modern Irish.

Concerto Caledonia is Scotland’s early music group, bringing to life the classical and traditional music of the nation’s history. The group’s seven CD recordings include Robert Burns songs in their original versions, classical symphonies from Fife, early Scots fiddle music, and the unique sound of 18th-century Scottish-Italian crossover. Its contemporary recordings include music by Frank Zappa, Astor Piazzolla, Daniel Johnston and The Buzzcocks. The album Mungrel Stuff was a Sunday Times Record of the Year, and besides appearing regularly on BBC Radio 3, the group has also been broadcast on Radios 1, 2 & 4. Recent live collaborations include Bach’s St John Passion with guest director Mark Padmore, dub reggae Burns songs with Karen Matheson and Future Pilot AKA, the story of Orpheus with extreme cabaret trio The Tiger Lillies at the Edinburgh International Festival, an evening with songwriters Michael Marra and Karine Polwart, and a programme of Janis Joplin songs with soprano Lisa Milne. The group’s latest project, part of its residency at Perth Concert Hall, is the formation of an all-star Scottish Dance Band, to play music from Scottish traditions other the usual fiddle-accordion one. The group’s latest projects include the formation of an all-star Scottish Dance Band; the release of a ‘red’ 7" vinyl single of Daniel Johnston's Walking the Cow and the Buzzcocks Boredom; a tour to Denmark with the return of ‘A tribute to Monteverdi (of sorts)’ with the Tiger Lillies, and The Caledonia Sessions : a four concert series at the 2009 Edinburgh International Festival.

David McGuinness is one of the UK’s most versatile keyboard players, working in early music, traditional music, rock and classical. He was the youngest ever graduate of the University of York, and was awarded a PhD at the University of Glasgow for his studies in 16th century English music. He is the director of eclectic early music group Concerto Caledonia, collaborating with artists as diverse as Mark Padmore, the Tiger Lillies, Karen Matheson and Daniel Johnston. His reconstruction of Allan Ramsay’s ballad opera The Gentle Shepherd was performed at the Edinburgh International Festival, and he provided the string arrangements for the album I Trawl the Megahertz by Paddy McAloon, voted by Mojo Magazine one of the 50 most 'out there' albums of all time. He was the featured piano soloist on the soundtrack of Mira Nair’s Vanity Fair, playing the fortepiano apparently played in the movie by Reese Witherspoon. David is a contributor to Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, a guest lecturer at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and has given masterclasses at many universities including Case Western Reserve, McGill University in Montréal, and the University of South Alabama. In 2007 he produced John Purser’s 50-part history of Scottish music for BBC Radio Scotland. David is a visiting research fellow at the University of Edinburgh.

David Greenberg taught himself folk fiddle tunes by ear as a young child growing up in Maryland. He learned conventional classical violin through his teens, and in the mid 80s he studied baroque violin with Stanley Ritchie at Indiana University's Early Music Institute. DG spent the 1990s performing and recording with Tafelmusik while developing a specialty in Scottish baroque-folk music, recording three groundbreaking CDs in this genre with his group Puirt A Baroque. Immersing himself in Cape Breton traditional music, he also co-authored at this time the DunGreen Collection, a treatise on Cape Breton fiddle music, with his wife Kate Dunlay. He lives with his family in Halifax, Nova Scotia, dividing his time among various regular collaborators and an irregular one now and then just for fun. He directs the Tempest baroque ensemble in Halifax.
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Hailed as one of the finest flute players of our time, Chris Norman proves over and over again that the simple wooden flute is the original- and still unsurpassed- woodwind of expression, passion, joy and subtlety. His influential work as a performer, composer, recording artist and teacher has brought the simple wooden flute to the forefront as an alternative voice to the modern orchestral instrument. Born in Halifax Nova Scotia, he began his musical studies at the age of ten. His interest in the traditional music of Maritime Canada; Scottish, Irish and French Canadian Styles, drew him from his early path studying classical flute. Chris embarked upon a quest to learn the music from the tradition bearers, travelling across North America and Europe. His subsequent work has redefined the boundaries of both traditional and classical styles, forging a synthesis that has been embraced by audiences, scholars, and critics of both schools. His busy performing schedule includes solo engagements and concerts with a variety of ensembles, appearing frequently as soloist with orchestra and touring with his own Chris Norman Ensemble. In years past Chris has also appeared worldwide as a member of the international folk trio, Helicon, and the all-star Celtic fusion group, Skyedance, and the acclaimed early music group, The Baltimore Consort and across Europe with Concerto Caledonia.