Simon Mawhinney was born in Co. Down, Northern Ireland and was educated at the universities of Oxford, York and Queen’s, Belfast, where he was appointed Lecturer in Music in June 2006. His compositions have been performed throughout the world by an international range of leading performers and ensembles and have received a wide range of awards and prizes, including the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize. His music has been commissioned by several major international music festivals and has been broadcast on numerous occasions.  He recently recorded his large-scale piano work Reflux for broadcast on BBC Radio 3.  Recent compositions include Hunshigo - a 45-minute work for violin and piano, which was recently recorded by Darragh Morgan and Mary Dullea and premiered in Washington D.C. in May 2007 - and Starbog, a virtuosic work for ensemble which was commissioned by Psappha and broadcast on BBC Radio 3.  More recently, Nendrum Haykal for solo viola d’amore was premiered in Paris by Garth Knox. 2008 will see the premiere in Germany of a new work for Ensemble Recherche.
 
Simon Mawhinney’s compositions are characterised by a blend of sensuousness and severity, which is often combined with dazzling virtuosity; they frequently exploit the listener’s awareness of time in music and explore the extent to which the duration of a work can be treated as a rhetorical device in itself.  He has a particular interest in the music of Boulez, Sorabji, Ferneyhough and Murail.

Piano performance forms an integral part of Mawhinney’s work. Described by the Irish Times as ‘ardent’ performer, he has a wide repertoire ranging from Bach to Boulez, giving performances which have received critical acclaim throughout Europe. A review of a recent all-Chopin recital described the performance as ‘weighty, intellectual, hard-edged and exhilarating.’ He has had a lifelong interest in Messiaen and will give several complete performances of Vingt Regards in Messiaen’s centenary year, including a candle-lit performance on the evening of the composer’s 100th anniversary.

Described by the Washington Post as 'Ireland's leading classical guitarist' and by Michael Dervan in the Irish Times as 'a trailblazer...when it comes to the guitar and guitar-playing in Ireland', Feeley studied at Trinity College, Dublin, Queens College of the City University, New York, and The National University of Ireland, Maynooth, where he graduated with a PhD in music. He has taught at the American Institute of Guitar, Memphis State University and currently holds the post of Senior Lecturer at the Conservatory of Music, Dublin Institute of Technology.
Highly regarded for his performance and recordings of new works by Irish composers, he has had many works written for him. He is a regular performer at many international guitar festivals and has made recordings with K-Tel, Gael-Linn Records, CBA Classics, Ossiain Records, Castle Communications, Blackbox Music, England  and Celestial Harmonies. Germany.   He has also recorded with the Chieftains and famous Spanish Soprano Montserrat Caballes.  

Concerts have taken him around the world and include appearances at the Sydney Opera House, the Old Opera House, Frankfurt, the L'Arena in Verona, and New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Born in Dublin, William Dowdall trained in Cleveland, Ohio. From 1979 to 2004 he was principal flute of the RT National Symphony Orchestra. He has given over 50 solo performances with the RT NSO, RT CO, and Irish Chamber Orchestra, and has appeared at all the major festivals in Ireland. Solo performances abroad have taken him around Europe, and to the USA, China, and New Zealand. His work has been broadcast extensively by RT , on BBC radio and television, Australian Television, and Shanghai Radio.

Many Irish composers have written works for him and he premiered a new work by John Buckley for flute and orchestra with the RT NSO in a six concert tour in November 2006. In the last year he has given four world premieres of works by Irish composers and has espoused the flute music of composers such as Bernstein, Boulez, Takemitsu, Henze, Var se, and Maxwell Davies in Ireland. He recently gave the Irish premiere of Takemitsu's “I Can Hear the Water Dreaming” with the RT NSO. As a solo artist he has made critically-acclaimed recordings for Goasco, Naxos, Marco Polo, Black Box, and Celestial Harmonies labels.

William Dowdall is Professor of flute in the Royal Irish Academy of Music and as well as his duo with John Feely, he plays in a trio with Andreja Malir, harp, and John Lynch, viola.

David Leigh is the Assistant Organist of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Director of the Cathedral Girls’ Choir and Senior Keyboard Tutor at NUI Maynooth. He combines these roles with a busy freelance career as organist, continuo and orchestral keyboard player, in addition to directing the Gaudete Singers and Res Nova. He appears regularly with the major Irish orchestras and choirs in addition to pursuing an active solo recital career which has seen appearances at many of the major venues in Ireland and the UK.

A music graduate of Oxford University, where he was Organ Scholar of St Peter’s College and Assisting Organist of Magdalen College, David studied the organ with Jonathan Rees-Williams, David Sanger and Nicolas Kynaston. Whilst organ scholar of Lichfield Cathedral, aged nineteen, he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, winning the Turpin and Durrant prizes, and held the Oxford University Betts Scholarship in 1995-6. He has visited most European countries as soloist, accompanist or conductor, and features in these roles on a number of recordings, including a solo disc made at St Patrick’s in 2000 which drew comments such as “immaculately played transcriptions….an organist of symphonic stature” (Organists’ Review) from the critics. Two further solo discs were released earlier this year.

Originally from Milford Haven in Wales, Phill graduated from Leeds College of Music in 1999 winning the ‘Friends Prize for Contemporary and Popular Piano’. He was the pianist with the ‘Duke Ellington Repertory Orchestra’ during the 1999 International Duke Ellington Convention in Leeds and went on to work extensively both in England and abroad. In summer 2000 he collaborated with Waterford guitarist, Dylan Bible, in a ‘Trad - Jazz’ fusion project and undertook a brief tour of Ireland.

Since moving to Ireland in 2001, Phill has been in demand in the South East, Cork and Dublin as a session musician and plays keyboards in Waterford’s own; ‘The Butterfly Band’. In 2003 he founded the Big Band ‘Opus Pocus’ which received much acclaim throughout it’s three year weekly residency, and is still a vibrant part of the Waterford music scene. Phill is currently a lecturer in Jazz, at the Waterford Institute of Technology.

The Barrack Street Concert Band is one of the oldest and most respected bands in Ireland. It has entertained generations of Waterfordians since its first performance at the May procession in Mt. Sion in 1870 - an incredible 137 years ago. It continues to grow from strength to strength which is not only due to the dedication of its members and very talented musical directors over the years, but also to the support and generosity of the wonderful people of Waterford and their love of music.

The band’s living heritage continues with two or three generations of several families continuing in the footsteps of great-grandparents, playing in the junior and senior bands. The Barrack Street Concert Band is one of Waterford’s living treasures, playing a regular part in the cultural and leisure life of the city and lending its considerable musical skills to local charities and organisations.

The band is delighting to be involved in the Waterford Institute of Technology’s New Music Week for the first time, and tonight under their conductor Mark Fitzgerald, will perform a programme of original Irish contemporary works for Concert Band.