Musicians and Guest Artists
Claire Duff
Violin
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Claire Duff is an internationally acclaimed violinist, in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, leader and director. She has worked as Director of the Irish Baroque Orchestra and the Irish National Opera, while also nurturing emerging talent as the Artistic Director of the award-winning Irish Youth Baroque Orchestra. Claire is Associate Leader of the Irish Baroque Orchestra, with whom she has performed and recorded as soloist to critical acclaim for over twenty years. Claire has worked as leader of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, under the batons of Sinkovsky, Hill and Davies. Her leadership extends across prestigious baroque ensembles such as Florilegium, I Fagiolini, and The King's Consort and she has co-led the Academy of Ancient Music and The English Concert. She has toured extensively across Europe, Asia, and America with these distinguished period instrument ensembles.
In 2024, Claire qualified as a Body Mapping Educator for musicians. She was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) in London in 2016 and received the Arts Council of Ireland Bursary Award in 2021. In 2022, Camerata Kilkenny earned the prestigious Jurica Murai prize at the Varazdin Baroque Festival in Croatia and received the following review from the jury:
"The concertmaster of the Irish Baroque Orchestra and the first violin of the Camerata Kilkenny, virtuoso violinist Claire Duff has a particularly high level of artistic preparation. Her way of playing music, technical bravura and way of conducting each of the interpretations are truly exemplary."
Claire has had many solo works composed for her, including pieces by Karen Power, Eoghan Desmond, Sean Doherty, Jane O'Leary (performed with harpsichordist Benjamin Alard) and Sam Perkins (The Copy and the Original performed with Diane Daly). She teaches baroque violin and historically informed performance at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and directs the RIAM Baroque String Orchestra.
Rachel Factor
Harpsichord
Rachel Factor concertises on harpsichord as a soloist and chamber artist. She has performed with many of Ireland’s leading ensembles at prestigious festivals throughout Ireland and England and has participated in concerts recorded for and broadcast by RTÉ lyric fm. Rachel plays a wide range of repertoire spanning four centuries and has interest in Irish baroque music and also contemporary music and has premiered works by many emerging composers in Ireland.
Rachel is harpsichord professor at TU Conservatoire of Music and Drama Dublin and an examiner for the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Rachel has been the recipient of The Arts Council 2017 Artist Bursary Award, 2011 and 2018 Music Network Music Capital Scheme, 2019 and 2021 Arts Council Agility Award. Rachel gratefully acknowledges support from Music Network and The Arts Council of Ireland.
Sarah Groser
Viol
Sarah Groser first played the viola da gamba as a child, encouraged by her viol-playing father, whilst waiting to start on the cello. She concentrated on the cello until her late teens when she heard viols playing in consort and was captivated by the sound. At Manchester University she was able to study both Baroque cello and viol with Charles Medlam of London Baroque and continued on to Rotterdam's Conservatorium to study Baroque cello with Jaap ter Linden. Later she had lessons with Jordi Savall as an external student at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.
Since her studies, Sarah has concentrated on the viol, and more recently the violone. She was a member of the Rose Consort of Viols for fifteen years and of Sonnerie under Monica Huggett for three years. She has also played with London Baroque, Fretwork, Charivari Agréable, and the Dowland Consort. In 2001, Sarah moved from England to West Cork, Ireland, where she is in frequent demand as both a solo bass viol player and as a continuo player. In Ireland, she has collaborated with The Irish Baroque Orchestra, the IBO Concert Soloists, Resurgam, Sestina, Camerata Kilkenny, Morisca, The Orchestra of St Cecilia, Madrigal 75, and as a duo with Sarah Cunningham and with Yonit Kosovske.
Yonit Kosovske
Harpsichord
Yonit Kosovske performs as a soloist, chamber musician, and interdisciplinary artist on harpsichord, modern and historical piano, clavichord, and chamber organ. She specialises in repertoire from the 16th-century through contemporary, regularly championing music outside of
the mainstream canon of classical western art music. Yonit has commissioned and premiered many new works for both historical and modern instruments, and will soon be realising her newest album, APRICITY, featuring contemporary music for solo and collaborative harpsichord, made possible with generous support from the Arts Council Music Project Award.
Yonit is founding co-director of the Limerick Early Music Festival and H.I.P.S.T.E.R. (Historically Informed Performance Series, Teaching, Education, and Research), as well as founding Artistic Director of WAVE~LINKS, a video documentary series exploring modalities between music-making and artisanry. She is an Associate Professor in Music at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick. Yonit gratefully acknowledges support from the Arts Council of Ireland, Music Network Music Capital Scheme, Culture Moves Europe Individual Mobility Award and Goethe-Institut, Limerick Arts Office, and Tipperary Arts Office.
Norah O'Leary
Viol
Norah O’Leary is an Irish cellist and viol player specialising in period instrument performance. She holds a Master's degree in Performance of Early Music from the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, where she studied with Louna Hosia and Markku Luolajan-Mikkola.
Norah performs regularly with leading early music ensembles, including the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Camerata Kilkenny, Sestina Music, Cork Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Scania Barock, and Ensemble OrQuestra. She records with London Early Opera for Signum Records and has collaborated with artists such as Bridget Cunningham, Dame Emma Kirkby, Laurence Cummings, and Lars Ulrik Mortensen.A founding member of both Ensemble Dagda and The Earls of Ormond, she has appeared at major festivals across Ireland and Finland. An active researcher and writer, she currently teaches at the County Wexford School of Music and lectures in cello at South East Technological University Music School.
Norah is supported by Music Network's Music Capital Scheme, funded by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport. Music Network is funded by The Arts Council.
Malcolm Proud
Organ
Malcolm Proud won first prize at the 1982 Edinburgh International Harpsichord Competition. He is a member of the Irish Baroque Orchestra and Camerata Kilkenny and has performed with the English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.
In 2018, he curated a series of concerts at the National Concert Hall in Dublin to mark the 350th anniversary of François Couperin’s birth. In 2022, he performed Book 1 of Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier at West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival and Dublin’s Hugh Lane Gallery to mark the 300th anniversary of the work. He has recorded Purcell’s harpsichord music, Bach’s Brandenburg 5 with both the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Baroque Soloists, Bach’s 6 Partitas, Goldberg Variations and on organ Clavierübung 3.
Bogdan Sofei
Violin
Bogdan Sofei is an accomplished violinist and founding member of the ConTempo String Quartet. He trained at the University of Music in Bucharest and completed advanced studies at the Royal Academy of Music (London) and the Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada). As a chamber musician, Bogdan Sofei has performed extensively across Europe, North America and Asia, appearing in major concert halls and festivals and collaborating with leading soloists, conductors and contemporary composers.
With the ConTempo String Quartet, Bogdan Sofei has won 14 international prizes and made numerous recordings, receiving critical acclaim for both classical repertoire and contemporary commissions. The quartet has been Ensemble-in-Residence at the University of Galway, Ireland since 2003, undertaking concert series, education outreach and community engagement projects. During 2014-2019 Bogdan Sofei has also held a Quartet residency with RTÉ, contributing to national broadcasts, premieres and special projects that expanded contemporary Irish chamber music programming.
Dedicated to education, Bogdan Sofei gives masterclasses and workshops for university students and community ensembles and has served as a guest lecturer for performance practice and chamber music.
James Taylor
Harpsichord
James Taylor lives in Cork and is a Lecturer in Music at the MTU Cork School of Music, teaching organ, harpsichord, harmony and counterpoint.
He completed his postgraduate studies in 2006 at McGill University Montreal, specialising in organ and harpsichord. James has held church music posts at Ripon Cathedral (UK), Wellington Cathedral of St. Paul, New Zealand, Christchurch Cathedral Montreal, and St. Fin-Barre's Cathedral, Cork where he worked from 2006 - 2017. He has performed concerts across Canada, the United States, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and New Zealand, and has participated in numerous television and radio broadcasts as a soloist and accompanist.
James conducts the award-winning vocal ensemble, Madrigal '75 with whom he has toured Italy, Spain and Switzerland. The choir performs regularly in Cork and further afield, collaborating with other choirs, festivals and early music ensembles. Last year, the choir celebrated 50 years with a series of special concerts marking the anniversary.
Anita Vedres
Violin
Anita Vedres was born into a musical family in Dublin. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and following that, at the Musik Conservatorium in Utrecht. Studying with renowned Swiss violinist Maya Homburger, she attained a Masters’ degree in professional studies at MTU Cork School of music with first-class honours. Anita is a founder member of the Irish Baroque Orchestra and a former member of the Irish Chamber Orchestra with which she performs often. She enjoys a widely varied and eclectic freelance career as a violinist exploring repertoire from the early 17th-century to freshly composed works.
Her commitment to chamber music has involved her with many small ensembles such as Crash Ensemble and Camerata Kilkenny, and she was a founder member of baroque ensembles Eidola Trio, Armoniosa and Trio Quattro; the latter being responsible for commissions by Irish composers Elaine Agnew and Benjamin Dwyer of new pieces for period instruments. Anita was also a founding member of the Robinson Panoramic Quartet commissioning and premiering works by Irish composers including Raymond Deane and Brian Irvine.
She performs regularly with larger orchestras, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Wexford Festival Orchestra and Irish National Opera. She plays on a Viennese violin by Johann Joseph Stadlmann.
Kristiina Watt
Theorbo
Estonian lutenist and singer Kristiina Watt enjoys a busy concert schedule in the UK and further afield. As an instrumentalist she has performed with leading groups in the historical performance scene and beyond such as the Academy of Ancient Music, Aurora Orchestra, The English Concert, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, La Nuova Musica, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Scottish Ensemble. Kristiina regularly plays for vocal consorts such as Ensemble Pro Victoria, The Marian Consort, Musica Secreta and Vache Baroque. She is featured on The Marian Consort’s latest CD ‘Una Poesia Muta’ in which her performance was reviewed as ‘flawless’ by Gramophone Magazine.
As a singer Kristiina specialises in early song and particularly self-accompanied performance. She has performed operatic roles with The Kellie Consort and at Brighton Early Music Festival. In addition to training at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland she received coachings from Dame Emma Kirkby at the Guildhall School and continues her vocal studies with Dr Patricia MacMahon. In 2025 she looks forward to a solo performance at the Oxford International Song Festival as well as concerts featuring Barbara Strozzi’s duets at Buxton International Festival and St.George’s Bristol with her ensemble The Portrait Players.
The English Sackbut and Cornett Ensemble
The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble is a virtuoso period instrument group with a host of distinguished recordings to its name. In addition to its recital work, the ensemble collaborates with leading vocal ensembles such as I Fagiolini, The Tallis Scholars, Alamire, Resurgam, The BBC Singers, The Marian Consort, Westminster Cathedral Choir, and is a regular at major festivals. ECSE is in demand as a recording ensemble, contributing to Gramophone Award-winning discs such as The Spy’s Choirbook (Obsidian) in 2015, and the monumental Striggio mass in 40 parts Missa ecco si beato giorno with I Fagiolini (which scooped the Gramophone Award for Early Music 2011 and also the Diapason d’Or). ECSE celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2018 with a solo CD on the Resonus label entitled Music for Windy Instruments: sounds from the Court of James I. Our latest disc being a collaborative CD with the Irish vocal ensemble Resurgam of music by Thomas Weelkes ‘Gentleman Extraordinary’ released on the Resonus label with Gramophone Magazine awarding it Editor’s Choice for January 2024. Now in its 32nd year, ECSE has another busy year of engagements ahead. Highlights include our debut performance at HM Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace and several UK performances of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers with the multi award-winning I Fagiolini.
June 2026 saw ECSE’s first visit to the USA in collaboration with the Tallis Scholars for the opening of the Boston Early Music Festival as well as our own recital. This is followed by performances in Florence & Rome with Vox Medicea celebrating the Papal Jubilee 2025, including participating in the opening concert of the 2025 Rome Chamber Music Festival. July 2025 sees ECSE join forces again with HM Chapel Royal Choir for a recording at Hampton Court Palace - swiftly followed by their inaugural collaboration with Opera Mascarade for the Florence Choral Course. ECSE again returns to Florence in November for another collaboration with Vox Medicea as part of Opera Mascarade’s Sacred Music Programme.
Adrian France
Bass sackbut
In a career spanning over 32 years, Adrian enjoys a broad spectrum of bass trombone playing from all aspects of historical performance practice from the baroque, classical and romantic periods through to chamber music (incl. solo performing) to the modern orchestral bass trombone.
He tours extensively with many of the world’s finest period instrument ensembles - The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (incl. Glyndebourne), The Hanover Band, The Gabrieli Consort, The King’s Consort, The English Concert (incl. Garsington Opera) Academy of Ancient Music, English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir & Orchestra, Collegium Vocale Gent, Concerto Palatino, L’Orfeo Baroque Orchester (Linz), Ensemble La Fenice, Musica Antiqua Salzburg and Cappella Mediterranea. 2019 saw his debut with renowned Budapest Festival Orchestra (dir. Ivan Fischer) in a production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo.
He also continues to play the modern bass trombone, and has worked with the likes of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia (CLS & Opera Holland Park), The Ulster Orchestra, Orquesta Filhamónic de Gran Canaria, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, (Abbado/Harding).
As a teacher – Adrian is Professor of bass sackbut at The Guildhall School of Music & Drama and guest professor of sackbut at the Academy of Music, Ljubljana. He has adjudicated for the Royal College of Music, the BBC Young Musician of the Year, the International Brass and Woodwind Competition, Varaždin, Croatia (2019) and the bi-annual British Trombone Societies Sackbut Competition (in conjunction with ECSE & Egger sackbuts). Adrian also previously held the positions of Head of Brass & trombone tutor, Newcastle University (2011-2021) where he remains a visiting specialist.
Conor Hastings
Cornett
A native of Dublin, Conor Hastings was born into an extensive musical family, and was exposed to a wide variety of music from an early age. He began to learn the recorder at age five, and the trumpet at age twelve at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
He went on to study Orchestral Trumpet at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. During the course of his studies he stumbled upon the Renaissance Cornetto, and very swiftly took to Historical Performance on original instruments. Whilst at the Royal Welsh he studied Cornetto part-time with Jeremy West (His Majesty’s Sackbutts and Cornetts) and Gawain Glenton (The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble), and has since been an active performer in the UK. In 2014, he began his current studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland, under the tutelage of the legendary Bruce Dickey.
During his time in Basel, Conor performed professionally all over Europe, including more Monteverdi Vespers than he can count, and taking part in projects through the Schola Cantorum including a tour of historical organs and churches in northern Italy, most notably San Marco in Venice, San Petronio in Bologna and Santa Barbara in Mantua.
In addition to his studies and performing schedule, Conor is a busy teacher of the Cornetto, and recently began to tutor students in his old college in Cardiff, hoping to expose as many people as possible to the world of early music. Conor has also kept up his trumpet playing, and remains a busy performer in Ireland and UK, including regular performances with the National Symphony Orchestra, mainly buying coffee for the trumpet section and very occasionally some trumpet playing!
Tom Lees
Tenor sackbut
Tom studied the trombone at the Royal Northern College of Music, before becoming the first full-time student of the sackbut at the Royal College of Music, winning a Countess of Munster musical scholarship to continue his early music studies there. Since then, Tom has regularly performed and recorded with many of the specialist period instrument ensembles at home and abroad and is a full time member of the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble and the City Musick.
Performing on ‘historical’ trombones, Tom has recorded music for a number of TV and film sessions, including Wolf Hall, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Shrek the Third and Pride and Prejudice, in which he also appears in the film playing an early 18th century trombone.
Emily White
Alto and tenor sackbut
Emily White is a freelance musician specialising in historical performance. She brought out her first solo disc A Cry Was Heard with Deux-Elles record label in 2022, and her second: Made Human was released in July 2024. She launched her YouTube channel in 2020, and in 2024 was invited to present an episode of Inside Music on BBC Radio 3, sharing her insights into music she loves with listeners.
She is an artist at The Slide Factory, Rotterdam 2024 giving a solo recital D'or Galon. She is a member of The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble who’s 16 discs include Classic FM disc of the month, BBC Choice, several Gramophone Awards and Diapason d’Or winners. She also plays principal regularly for Il Giardino Armonico in Italy, playing on the Diapason D'or Disc of the Year La Morte della Ragione. She works with Les Talens Lyriques in France, B’Rock in Belgium and the 'crack British ensemble’ (The Observer) In Echo. She loves the freedom that can be found in early music performance and contemporary music. Her trio Pandora's Box with John Kenny and Miguel Sevilliano Tantos has toured their improvisatory take on contemporary and early music to Portugal, Spain, Ireland, UK and USA.
Emily formed Sackbut Frenzy in 2011 to share her love of early music with her local
community in Gloucestershire, and now London as well. The ensemble continues to
comprise her current and former students, friends, and was awarded an Continuo
Foundation Support for performances including premieres of commissions for new music for sackbut.
Vespera
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Vespera, Galway’s instrumental baroque ensemble, is dedicated to historically-informed performance. Vespera made its debut in late November 2021 performing Abendmusik concerts at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, with Peter Barley’s Sagittarius Hiberniensis choir and St. Mary’s Cathedral Choir, and at St. Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, Galway with the choristers of St. Nicholas’ Schola Cantorum.
Vespera is led by baroque violinist Claire Duff, encompasses the ConTempo Quartet musicians and is artistically directed by Mark Duley. Under the tutelage of Claire Duff of the Irish Baroque Orchestra, Vespera performs with historic instrument bows, which facilitate a particular kind of phrasing.
Collegium
Collegium is the concert chamber choir that has its home in St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, as one of the five choirs of the church’s Schola Cantorum. It takes its title from the ancient designation of the church dating back to 1486. The choir comprises 16-20 singers depending on the type of project undertaken, and is made up of Galway’s finest choral singers. Most members sing in one of the Schola’s other choirs and many also sing in other Galway choral ensembles.
The choir presents concerts during the year, including the much-loved Music for Good Friday (presented in collaboration with Music for Galway). The principal artistic focus of the choir is music from the Renaissance period, and on presenting unusual programmes with a strong thematic and seasonal flavour. In addition to performing under the direction of founder-conductor Mark Duley, Collegium has also worked with Andrew Lawrence-King and the Harp Consort in presenting the medieval Play of Daniel as part of the 2015 Galway Early Music Festival.
Vox Orbis
Dr Mark Keane, director
Founded in 2019, Vox Orbis is a female choral ensemble based in Galway and directed by Dr Mark Keane. In 2019, the choir gave its first performance in Arundel Cathedral, UK, performing Cecilia McDowall’s Missa Mariae and Regina Coeli. In February 2020, Vox Orbis won the Plainchant Competition and the Dr Patrick McCormack Trophy for the best overall performance of an a cappella piece at the Limerick Choral Festival. The choir were awarded the Trofaí Cuimhneacháin Philip Ui Laoghaire at Cork International Choral Festival in 2023 for the performance of a choral work in Irish, and the National Competition for Church Music in 2024. The choir has performed a number of large scale works including Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Michael Haydn's Missa Sancti Leopoldi and Vespers, Emma Johnson's Songs of Celebration, Kim Andre Arnesen's Magnificat and Stabat Mater, Britten's Missa Brevis and A Ceremony of Carols, and Duruflé's Requiem. The choir performed at the American Cathedral, Paris (2023), Norwich Cathedral, UK (2024), and the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Rome (2026).
Dr. Mark Keane, founder and director of Vox Orbis, is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, and holds diplomas from Trinity College London, London College of Music, Royal School of Music and the Royal College of Organists. A former organ scholar at the National Cathedral of St. Patrick, Mark is now organist and Director of Music at Tuam Cathedral and Head of Music at Galway Community College.
Mark’s recording of the complete domestic music of John Amner on the Rubicon Classics label enjoyed favourable reviews in Gramophone, Early Music, Choir & Organ, The Sunday Times and BBC Music Magazine. Mark’s compositions are published by Cailíno Music Publishers in Ireland and he is the editor of The Oxford Book of Upper-Voice Polyphony, published by Oxford University Press in 2021.
Mark has received many awards for his contribution to the arts in Galway including the Mayor of Galway’s Award for Arts and Culture, the Galway REHAB People of the Year Award, and the Galway Junior Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Leadership Award.
St Patrick's Brass Band
Michael Dooley, director
St. Patrick’s Band are a Galway-based brass band, and members have been teaching music, providing engagement through all age ranges, and performing for Galwegians (as well as nationally and internationally) since it was founded in 1896, 130 years ago. The Band has been involved in almost every major event to come to Galway and has played for visiting presidents, other dignitaries and for some major historical occasions. It also provides a music and cultural centre - affectionately known as the Bandroom - for the Band and other organisations in Galway, filling a void due to the lack of such public facilities in the city.
As a community-based organisation, St. Patrick's Band strives to spread inclusion, participation and joy through the magical medium of music. It tries to develop the potential of young people as well as providing vital social outlets for people of all backgrounds and ages in our community.
An honours graduate of Waterford Institute of Technology and of Trinity College Dublin, Michael Dooley began his brass and woodwind studies with Tommy Joyce, continued with Martin Prynn, Professor J.M. Thome and Graham Salvage. Michael is a regular orchestral performer with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, and has worked with the National Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Lyric Opera, Irish National Opera, and The Irish Chamber Orchestra. He is a founding member of the Limerick Wind Octet, The Limerick Philharmonic and is the Bandmaster of St. Patrick's Brass Band, Galway while also conducting the Galway Youth Orchestra and the University of Limerick Orchestra. Michael has worked also as musical director for a number of Galway musical societies and the Limerick City Big Band. A keen early jazz enthusiast, he is a member of the Downtown Dixieland band in Limerick and the Galway Bay Jazz Band, appearing with them at many jazz festivals around the country.
Galeon Ensemble
Snezhana Rybalska, Galician bagpipes, cornemuse de Béarn, fiddle, flutes
Snezhana is the founder and permanent member of the medieval theater group Musica Radicum. Since 2002, she has been researching early music and street theatre at Vyborg Castle. Together with Musica Radicum, she staged several medieval plays, including Life of St. Olaf (2003), Knight Olaf and the Queen of Elves (2004) and Tamlin and Sir Galevin (2005). In 2007, they recorded the album Worlde Blis Ne Laste in Lviv. Snezhana studied traditional European music and participated in the SKM ensemble (focused on early peasant music). In 2015, she moved to Lviv and joined the Lviv Music Guild.
Vsevolod Sadovyi, tabor pipe, tarotta, percussion
Vsevolod is a musician and researcher from Lviv. Since 2001, he has been part of numerous ensembles and projects spanning alternative and electronic music. Since 2004, he has explored the heritage of early and traditional European music through various projects, including Minstrels Leopolita, Ground Folk, Vita Nova, Gardarica, Laterna Magica, Vita Norda, Lemko Bluegrass Band, and Kurbasy. In 2014, he co-founded the Lviv Music Guild. In 2015, Vsevolod and Snezhana founded the Galeon Ensemble, an eclectic project that weaves together the roots of their musical aesthetics and life experiences.
Galeon’s music blends the medieval codices and dance traditions of the European Renaissance with the vibrant strength of reeds and percussion. Their postmodern sound marries the Nordic coolness with the lively spirit of Iberian Galicia and the aristocratic charm of Sarmatian Galicia. As heirs to the legacy of wandering jugglers and forerunners of the grand Alta Capellas, Galeon continues to journey through cities, cultures, and epochs, and are delighted to return to Galway year after year.
Cluain Óir Society
for Creative Anachronism Galway
Cluain Óir is a branch of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) in Galway. SCA enjoys researching life in the past and learning how people lived and worked. Members pursue historical periods and skills that interest them and then share their knowledge.
SCA works with many medieval arts, crafts and sciences, regularly cook and brew medieval recipes and, best of all, organise events to do all these things together. SCA also enjoys doing public demos.
Jacopo Bisagni and Lise Carrel-Bisagni
Lise Carrel-Bisagni started dancing when she was 10 and since then has practiced different styles of dance, ranging from modern jazz to Irish step dancing and flamenco, and from Breton and other French traditional dances to Renaissance and Baroque dance.
Jacopo Bisagni plays different kinds of bagpipes and flutes and specializes in traditional repertoires (Italian, French, Irish) as well as in medieval and Renaissance instrumental music.