The Esker Festival Orchestra, one of Europe's most exciting orchestras for emerging young professional and pre-professional musicians, was set up in 2014 to provide a high quality, beneficial and meaningful musical opportunity for young emerging musicians from all across Ireland and for the first time to have an orchestra of this quality and scope based in Galway. The orchestra was set up to fill the musical and social void that currently exists in Ireland by allowing young musicians from across the country to perform together, socialise together and to build relationships that will be essential during their personal and professional lives, to promote and develop orchestral music in Ireland by nurturing the talents of its emerging musicians and crucially to provide all of this with as little financial burden as possible on the musicians themselves. Finally it is unique in that it is entirely led and run by its members for its members, allowing those taking part to gather invaluable first-hand experience in the world of orchestral music. The Esker Festival Orchestra now also welcomes international members each year, allowing musicians from across the world to come to Ireland, perform together and to meet and learn from their international colleagues and peers, further developing the impact and reputation of orchestral music in Ireland and abroad.

The Esker Festival Orchestral is gratefully supported by the Irish Association of Youth Orchestras, the Arts Council of Ireland, RTÉ Supporting the Arts, the Galway Music Residency, The University of Galway and the MTU Cork School of Music.

Peter Joyce - Director, Founder and Conductor

Peter Joyce is a prize winning Irish conductor and composer whose musical identity has been strongly developed by his early experiences with jazz, music theory, his vigorous training in Viennese Classicism and Modernism and his ongoing passion for contemporary music and experimental as well as traditional musical theatre.

Winner of the 1st Prize and Orchestra Prize of the 2023 Irish National “Feis Ceoil” Conducting Competition, Peter Joyce has worked in symphonic, musical theatre, opera and choral settings including his debut in the Golden Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein with the Akademische Philharmonie Vienna. Recently he has performed again in the Musikverein with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra and in the Vienna Konzerthaus with the Wiener Symphoniker. Other highlights include performing and working with the Sofia National Philharmonic, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the Szolnok Symphony Orchestra. Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic, Pro-Arte Orchestra Vienna, Orchestra of the Technical University Vienna, Max Brand Ensemble, Ensemble Ars Nova, the Webern Ensemble and the Webern Chamber Choir, and with the ORF as a musical assistant for live broadcasts from the Vienna State Opera. In May 2024 Peter made his opera debut conducting ‘Radames’ Peter Eötvös at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna and returned there in June 2025 to conduct the Austrian premiere of Ethel Smyth’s opera The Boatswain’s Mate. Peter is currently assistant conductor and studio member with the Irish National Opera.

Peter is the founder and conductor of the Esker Festival Orchestra, Ireland's longest established, and one of Europe's most exciting orchestras for emerging young professional musicians with whom he celebrated their 10th anniversary in 2023 with lauded performances of Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony.

A champion of new music, Peter has performed and conducted premieres of many new works by Irish and international composers. As a composer Peter's own works have been performed throughout Europe by groups such as the Arditti Quartet, Quartetto Prometeo, the Kandinsky Quartet, the Webern Ensemble, Platypus Ensemble and at festivals such as Wien Modern. In 2020 he was the winner of the Feis Ceoil IMRO Composition Award and was finalist in the 2025 International Mauricio Kagel Composition Competition.

He is a music graduate of Trinity College Dublin where he began composing, arranging and conducting, later studying conducting with Dr. Geoffrey Spratt. Peter continued his musical education by studying conducting with Mark Stringer and composition with Detlev Müller-Siemens at the renowned University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna from where he graduated with honours in June 2024. His musical education has been furthered through masterclasses with Peter Eötvös, Marin Alsop, Sian Edwards, Salvatore Sciarrino and Stefano Gervasoni and many others.

Kandinsky Quartet - String Quartet in Residence 2025

Hannah Kandinsky - Violin
Israel Gutiérrez Vildósola - Violin
Ignazio Alayza - Viola
Antonio Gervilla Díaz- Cello

The Kandinsky Quartet, winners of the 2023 Verbier Festival Anniversary Prize, the International Mozart Competition Salzburg, and the Boccherini Competition, was founded in 2020 and has since established itself as one of the most outstanding young string quartets on the international music scene. Based in Vienna, one of Europe's cultural capitals, the quartet represents a synthesis of traditional chamber music expertise and a dynamic, modern approach to music. The Kandinsky Quartet is known for its deep engagement with the classical repertoire as well as its innovative approach to contemporary works and unconventional concert formats.

The ensemble has been invited to prizewinning festivals from early on. They performed, among others, at Rheingau Festival (Germany), Festival d’Aix-en- Provence (France), Styrian Chamber Music Gestival (Austria), Wien Modern (Austria) and Heidelberger Frühling (Germany). Further invitations led them to Milano Musica (Italy), Festival Música Sur (Spain), Chaise-Dieu Festival (France) Venice Biennale (Italy) and to the Verbier Festival (Switzerland).

The quartet is a member of the EU-funded MERITA project, which aims to promote collaboration andexchange between young musicians from across Europe. The Kandinsky Quartet is also part of the ECMAprogram (European Chamber Music Academy), one of the most prominent chamber music programs in Europe, and is a scholarship recipient of Villa Musica as well as Jeunesse Musicales Deutschland.

A particular focus of the four musicians is the social responsibility of music. As Artists in Residence at the ArbeiterInnenkonzerte in Vienna, they are involved in an outreach project that engages with socially disadvantaged communities in Vienna. In this unique concert series, ten concerts are held each season in social housing complexes, emphasizing not only the artistic but also the social potential of chamber music.

The Kandinsky Quartet has continuously advanced its artistic development through intensive coaching and study with leading string quartets. Among its most important mentors are the Ebénè Quartet, the Quatuor Diotima, the Cuarteto Casals, the Quatuor Mosaïques, the Alban Berg Quartet and renowned soloists and chamber musicians such as Nicolas Altstaedt, Bruno Giuranna, Amihai Grosz, Dirk Mommertz, Mathieu Herzog, Gabor Takacs-Nagy, and Elisabeth Leonskaja, with whom they regularly share the stage together.

Vocal Soloists for Haydn’s Creation

We are once delighted to collaborate with the Irish National Opera Studio and will be joined by three of their world class emerging singers.

Deirdre Higgins - Soprano

Soprano Deirdre Higgins is in her second year of the Irish National Opera Studio. Her highlight of her time in the Studio was when she had the opportunity to perform Mimì in Puccini’s La Bohème at the dress rehearsal in the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. Deirdre made her debut with Irish National Opera this summer in their production of Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’Amore which received five stars across the board where she performed a “sumptuous[…]never less than captivating” (The Arts Review) Giannetta.

Deirdre has also worked with the esteemed Wexford Festival Opera since 2022. In the 2024 festival she debuted as Eileen O’Doherty in the premier of Alberto Caruso’s Lady Gregory in America.

A multi-award winner, Deirdre was the winner of the coveted Bernadette Greevy Bursary 2024, the Gervase Elwes Memorial Cup at the 2023 Feis Ceoil, and the Birr Lions Club Bursary at Birr Festival of Music 2023.

A keen recitalist and concert performer, Deirdre has given recitals as part of the Stanford Festival 2024 and Boyle Arts Festival 2023. Following her success in the Feis Ceoil, she was invited to perform a series of recitals at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris. Deirdre has graced the stage of the National Concert Hall, Dublin on numerous occasions, including when she was invited to sing at Dame Anne Murray’s Lifetime Achievement Award Gala Concert. Following this, Deirdre made her concert debut with the National Symphony Orchestra as a soloist as a part of their 2024 Summer Lunchtime Concert series. She returned again in February for the Valentine’s Opera Gala as part of Celebrating the Voice, where she performed solos and also duets with the acclaimed mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught.

Cathal McCabe - Tenor

Cathal McCabe is a tenor from Dublin, Ireland. He is a Studio Artist with Irish National Opera for the 2024/25 season. At the 2025 Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition, he won the Jane Carty Prize for most promising competitor aged 25 or under. He also won the Dermot Troy Prize for highest-placed Irish competitor. Cathal has participated in masterclasses with world-renowned singers such as Sir Thomas Allen, Tara Erraught and Isabel Leonard. Upcoming roles include Gabriel von Eisenstein in Strauss's Die Fledermaus with Westminster Opera and Acis in Acis & Galatea with Opera in the Open. He recently made his National Symphony Orchestra debut as part of their Valentine’s Day gala.

His performed roles include Nanki-Poo in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado at the National Concert Hall, Henry Crawford at the Irish premiere of Jonathan Dove's Mansfield Park, and Shouter in Caruso's Lady Gregory in America with Wexford Festival Opera. With Irish National Opera, he has covered the roles of Gabriel von Eisenstein in Strauss's Fledermaus and Nemorino in Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore. He has performed multiple times as a soloist with Northern Ireland Opera in productions and recitals at the Grand Opera House Belfast.

Cathal obtained his bachelor’s degree from the TU Dublin Conservatoire of Music and Drama, where he received the Academic Excellence award for the highest graduating mark from the Department of Arts & Humanities. He has won multiple competitions at the RDS Feis Ceoil and was the recipient of the John McCormack Bursary. Cathal has appeared on national television and radio, including singing on the RTÉ Six One News.

David Kennedy - Bass

Irish baritone David Kennedy, from Eyrecourt in east county Galway, is fascinated with the world of music and dedicated to his continued development as an artist. He is an Irish National Opera Studio member for the 2024/25 season, where he covered the roles of Belcore (L’elisir d’amore) and Dr. Falke (Die Fledermaus) during the season. At last year’s Wexford Opera Festival 2024, he undertook the roles of ‘Silvio’ (Pagliacci) and ‘Belcore’ (L’elisir d’amore), he is delighted to be back as a Factory artist in the upcoming Wexford Festival Opera 2025 performing the roles of ‘Don Alvaro’ (Il Viaggio a Reims) and ‘Demetrius’ (A Midsummer Nights Dream). David was the first Irish scholar at the Heidelberger Frühling LiedAkademie, studying under Thomas Hampson in 2022/23 and 2023/24. He also trained at the prestigious Britten-Pears YAP programme in 2025 and with the international LIEDBasel festival, Switzerland  in 2024. Concert highlights include performing at Berlin's Pierre Boulez Saal with Susan Manoff during Schubert Week 2024. David was a semi-finalist at the recent Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition 2024. He has received mentorship and masterclasses from esteemed colleagues such as Thomas Hampson, Ian Bostridge, Roderick Williams, Isabel Leonard, Tara Erraught, Susan Manoff, Malcom Martineau, Hartmut Höll.