Programme
J.S. Bach Sonata for violin and harpsichord no. 4 in c minor - largo BWV 1017
Beethoven Sonata for violin and piano no. 10 in G major Op. 96
Tina Davidson Blue Curve of the Earth

ANDREW SHEERAN As a professional violinist and violist, Andrew Sheeran performs with ensembles including Irish National Opera, National Symphony Orchestra and Ulster Orchestra. In 2020, he was awarded Music Network’s Musician in Residence at Dun-Laoghaire Rathdown, on behalf of Ikigai, which included a broadcast of his original composition ‘Circuits’ on RTE Lyric FM. Recent performances have seen Ikigai at Kaleidoscope Night and Another Love Story. Andrew is also a member of Glasshouse, performing regularly to acclaim at The Sugar Club, IMMA and at many Irish festivals including Galway Arts Festival, Forbidden Fruit and Altogether Now. Having completed a BA (First Class) in 2015 from Royal Irish Academy of Music, he was then awarded the RTE Lyric FM bursary to undertake a Masters at UL, studying with Katherine Hunka, concertmaster of the Irish Chamber Orchestra. During his undergraduate studies, he wrote a thesis on contemporary methods for teaching violin technique, and was awarded the LRIAM Teaching Diploma (Hons). He currently teaches at RIAM and was recently appointed to a lecturer position at SETU. He has participated in many masterclasses in Ireland and abroad, including at the NCH with renowned violinist Maxim Vengerov. Awards include DLR Emerging Artist Bursary, Music Capital Scheme and the Arts Council Agility. As a composer, he was selected to commission a piece in 2023 for Ficino Ensemble.

BILLY O’BRIEN enjoys a diverse career as solo pianist, chamber musician and teacher. He has appeared as concerto soloist with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Hibernian Orchestra, UCD Symphony Orchestra, RIAM Symphony Orchestra, Wexford Sinfonia and Trinity Orchestra in concertos by Chopin, Ravel, Grieg, Gershwin and Beethoven. He has given solo recitals throughout Ireland in venues such as the Field Room, National Concert Hall, the National Gallery of Ireland, the Hugh Lane Gallery, as well as in Spain, France, Finland and the UK. Recent concerts include a performance of Scriabin’s 24 preludes op. 11 at the Hugh Lane Gallery to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth. He has appeared in concert series and festivals such as the New Ross Piano Festival, New Music Dublin, Music for Wexford, and the Crawford Gallery, among others.
In chamber music Billy has appeared with violinists Mairéad Hickey and Yoan Brakha in the Kaleidoscope Series recorded at Killruddery House, and as a member of the Alberi Piano Trio in a tour of Ireland in 2019. Billy has also collaborated with the Crash, Ficino and Kirkos Ensembles. Billy has been winner of the Hibernian Orchestra Concerto Competition, the Maura Dowdall Concerto Competition, the Teissier bursary (RIAM), and second prize in the Irish Freemason’s Young Musician of the Year 2015.
In 2023 Billy was awarded a Doctor in Music Performance degree from Trinity College Dublin and the RIAM. He has presented his research at conferences in Ireland and abroad, most recently at the Doctors in Performance Conference at the Royal Academy of Music, London, in August 2023.
Billy completed two years’ postgraduate study from 2016-2018 in Paris under Rena Shereshevskaya, and he studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin with Hugh Tinney and Thérèse Fahy. Billy is a committed teacher, and currently teaches piano at TU Dublin Conservatoire.