IWD 2025 - Ora Quartet: Siún Milne, Molly O’Shea, Ali Comerford, Yseult Cooper-Stockdale

When: March 6, 2025

Where: Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland

REGISTER

The National String Quartet Foundation presents the outstanding Ora Quartet with a programme of music by female composers to mark International Women’s Day 2024.

Siún Milne studied the violin with Ruxandra Colan-Petcu at CIT Cork School of Music before completing her BMus degree on scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Maurice Hasson and Mateja Marinković. Siún is a member of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and has performed with a variety of ensembles throughout her career including the Irish Chamber Orchestra, The Vanbrugh and Callino String Quartet, Aurora Orchestra, Hebrides Ensemble and Scottish Ensemble. She recently performed Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Siun has participated in masterclasses with Gerhard Schulz at IMS Prussia Cove, Pavlo Beznosiuk, Sylvia Rosenberg and Rachel Podger. As a part of Ólafur Arnald’s string quartet, Siún performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Cross-Linx Festival, Volksbühne Berlin and has toured the UK with Arnald’s soundtrack for Broadchurch. She has performed with a diverse range of artists including Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Sam Amidon, Frankie Gavin, singer-songwriter Rumer on BBC’s Later with Jools Holland, Loah at the National Concert Hall and Efterklang.

Molly O’Shea is a violinist, currently based in Dublin. She completed her BMus in the Cork School of Music in June 2019 under the guidance of Ruxandra Petcu-Colan and Liz Charleson, graduating with First Class Honours. She had spent the previous three years studying under Marc Danel at l’Institut de la Musique et de Pédagogie in Namur, Belgium and graduated with Distinction from a Violin Performance Masters in June 2018.

Ali Comerford completed her Masters in Viola Performance at the Manhattan School of Music in New York after gaining a full scholarship to study with Patinka Kopec. During her time there, she won the Fuchs Chamber Music Prize, and the Hindemith Viola Competition, and played as principal violist under the baton of Leonard Slatkin. After graduating in 2017, Ali performed as principal violist with The New York Chamber Music Players, The Handel Festival Orchestra and TENYC, with whom she premiered works at Carnegie Hall, all while holding a Fellowship at the International House NY.

Yseult Cooper-Stockdale enjoys a varied career, performing with every professional orchestra in the Ireland, while also specialising in experimental performance. Favouring more intimate ensembles, she is highly regarded as a chamber musician and collaborator. Recent projects include the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (Crash and Kirkos), and tours with Spero Quartet, The Vanbrugh, Evlana Quartet, Ficino Ensemble, The Quiet Music Ensemble, BellX1, and the Irish Chamber Orchestra.