Séamus Crimmins (Jury Chairman and Artistic Director) has played a central role in music and broadcasting through key positions at RTÉ. He was Commissioning Editor FM3, founding Head RTÉ Lyric fm (National Station of the Year 2003) and Director, RTÉ Orchestras, Quartet and Choirs. He originated the Lyric fm Gerald Barry Festival (2000) and co-founded New Music Dublin (2013). Roles with the Arts Council include Policy Director (2003–7) and Consultant Music Adviser (2013-17).
Séamus showed promise as a conductor at QUB and, with ACNI bursary support, undertook masterclasses with George Hurst (Canford) and, later, Janos Furst. While he was Head of Music at the Abbey Grammar School, Newry (his alma mater) he resuscitated Newry Choral Union and, subsequently, he founded Dun Laoghaire Choral Society (1982).
Professional conducting experiences includes ICO, Northern Chamber Orchestra (UK), RTÉ CO, Orchestra of St Cecilia, Talich Chamber Orchestra Prague, London Baroque Sinfonia and many freelance orchestras. He conducted a string of highly successful music theatre productions at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre (including West Side Story). Opera Theatre Company productions of Haydn’s La Vera Costanza and three Handel operas – Tamerlano, Flavio and Amadigi – toured Ireland extensively and led to conducting appearances in London (Covent Garden Festival), New York (BAM) and major festivals in Melbourne, Lisbon (‘Expo 98), Brno, Prague, Buxton and Salisbury.
He has extensive experience as an adjudicator (Feis Ceoil, RTE, Dublin International Piano and Veronica Dunne Singing competitions) and is Artistic Director of the Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year Competition. Board experience includes Centre Culturel Irlandais, West Cork Music, Newry Chamber Music, IBO, OTC, Sing Ireland, OCI and CMC. Supported by a Loyola Trust Scholarship he completed an M.Phil in Christian Theology at TCD during the global pandemic. He enjoys a lively mix of consultancy work as an advocate for music in Ireland.
Darren Hargan is the Founder and Chief Executive of Le Foyer des Artistes which he launched in 2022 to critical acclaim with the backing of Tourism Ireland Switzerland, YAMAHA Music Europe, Arts&Business NI, Juventudas Musicales in Spain, Derry City Council, ChallengeCurve and Principal Sponsor, Alchemy Technology Services.
An Irish and Swiss citizen, he is a conductor and a much sought-after coach and accompanist for singers in Europe.
His career began at the Opernhaus Zürich under Alexander Pereira where he was engaged for 8 years as pianist and assistant conductor working with the most famous singers and conductors in the world. During this time, he was also principal coach of the Internationales Opernstudio.
Darren has conducted the Philharmonia Opernhaus Zürich, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Voralberg Sinfonieorchester, ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Vienna, Arnold Schoenberg Choir and the Karlsbader Sinfonieorchester in the Czech Republic. He has also worked regularly with Markus Poschner at the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and the Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Switzerland.
As guest, he has also worked at Theater an der Wien, Le Grand Théâtre de Genève, Wexford Opera Festival, Selzach Summer Opera Festival, Zürcher Kammerorchester, Locarno Film Festival, Theater Luzern, American Music Institute in Graz, Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn, Theater 11 Zürich, Opera Northern Ireland and Blackwater Opera Valley Festival.
He attended the Royal Academy of Music in London with a full scholarship and assistantship to the Royal Academy Opera. He was also a student of the prestigious joint course at the Royal Northern College of Music with the University of Manchester and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.
Gail Henry (MBA, MA (Music Education), BMus) is one of Ireland’s most versatile music and media professionals. Graduating from University College Dublin with a B. Mus (Hons) Gail is a multiple award-winning flautist having studied with William Dowdall (RTÉ NSO) and Colin Fleming (Ulster Orchestra). Gail went on to win numerous scholarships studying under Elena Duran, Sir James Galway and Emmanuel Pahud.
In 1998, Gail commenced her work in RTÉ as Concerts Manager for the RTÉ Performing groups working with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet and choirs RTÉ Cor na nOg and the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir.
Gail’s extensive knowledge of repertoire, artists, the music industry and love of radio, propelled her move to RTÉ lyric fm for its launch in 1999 where she continues to work as Senior Radio Producer with the station. Gail’s editorial role in the station has led her to produce a great range of offerings from RTE lyric fm’s 25th birthday concert, to features and documentaries, drivetime shows, podcasts, commercial CDs to multi-platform live concerts and opera. Gail has relayed live broadcasts from internationally renowned festivals such as West Cork Chamber Music Festival and Wexford Festival Opera to radio audiences over 10 million around Europe.
Gail’s work as a choral conductor inspired her to establish RTÉ lyric fm’s Choirs for Christmas Competition, now Ireland’s largest choral competition in its 25th year. The competition celebrates music inclusion and community engagement through singing, while aiming to nurture choral singing nationally.
A multiple award-winning producer, she has won major awards including gold at New York Festivals, the outstanding achievement award at the IMRO Radio Awards and the Torc for excellence at the Celtic Media Awards. She is in demand as an adjudicator and jury member, with panels most recently including Concertina Praga, the Antonín Dvořák International Radio Competition for Young Musicians.
In 2022, Gail was elected as the first female chair of the European Broadcasting Union Classical Music Board (a position she holds until 2026) strategically supporting and responding to the needs of over 39 member stations throughout Europe with over 127 public service media orchestras and choirs.
Gail is currently a DBA doctoral candidate at the South East Technical University researching transformational leadership in orchestras.
Paul Hughes joined the BBC in 1999 and was Director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and Director of the BBC Singers. A graduate of Trinity College of Music where he studied piano, composition and conducting, Paul came to the BBC following senior leadership roles with The Academy of Ancient Music, IMG Artists, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra.
Cultural change, opening access to new and diverse audiences, and collaborating with the widest range of artists from the worlds of classical music, rock and pop, literature, and television, has been a driver throughout Paul’s career
A former Governor of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Paul has a passion for discovering and nurturing the next generation of musicians. He is a guest lecturer at several of the UK’s leading conservatoires, mentoring young conductors, composers and arts administrators
He is an honorary member of Trinity College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, the Royal College of Music and has recently been honoured by the Finnish government for services to Finnish music. Paul is regularly invited as a juror for international music competitions.
He is a board member of Welsh National Opera, and of the Three Choirs Festival.
Garth Knox (1956) is at the forefront of the new music scene in several different fields, both as a player and as a composer. Drawing on his vast experience as viola player of the Arditti Quartet (1990 – 1998) and the Ensemble InterContemporain, (1983 – 1990), two of the best-known international contemporary music groups in the world, and his close collaboration with most of the leading composers of today, he has become a unique composer-performer of music of many different styles, ranging from minimalist understatement to the cutting edge of new techniques and new technologies.
More recently thanks to his interest in the viola d’amore and the medieval fiddle, his repertoire has opened up to the music of the past (medieval, baroque) which he persuasively brings into the present. His Irish roots enable him to dialogue with traditional music without complexes. A natural improviser, and an intuitive composer, his music often has elements of innovative instrumental theatre.
Garth Knox’s solo and ensemble pieces have been played all over Europe, USA and Japan. He has received commissions from the Kronos Quartet (USA), the Festival d’Automne in Paris, Proquartet (France), Concorde Ensemble (Ireland), Lucillin Ensemble (Luxembourg), Tokyo International Viola Competition (Japan), Camarata Variabile (Switzerland), and Radio France.
Since her Carnegie Hall debut recital in 2002, Dublin-born pianist Isabelle O’Connell has developed an international career as soloist and chamber musician that has taken her around the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Europe, to venues such as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Chicago Cultural Center, Cleveland Museum of Art, Detroit Art Institute, the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, Time:Spans Festival, MATA Festival, St David’s Hall, Cardiff and the National Concert Hall, Ireland.
Isabelle is co-founder of Grand Band, a piano sextet described by the New York Times as: “six of the finest, busiest pianists active in New York’s contemporary-classical scene”. She is also pianist for the Irish ensemble Evlana. Isabelle has performed with Crash ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Da Capo Chamber Players, the ConTempo and New Zealand String Quartets.
A noted advocate of living composers, Isabelle has worked with John Adams, Linda Buckley, Donnacha Dennehy, Andrew Hamilton, Missy Mazzoli, Meredith Monk, Joan Tower, Julia Wolfe and Kevin Volans amongst many others. She was hailed by The New Yorker as “the Irish piano phenom” upon the release of her debut solo album RESERVOIR in 2010 and has recorded for the Diatribe, Innova, NMC, Pyroclastic and Lyric fm labels.
A Fulbright scholar, Isabelle holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and the Royal Irish Academy of Music. She is currently on the piano faculty and Artist-in-Residence at Bard College and Conservatory of Music in New York, and has given masterclasses and workshops around the world, including at Princeton University, Queen’s University Belfast, Montclair University, the New Zealand School of Music, Dublin Institute of Technology and the European Piano Teachers’ Association.