Carol McGonnell, Tamsin Waley-Cohen & Fiachra Garvey

For clarinetist Carol McGonnell, the word ‘play’ takes center stage. It reaches far beyond the formal act of making music. It starts by acknowledging our natural state; open, receptive, awake, alive. In a sense, play is a path to be actively followed by listener and performer alike. Play is about bravery and ferocious curiosity.

Carol has performed chamber music with musicians including the Danish String Quartet, the Modigliani Quartet, the Elias String Quartet, Jonathan Biss, Kit Armstrong, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Midori, Daniel Hope, Barbara Hannigan and Frederica Von Stade.

The American public broadcaster PBS recently released a documentary in which Carol, Kirill Gerstein, Leila Josefowicz and Paul Watkins are featured performing Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. The documentary celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Santa Fe Chamber Festival.

As soloist Carol was featured in Nico Muhly’s Carnegie debut, in John Adam’s In Your Ear Festival at Carnegie Hall and in Monday Evening Concerts, curated by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Many performances with groups such as The Knights Chamber Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and the RTE Concert Orchestra brought her as the soloist to major venues. She has also performed at Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series.

Invitations from festivals have taken Carol from Mecklenburg Festival (Germany) to Suntory Hall Chamber Music Garden (Japan), from Djúpid Festival (Iceland) to US festivals such as Aspen, Marlboro, Spoleto and the Sounds French Festival. In Ireland, Carol is a frequent guest at festivals such as Dublin International Chamber Music Festival, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Killaloe Music Festival and the Kilkenny Festival.

Carol co-founded Argento New Music Project in 2000. It was dubbed ‘An essential source of adventurous new music’ by Alex Ross of The New Yorker. Carol has premiered dozens of new works, ranging from solo pieces to clarinet concertos, by composers such as Helmut Lachenmann, Tristan Murail, Katharina Rosenberg, Philippe Hurel, Kevin Volans, Nico Muhly and Erin Gee. Ann Cleare is currently writing a clarinet quintet for Carol and the JACK Quartet.

Carol recently produced a video performance of Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint for the opening of the new home of the New York Philharmonic, playing together with 10 other clarinetists including Anthony McGill, Ricardo Morales and Anton Rist. It was also used to launch Apple Classical at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue. A separate version, playing all 11 parts herself, was deemed ‘mandatory viewing’ by Bachtrack.

In association with the National Gallery of Ireland, Carol has been artistic director of Music for Museums, bringing Irish performers to places such as the Isabella Stewart Gardner in Boston, J.P. Getty in Los Angeles and the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. Invited to the National Gallery in Dublin were performers such as Dawn Upshaw, The Irish Baroque Orchestra, The Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, Jennifer Frautschi and Jeremy Denk.

Carol studied at the Queen’s University of Belfast, Ireland, and at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany. She was granted a full scholarship from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City to study with Charles Neidich, receiving her Masters in 2001.

Carol McGonnell gave masterclasses and workshops at Columbia, Harvard and Princeton, Curtis, Guildhall and the Royal Scottish Conservatoire, among others. She is on faculty for contrabass clarinet at Juilliard, and is grateful to the Music Capital Scheme in supporting the acquisition of her contrabass and basset clarinet.

Born in London, Tamsin Waley-Cohen enjoys an adventurous and varied career. In addition to concerts with the Royal Philharmonic, and London Philharmonic, she has twice been associate artist with the Orchestra of the Swan and works with conductors including Vasily Petrenko, Ryan Bancroft and Tamás Vásáry.

She is thrilled to be a Signum Classics Artist. With her sister, composer Freya Waley-Cohen, and architects Finbarr O’Dempsey and Andrew Skulina, she held an Open Space residency at Aldeburgh, culminating in the 2017 premiere of Permutations at the Aldeburgh Festival, an interactive performance artwork synthesising music and architecture. Her love of chamber music led her to start the Honeymead Festival, now in its twelth year, from which all proceeds go to support local charities.

She is a founding member of the Albion string quartet, appearing regularly with them at venues including Wigmore Hall, Aldeburgh Festival, and the Concertgebouw. In 2016-2017 she was the UK recipient of the ECHO Rising Stars Awards, playing at all the major European concert halls and premiering Oliver Knussen’s Reflection, written especially for her and Huw Watkins. In the 2018-19 season she toured Japan and China, and gave her New York Debut recital at the Frick.

She is Artistic Director of the Two Moors Festival, and has previously been Artistic Director of the Music Series at the Tricyle Theatre, London, and the Bargello festival in Florence. She studied at the Royal College of Music and her teachers included Itzhak Rashkovsky, Ruggiero Ricci and András Keller.