Programme
- Dylan Murphy ‘The Beginning Again’ (2024) [First Performance]
Rosie Cameron (Soprano), Tyler Yvonne Wallin (Soprano), and Dr Fionnuala Moynihan (Piano)
- Paul Hindemith (1895–1963) Violin Sonata, Op. 31 No. 2 (1924). 1st Movement: Leicht bewegt Viertel; 2nd Movement: Ruhig bewegt Achtel
Lina Manjarres-Bejarano (Violin)
- Ned Rorem (1923–2022) ‘Look Down, Fair Moon’ (1958)
- Théodore Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin (1821–1910) ‘Jeune Fillettes’ (1894)
- Ned Rorem (1923–2022) ‘Early in the Morning’ (1958)
Tyler Yvonne Wallin (Soprano) and Dr Fionnuala Moynihan (Piano)
- Brietta Kerins ‘A Trip to New York’ (2024) [First Performance]
Lina Manjarres-Bejarano (Violin) and Sam Shortall (Piano)
- Florence Price (1888–1953) Sonata in E Minor (1932). 2nd Movement: Andante
Sam Shortall (Piano)
- Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) ‘Hear Ye, Israel’ from Elijah (1846)
Rosie Cameron (Soprano) and Dr Fionnuala Moynihan (Piano)
Composer Biographies
Brietta Kerins is a songwriter, pianist, and composer. She is currently undertaking an MA in Composition at Maynooth University and focusing on writing new music. Brietta has a BA in Music and English and an MA in Arts Management and Creative Production, both from University College Cork. Trained as a classical pianist from the age of 6, Brietta branched out into jazz piano during her undergraduate degree. She performed in a variety of jazz ensembles and took great interest in the artform of improvisation and its application to the compositional process. As part of her first master’s degree, Brietta commissioned four emerging jazz musicians to compose and perform two new pieces of music during the global pandemic in 2021. The creative process of writing and sharing new work amongst creatives was captured and portrayed in ‘Romantic Rhythms of Rebirth’, a 45-minute documentary. Brietta established herself as an arts producer and manager through this experience, going on to work for organisations such as Cork Craft and Design and the Office of Public Works; she is currently working with Music Generation Ireland. She has a keen interest in screen scoring, both from a musicological and compositional perspective. Her most recent venture took her to New York University in 2023, where she participated in an intensive screen scoring workshop, specialising in scoring for advertising.
Dylan Murphy is a contemporary classical art music composer/performer from Galway in Ireland’s West, and is currently based in Dublin. He is a doctoral student at Maynooth University researching twentieth-century Irish literature in relation to contemporary art music composition, under the supervision Dr Martin O’Leary, and lectures in the Theory Department of BIMM University, Dublin. He has released music in a jazz context, Trudgin’ – For Guitar Trio, which has been said to ‘culminate in this delicious melange of blues styles’ but has gone on to focus on classical art music composition and performance with the release of his first piece, Iridescence - For Solo Piano, performed by Izumi Kimura; Dylan’s subsequent composition, From Swerve of Shore, To Bend of Bay, has been performed by pianist Mei Yi Foo.
The wide-ranging influences on Dylan’s work include: Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Lili Boulanger, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Julian Lage, and Bill Frisell, among many others. He considers that his sound world is derived from a fusion of jazz and contemporary classical idioms resulting in a tonally dense soundscape.
Performer Biographies
Rosie Cameron is a soprano and an aspiring musicologist from Rostrevor, County Down. She is currently undertaking the MA in Performance and Musicology degree at Maynooth University where she studies voice with Kathryn Smith. Her thesis, supervised by Prof. Fiona M. Palmer, explores the profile of the oratorio soprano in the British Marketplace (1840s–1950s). Rosie graduated with a first-class BMus degree from Maynooth University in 2023 and she was also awarded the Third Year BMus Prize for the highest mark. A keen choral singer, she performed with the Ulster Youth Chamber Choir at the 2018 BBC Proms in the Park at Titanic Slipways, broadcast on BBC1. In August 2023, she was awarded the William Lauder Scholarship with the Charles Wood Singers where she performed in broadcasts on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio 3. In March 2024, she was a finalist and placed second in the Charles Wood Junior Song Competition held in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh. Rosie has also participated in masterclasses led by Sir Thomas Allen, Paul Farrington, Sharon Carty, and the late Kathryn Harries OBE.
In Maynooth, she has performed with the Maynooth University Chamber Choir, and she is a current member of the Maynooth University Choral Society with whom she has performed choral works including Haydn’s Creation and the Fauré and Verdi Requiems. Having developed an interest in plainchant during her undergraduate studies, Rosie is also a member of the specialist all-female ensemble Schola Gregoriana Maynooth.
Lina Manjarres-Bejarano graduated from the Pontifical Javeriana University in in Bogotá, Colombia, with a bachelor’s degree in music, specialising in violin performance. She is currently undertaking the MA in Performance and Musicology at Maynooth University where her violin tutor is Niamh O’Connor and her thesis supervisor is Dr Estelle Murphy. As a scholarship-holder, Lina has participated in national and international festivals including the Cartagena Music Festival (2019); the "Music House" programme at the Philadelphia International Music Festival (2019); the Zodiac Music Festival in France (2022); and the International Music Festival of Esmeraldas in Ecuador (2022). She has participated and worked as a performer in various musical projects, the most notable being the "Aires Colombianos Maruja Ginestrosa" program, which was the first orchestration ever made of this piece with Maestro Luis Gabriel Mesa as soloist on the piano. Lina was also the lead violinist in the closing concert for the second instalment of the National Harp Encounter in Bogotá D.C., as part of the musical ensemble for the theatrical adaptation of the work Matsukaze and Murasame. As part of her artistic development on stage, and her pursuit of their integrity and balance, she began an in-depth vocal process in the collective “Tonos” at the end of 2022, and this was successfully completed in December 2023. Also, with “Tonos”, she has been an active performer (violinist and actress) in productions such as House 4 and Instructions for Being a Macho, where she also formally began her acting studies.
Dr Fionnuala Moynihan holds the permanent part-time position of University Pianist and Tutor in Keyboard at Maynooth University. She is widely acknowledged as one of Ireland’s leading concert pianists and she has a particular affinity with the works of Baroque, Classical, and Early-Romantic composers. In 2010 Fionnuala performed the Complete Piano Sonatas of Mozart from memory in the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, in a series of five recitals. She is the first pianist to have undertaken the formidable challenge of performing this cycle in its entirety in Ireland. Since then, Fionnuala has performed seven complete piano sonata series performing the complete cycles by Mozart, Haydn, Clementi and Schubert. Fionnuala has given solo recitals and concerto performances throughout the UK, France, Holland, Italy, Israel, U.S.A, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Russia, Poland, Japan, Holland, and Hungary as well as extensively and regularly in Ireland. In 2009 she became the first person to be awarded a Doctorate in Music Performance from the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Dublin City University. Prior to this, Fionnuala studied with scholarships at the Birmingham Conservatoire, the Paris Conservatoire, and the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. A prolific award winner, her awards include the John Field Prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition, the prestigious Maura Tessier Bursary and the Rena Menasche Award at the Tel Hai Piano Festival, Israel.
Fionnuala’s debut CD ’The Ivory Lady’ was launched in January 2015. This CD is a classical-trad fusion CD and showcases Fionnuala’s love for both the classical and traditional music genres. In April 2016 she recorded a recital of sonatas by Muzio Clementi for The Lyric Concert on RTE Lyric FM. Her latest CD, ‘Melodies of Nations’, with oboist Sanja Romic, was released on the Hedone Label in June 2017. Recent engagements include a solo piano recital in Budapest in September 2023 in memory of the celebrated Hungarian pianist and teacher Kornel Zempleni (this special concert was supported by the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, The Embassy of Ireland in Hungary and Culture Ireland); and a performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; a series of concerts with flautist Kieran Moynihan at Ionad Culturtha in Baile Bhuirne and King House in Boyle; and solo recitals in the O’Reilly Theatre, Dublin. Future engagements include recitals at St Barrahane’s Church Festival of Music in Castletownshend and a solo piano Schubert series in the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, including two duo works with flautist Kieran Moynihan in Autumn 2024. A solo Chopin series and a concert tour of eight venues with flautist Kieran Moynihan are among the highlights that await in 2025.
Sam Shortall began studying piano with Marguerite Halpin in Kylemore College at the age of 5, and thereafter took lessons with Eoin Tierney. Sam was awarded an ARIAM Teaching Diploma (Honours) in January 2022. He graduated with a first-class honours BA in Music and Philosophy from Maynooth University in 2023 and is currently undertaking the MA in Performance & Musicology at the University. He is currently studying piano performance under the tutelage of Barbara Murray (TU Dublin Conservatoire). His MA thesis focuses on the aesthetics of improvisation in the music of Franz Schubert and is supervised by Professor Lorraine Byrne Bodley.
Sam teaches piano in Castleknock School of Music, Straffan School of Music, and in Kylemore College Music Centre. He has played in various venues around Ireland, including the National Concert Hall, the Helix, and the Victory Centre. He has been the pianist for Knockmitten Youth Choir in Clondalkin since 2018, accompanying solo and choral concerts. He was the pianist/keyboardist for the Emmanuel Concerts in 2019 and 2020. His own original liturgical composition was performed at the 2020 concert. As well as classical music, Sam has a keen interest in jazz styles and improvisation. He has participated and performed at Sligo Jazz Festival and is currently the pianist for Kylemore College Jazz Ensemble.
Tyler Yvonne Wallin had a keen interest in music from a young age. Coming from a rural and impecunious background, lessons were not available until her college years. During her high school years, she was president of the choir and clarinet section leader in the Mansfield High School music departments. She received district and state I-ratings (the highest ratings) in the local and state competitions there.
While undertaking her bachelor’s degree in music at Missouri State University, Tyler studied voice under Grace St. Pierre with focus in classical singing. Later in her undergraduate studies, she found a love for jazz piano and singing while studying with Kyle Aho, head professor of piano jazz and improvisational jazz. Singing in all choirs available, she toured for the album Easter 1906 in 2021 with the renowned Missouri State University Chorale. During her minor degree study with Darcy Stephens, she delved into pop, rock, and other recorded music by completing this minor degree in recording techniques where she wrote, produced, and mixed multiple types of music including creating advertisements for local companies and animated arts in Springfield, Missouri.
After the completion of her undergraduate degree in the USA, Tyler chose to continue her education abroad and she is currently undertaking the MA in Performance and Musicology at Maynooth University. Her vocal tutor is Kathryn Smith and her thesis is supervised by Dr Antonio Cascelli. Tyler’s research explores the effects of childhood trauma present in classical singing. While in Ireland, she has performed with the MU Chamber Choir on many occasions, and appeared on RTÉ’s Lyric FM in autumn 2023 as a soloist in the Choir. She hopes to complete the MA degree and continue her educational journey by studying the connections between mental well-being, music performance, and culture as a performative art.
For more information on the range of taught MA programmes offered by the Music Department please see our website:
https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/music/prospective-students