2025 Musicians
Find out more about our wonderful team of musicians below. There are some familiar faces from last year as well as a couple of newcomers to both the festival and County down!

Orla McGarrity - Festival Director
Orla McGarrity is an Irish violinist based in Manchester where she graduated from the RNCM with a First-Class Honours Degree, studying with James Clark. She is currently pursuing a Masters under the tutelage of Cecily Ward and Pavel Fisher also at the RNCM, and has performed in masterclasses for Arabella Steinbacher, Nathaniel Vallois and Vera Vaidman. Recent highlights include performing works inspired by climate change at the Wigmore Hall with the RNCM Sinfonietta and playing with Northern Ireland Opera in their Autumn production of Eugene Onegin. In 24/25 Orla is one of the Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble's Young Artists, receiving coaching on and performing contemporary repertoire. Orla's love for curating chamber events led her to working as the Programming Assistant at the RNCM in 2022/23 and co-directing Enys Chamber Music Festival in Cornwall. She also enjoyed interning at Weesp Chamber Music Festival in the Netherlands and working as an ad hoc chamber music tutor at RNCM's Junior Department. Orla recently set up the Mourne Chamber Music Festival in Newcastle County Down which she plans to continue for years to come. She plays on a 1920 Carlo Carletti violin generously loaned to her by the Harrison Frank Family Foundation and is grateful to be supported by the William and Frances Dobie Charitable Foundation. When not playing violin, Orla can be found evicting slugs from her allotment or reading a good book.

The Talland Quartet
Formed during their time at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Talland Quartet are dedicated to sharing their passion for chamber music. The quartet have won multiple prizes at the RNCM and were chosen to participate in the 2023/2024 Hans Keller Forum in Cambridge, receiving guidance from Alasdair Beatson, Richard Ireland, and John Myerscough. In 2023 they performed a pre-show set at Depot Mayfield during the Manchester International Festival, supporting Anna Meredith. The Quartet have participated in the Delft Chamber Music Atelier, studying under the tutelage of Donald Grant, Pavel Fischer, and Raaf Hekkema. Additionally, they have had the privilege of learning from esteemed artists Petr Prause, Mats Zeterqvist, Sara Bitlloch, and Henk Guittart. The ensemble has performed at concert societies across the North of England, as well as at festivals such as Enys Chamber Music Festival, Mourne Chamber Music Festival, and RNCM's Original Voices Festival.

Angus Bain
Angus Bain is a freelance violinist based in London. After initially reading engineering at the University of Cambridge, he made the difficult but wise decision to pursue a career as a musician, completing a Master’s with distinction at the Royal Academy of Music in 2021. He has since been freelancing and trialling with orchestras across the UK including the Royal Opera House Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Hallé, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, amongst others, and recently completed a six-month contract with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Angus also loves playing chamber music - whether it be performing in public or informally with friends at home – and writing arrangements for small ensembles, especially of folk tunes. Outside of music, he spends any spare time learning languages and running (occasionally at the same time), as well as playing football and ice hockey (not at the same time). Angus is very grateful to be playing on an Italian violin made by Dante and Alfredo Guastalla in 1929, generously on loan from the Harrison-Frank Family Foundation.

Audrey Doyle
Scottish violinist Audrey Doyle is currently studying a 1 year masters at RNCM under Cath Yates and Pavel Fischer. She studied at St Mary’s Music School for 4 years with Ruth Crouch playing in many venues across Edinburgh such as the Queens Hall and St Mary’s Cathedral. Audrey is passionate about chamber music and plays with the Heartwood Quartet with whom she performs around the UK. The Heartwood Quartet is a 2024 Hans Keller ensemble supported by Chamber Studio UK. Audrey was a finalist in the RNCM concerto competition in 2024 playing Prokofiev violin Concerto no 1 and has participated in masterclasses with musicians such as Jennifer Pike, Sophia Jaffe, Henning Kraggerud, Linus Roth, Roberto Ruisi, Mark Messenger, the Maxwell quartet and the Fitzwilliam quartet. Audrey was a member of the 2024 Järvi Academy working with Neeme Järvi, performing in the Parnü Music Festival in Estonia and studying with Tanja Becker-Bender. She has appeared at chamber music festivals such as Lake District Summer Music and Enys Chamber music festival. Audrey was grateful to receive scholarships for her studies generously provided by the Thomas Jellis Bequest and Haworth Trust.

Jamie Howe
Jamie is a postgraduate student at the Royal College of Music under the tutelage of Simon Roland-Jones and Andriy Viytovych. He is a former Principal Viola of both the Ulster Youth Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and has had the pleasure of performing in the Konzerthaus in Berlin and the Carnegie Hall, New York, as a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra. Jamie has enjoyed masterclasses with Timothy Ridout, Lawrence Power, and Garth Knox. He has worked under a number of leading conductors, including Sir Mark Elder, John Wilson, Semyon Bychkov, and, most recently, Sir Simon Rattle and Sir Antonio Pappano as part of the String Experience Scheme with the London Symphony Orchestra. He has completed the Professional Experience Scheme with the Ulster Orchestra and has since been invited to undertake some professional deputy work. With the Camerata Ireland orchestra, under the direction of pianist Barry Douglas, Jamie enjoyed an extensive concert tour of China. An avid fan of chamber music, Jamie plays in the Regency String Quartet. They have performed in many venues throughout London and had the privilege of taking part in the Sir Elton John Global Exchange Programme in Hong Kong in 2023. The quartet participated in the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove, studying with Kim Kashkashian. They have been selected as Kirckman Concert Society Artists and are looking forward to some exciting concerts in 2025/26.

Harry Broom
A graduate of the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag in the Netherlands, RNCM and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire receiving the highest marks for performance, cellist Harry Broom BMus Hons, MMus, PgDip (1997) is currently pursuing a busy and diverse career both as a performer and a teacher. Harry has performed in concert halls such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Royal Albert Hall London, The Bridgewater Hall Manchester, The Glasshouse Newcastle, Tivoli Vredenburg Utrecht and Symphony Hall Birmingham. Harry currently freelances with orchestras such as BBC Philharmonic (No.2, No.4), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra No.4 (also in conjunction with Dutch National Opera at the Nationale Opera and Ballet Amsterdam), The Hallé (No.2), Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Welsh National Opera, Residentie Orkest Den Haag and the English Symphony Orchestra and has been broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3 and Dutch Radio NPO 4. In chamber music, Harry is a member of the Lismore Quartet based in Edinburgh performing concerts around the UK. He also plays regularly as a guest in concerts with ensembles (Talland Quartet, Pelargos Quartet and Aestus Quartet) around the UK and the Netherlands.

Samuel Kane
Bio coming soon!

Natálie Kulina
Natálie Kulina (1996) is a fixture in the new music and interdisciplinary media scene in the Netherlands, where she currently resides. Coming from the culturally abundant region of South Moravia in the Czech Republic, she grew up fostering her love not only for music, but also visual arts, theatre and literature, all of which are prominent in her work today. As a violinist, she divides her time between work in various music ensembles (as a concertmaster in Doelen Ensemble between 2022-2024, among others, where she performs as a guest), orchestra playing, chamber music and solo projects, working closely with composers and directors, recording newly written works and work in film and theatre. In 2025, she took part in a research residency funded by Creative Europe, and dedicates much of her time to two new large cross-art productions set to premiere in upcoming seasons as a part of an international development team. One of her highlights of this year is also being involved as a multidisciplinary performer in a newly written and staged work by SALIX Chamber Opera, which deals with complex themes of motherhood (and rejection, lack, or loss thereof). In 2024, Natálie premiered her own interdisciplinary project ‘The Dark Corner of My Circles’, a mix of performance and audio-visual installation, exploring social curation of other people’s perceptions of ourselves, inner monologue, and how much can we really see and understand about one another; and a new cycle of sonatas for violin and electronics ‘Folk Songs Without Folks’ by prominent Dutch composer Peter-Jan Wagemans. In 2023 she was one of the soloists for a premiere of Rubens Askenar’s concerto grosso ‘Poem of Shadows’ with the Sinfonica Tenerife, and performed a recital in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam within the composer Samuel Adams’ residency in 2022, same year she graduated with a Masters degree specialising in new music at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. When not performing, Natálie works as a producer, and a project manager of the Rizoom network, which connects young Netherlands based creatives with the most important musical institutions focused on innovation, such as Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, Korzo theatre, Gaudeamus Festival, November Music Festival and Asko|Schönberg ensemble, researching reframing of concert experiences to include performers and audiences of a vast range of backgrounds, ways of expression and abilities, and to centre stories that matter to us today.

Marcus Vinícius de Oliveira
Born in Brazil, Marcus began learning the double bass at the age of 15 and moved to Manchester in 2018 to study at the Royal Northern College of Music with the renowned double bassist Jiří Hudec, where he graduated with First Class with Honours, becoming one of the most promising double bassists in classical music over the last few years. Member of the Grammy Award’s Latin Recording Academy, Marcus has been awarded several prizes during his career. In 2017, Marcus was awarded the VI Ernâni de Almeida Machado Meyer prize by the São Paulo State Youth Symphony Orchestra as their “Young Musician of the Year”. In 2020, he was a prizewinner in the DoContra International Double Bass Competition and in 2021 he was awarded the Thomas Jellis Bequest Award. More recent achievements include the ABRSM Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Award, the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation’s Tuition Assistance Scholarship Award and the RNCM Concerto Competition, for which he is the first Latin-American double bass prizewinner in the competition’s history. Since 2021, Marcus has been collaborating with several professional orchestras in the UK and abroad including the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also member of Sinfonia Cymru and Chineke! Orchestra. In 2022, Marcus was the first Brazilian musician to complete the “Professional Experience Scheme” with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and, earlier this year, Marcus also became the first Brazilian double bassist to perform a concerto with the BBC Philharmonic, making his professional debut as a soloist in the UK performing the British premiere of Andrés Martin’s Double Bass Concerto No. 1, in a concert that also marked 23 years since the orchestra’s last performance of a double bass concerto. His current aspirations include seeking out more opportunities to perform as a soloist with professional orchestras, and to give further solo recitals across the globe, with a particular desire to bring Brazilian music to a wider audience. Marcus is very excited to be working with Manchester Camerata over the coming year as part of their first cohort of 360° Ruth Sutton Fellows.

Ravi Nathwani
Ravi Nathwani is an exciting young British Asian guitarist from Reading. He completed both his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at The Royal Northern College of Music under the tutelage of internationally renowned guitarist Craig Ogden. He has performed at prestigious venues such as Wigmore Hall, King’s Place and Stoller Hall. Ravi has been the recipient of the Help Musicians UK Postgraduate Award and The Julian Bream Career Development Award and is currently on the International Guitar Foundation’s Young Artist Programme. During his time at The Royal Northern College of Music, Ravi was invited to play at Wigmore Hall on two occasions. He made his debut at the venue in 2022 performing Rain written for soprano, flute, guitar and electronics, by the contemporary Icelandic composer, Anna Thorvaldsdottir. Two years later he performed Loop the Fractal Hold of Rain for guitar duo by American composer Gabriella Smith. Ravi has performed in masterclasses with some of the world’s leading guitarists including Zoran Dukic, Sean Shibe, Tilman Hoppstock, Laura Snowden and Stephen Goss. Ravi became the first guitarist to be a member of RNCM Songsters; an audi oned group of predominantly singers and pianists specialising in performing art song around the UK. In addition to his solo achievements, Ravi works closely with mezzo-soprano, Sophie Clarke in a duo called Cantelina. Together, they received First Place for their performance of Manuel de Falla’s Siete Canciones Populares Españolas in the RNCM Bessie Cronshaw/Frost Brownson Song Cycle Competition. They have given recitals around the UK, at venues such as Ilkley’s King’s Hall, Buxton’s Pavilion Arts Centre, the RNCM Concert Hall and additionally given a performance on BBC Merseyside radio. Ravi has also arranged numerous song for the duo showcasing the ensemble’s versatility.