Biog
Ciarán read music at King's College London, studying violin with Gerhard Schmidt at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and has a masters degree from Goldsmiths, University of London. He studied orchestral conducting under Jaroslav Vodňánsky at the Prague Conservatory of Music, and his other conducting teachers have included Dominique Rouits, Gerhard Markson, Peter Eötvös and Salvador Mas Conde. His training has been generously supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, who have helped fund attendance at courses in Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic. Between 2002 and 2005, Ciarán was an IRCHSS Research Scholar at University College Dublin, where he lectures on orchestral conducting and 20th-century music. In 2008, UCD awarded him a PhD in musicology based on his thesis entitled “The (Syn)Aesthetics of Modernism: Music and Visual Art in the Early Twentieth Century”.
Ciarán became Principal Conductor of the Dublin Orchestral Players in 2007 and he has been Artistic Director of the UCD Symphony Orchestra since its foundation in 2002. In 2005, he was highly commended by the selection jury of the Besançon International Competition for Young Conductors. Ciarán has also worked with the Dublin Symphony Orchestra, Dublin Screen Orchestra, Savaria Symphony Orchestra, Cadaqués Orchestra, Miró Chamber Orchestra, Baden Sinfonietta, RIAM Symphony Orchestra, RIAM Wind Ensemble, Dublin County Choir, UCD Choral Scholars, UCD Philharmonic Choir, EAR Ensemble, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Hibernian Orchestra and the Dublin Baroque Players. He has conducted studio recordings of feature film and television scores, music for live film screenings and is an external examiner in orchestral conducting for the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
As a violinist and violist, Ciarán’s experience includes performances with RTÉ, Irish Film Orchestra, Orlando Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Dvořák Festival, Irish Sinfonia, Serenata String Quartet and the Alpha Quartet. Popular music acts that he has played with include Brian Kennedy, Alison Moyet, Vyvienne Long, Paul Weller and Elton John.