Anna Mullarkey is an award-winning composer and performer from Galway, whose music weaves electronics with piano and voice. The Irish Times called her “phenomenal”. Her original score for the film The Passion (2021) has won awards in Ireland and Europe. Anna is currently working on scoring for theatre and film, blending electronics with classical music. 

As a music educator, Anna has trained in Colourstrings for voice and piano, a method that integrates play with education. She also has a degree and diploma in Psychology and leadership in mental health, important educational tools. Anna has been teaching in Scoil na BhForbacha as a music teacher for the last eight years and gives workshops in music at different festivals including Hedge School and Galway Junior Film Fleadh.

Molly Twomey grew up in Lismore, County Waterford, and graduated in 2019 with an MA in Creative Writing from University College Cork.

Her first collection, Raised Among Vultures, was published in 2022 by The Gallery Press. It won the Southword Debut Collection Poetry Award and was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Poetry Prize for a First Collection and the Farmgate National Poetry Award. Her work has appeared in Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Banshee, The Irish Times, Mslexia, The Stinging Fly and elsewhere.

In 2021, she was chosen for Poetry Ireland’s Introductions series as well as their International Residency Scheme. An awardee of an Arts Council Literature Bursary, Molly Twomey was also the recipient of the 2023 Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary.

Ute M. Engelhardt has been a freelance director since 2013 and lives in Germany.

She has many years of experience as a music theatre and cultural mediator. She is particularly keen to convey her enthusiasm for music and the many possibilities of artistic expression to children and young people. She has many years of experience in that. Particularly noteworthy here is her artistic direction of several opera camps at the Salzburg Festival from 2014-2017 and the production of the youth opera "MINA" by Uwe Dierksen at the Frankfurt Opera.

She has demonstrated her skills as a teacher in the subjects of music and theatre at Emilie-Wüstenfeld-Gymnasium in Hamburg as well as teaching at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts with students on the Bachelor's and Master's degree courses in singing. 

Sligo Baroque Music Festival is currently led by Artistic Director Sharon Carty, a mezzo-soprano who has firmly established a reputation as a respected interpreter of both early and contemporary works, alongside maintaining a busy schedule in mainstream opera and concert repertoire.

She is an alumna of the RIAM Dublin, MDW Vienna, and Oper Frankfurt Young Artist Programme, and has been an Artistic Partner to Irish National Opera since the company began in 2018. She is the 2023/2024 Artist in Residence for the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

She is a qualified PE and Music teacher and has been a Creative Associate on the Arts Council Creative Schools scheme since its inception in 2018.

Since 2001, Claire Garvey has worked as an artist and fashion designer. She has shown in New York Fashion Week, designed for Nile Rodgers and Chic for The Oscars, as well as for the X-Factor, Dancing with the Stars, and Miss Universe Ireland. She has made appearances on The Late Late Show and was mentioned in the New Yorker for her creation of Eimear Noone’s Oscars outfit. She continues to create bespoke pieces for musicians and celebrities including Mary Coughlan, Katherine Lynch, Noel Cunningham, Evanna Lynch, and many more.

With funding from a YPCE Bursary in 2022, Claire became Artist in Residence in Cluny, Killiney, mentoring the students there, as well as St. Joseph’s and Margaret Aylwards. Claire has also worked with the students in Colaiste Dhulaigh and Limerick College of Art. She recently acted as a judge for Junk Kouture, providing mentorship and guidance for the students who took part.

Claire has created the junior Eurovision winners’ outfits for the past few years, and recently worked on Bambi Thug’s outfits for Eurovision 2024.

Sue Crawford is Assistant Stage Manager and Props Maker specialist with over 8 years’ experience across all areas of set design, including set construction and lighting. She also has extensive experience with scenic painting and costume roles, from supervisor to maintenance and breakdown work. Sue works closely with designers, directors and performers to understand their needs, facilitate their vision and bring it to life.

Violinist Nicola Cleary has enjoyed a prestigious career learning from, performing as, and most recently educating as one of Ireland’s leading musicians of her generation.

This rich heritage has embodied within Nicola a devoted passion to her art and a desire to communicate her expertise to her audiences, students and, most importantly, towards Ireland’s musical youth, the musicians of tomorrow.

On the home stage, Nicola lent her talent to the National Symphony Orchestra and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Always having been drawn to chamber music, Nicola pursued her desire to perform with both national and international chamber groups, most notably the Irish Baroque Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Ireland, Deutsche Kammerakademie, London Handel Players, and Paris ensemble Orfeo55.

Over the past few years in Sligo, Nicola has been instrumental in bringing musicians young, local, and professional to share their performances with enthusiastic audiences.

James Riordan is Artistic Director of Brú Theatre. He is a writer and theatre maker from Galway and trained at LISPA (London) and the APT (Berlin). 

James spent many years working in Berlin and London for companies including the English National Opera and Absurda Comica and was a core member of The LipSinkers (UK) for 4 years. After returning to Ireland, he set up Brú in 2018. He is an Irish Times Theatre Awards Best Actor nominee 2020 for his role in Brú’s Selvage, has recently directed a piece for the Abbey Theatre as part of Reel Mix and received the Abbey’s Michael Hogan Commemoration Bursary in 2021 to write a new piece of long form lament.   

He is Digital Artist in Residence with the Centre for Creative Technologies at the University of Galway and directed the Macnas flagship parade in 2023.  

He has been a participant on Creative Europe’s Make a Move, Theatre Forum’s MAKE, Performance Corp’s SPACE programme and Druid FUEL. He works as a freelance director and facilitator and was a Business to Arts Artist in Residence 2019/20, creating the SOAR program with mature students of the University of Galway’s Access program. He has been a panellist speaker with Theatre Forum, Irish Theatre Institute, Creative Ireland and University of Galway.