IBO Apprentices
The IBO Apprentices are the next generation of professional period instrument specialists. We are delighted to be working with this year's cohort.
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The Apprentice Programme in 2025 is generously supported by Learning Benefactors Mike Beary and Gary Gates.
Maria - Estella Fischer (violin)
Maria-Estella Fischer is a violinist currently in her second year of Masters at the MTU Cork School of Music studying with Patrick Rafter. She is also a scholarship recipient from the Faculty of Business and Humanities at MTU.
She completed her Bachelor of Music Degree in 2023 at the Conservatory of Music, Theatre and Media in Hanover with Prof. Meike Bertram and Hans-Christian Euler. She has participated and won multiple competitions at the German competition “Jugend musiziert” solo and as chamber musician at both regional and national level.
She has played in several orchestras and has a passion for baroque and chamber music. Maria-Estella was engaged in numerous masterclasses with Prof. Michael Foyle (Royal Academy of Music), Oliver Kipp (NDR Radiophilharmonie) and Anne-Caroline Thies (Opera Orchestra Hanover).
In August 2023, she was personally invited by Dmitry Sitkovetsky to attend his masterclass at the Blackmore Academy in Berlin which was funded by Camerata Ireland.
Kevin Meehan (violin)
Kevin Meehan is an award-winning violinist specializing in Baroque and Modern music. An honours graduate of RIAM with a Bachelor’s in Music Performance and a Teaching Diploma, he has performed as soloist in Croatia with the IYBO and with the Irish Baroque Orchestra (IBO) Apprentices around Ireland. He was invited twice to perform on the renowned Cobbe Collection of period instruments in the UK.
In 2023, Kevin founded the Fantasia Baroque Festival in Dublin. Since then, he has performed at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Limerick Early Music Festival, the National Gallery of Ireland, and many other festivals and venues across Ireland and the UK. As an Apprentice Baroque Violinist with the IBO in 2024, he played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in an Apprentice Showcase Concert, and Handel’s Messiah with the IBO in sell-out concerts.
As the recipient of the 2025 McCullagh-Ó Briain Emerging Artist Award, Kevin is now actively performing and teaching across Ireland. Passionate about Historically Informed Performance, he is preparing for a Masters degree in Early Music in the Netherlands for 2026, whilst also establishing a Baroque collective based in Dublin. Kevin plays on a Baroque Violin made by master luthier Michiel de Hoog.
Claire O'Sullivan (violin)
Claire O’Sullivan is a violinist currently completing an MA under Katherine Hunka at the MTU Cork School of Music.
She completed her undergraduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music under Julia Hanson and Steven Wilkie, where she was awarded the Wolfson Foundation Grant. During this time she was invited on tour to China with Pavel Fischer and the RNCM Chamber Orchestra and to the Cantiere Internazionale D’Arte Montepulciano performing with the RNCM Symphony Orchestra. She has received masterclasses from Henk Guittart and Mairéad Hickey. Claire led the CSM Symphony Orchestra in 2023/2024.
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As part of her MA, she received Baroque violin lessons with Marja Gaynor, encouraging her to participate in the IYBO last July. She was also a past member of the Wiener Jeunesse Orchester and the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland.
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Eve Quigley (viola)
Eve Quigley is a violist studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she studies with Matthew Jones.
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She has received significant recognition in competitions, recently winning the 2025 IrishHeritage Homan Potterton Bursary for Strings and the 2024 Guildhall Max and Peggy Viola Prize. She was awarded first prize in the Senior Viola Cup at the 2022 Feis Ceoil and achieved Very Highly Commended in the 2024 Aileen Gore Cup. She has participated in the Camerata Ireland Academy and the Davidsbündler Academy in the Netherlands and has taken masterclasses with musicians such as Máté Szűcs, Santa Vižine, Robert Levin, and Alastair Tait.
A passionate chamber musician, Eve regularly performs with her quartet, who were selected as Britten Pears Young Artists for 2024-2025 and Southwell Festival Apprentices in 2024. In March 2024, they won the Guildhall School’s St James’ Prize. She has also performed in the West Cork Chamber Music Festival Young Musicians’ Series from 2021 to 2024.
Eve is an experienced orchestral musician, having performed with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and alongside members of the Aurora Orchestra at Southwell Music Festival. She was a reserve member of the European Union Youth Orchestra in 2023 and has played with ensembles including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Young, the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, and the Ulster Youth Orchestra, where she led the viola section.
Eve began her musical studies at the Young European Strings School of Music, where she trained for 15 years. In 2021, she earned a Diploma in Music Teaching and Performance with distinction under Rosalind Ventris at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
Paulo Alonso (viola)
Paulo Alonso is currently pursuing a master's degree in performance at the University of Limerick in Ireland. This course is jointly operated by the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance and the Irish Chamber Orchestra.
Paulo Alonso began his studies within the Sonidos de la Tierra project in his hometown Acahay in 2005. He continued his studies at the Faculty of Music of the National University of Asunción with professors Gerardo Gramajo, Gustavo Barrientos, and Alan Kovacs, where he earned his Bachelor of Music degree.
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He participated in the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan (2023) where he took classes in chamber music, viola, and orchestral repertoire with musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and other leading North American Orchestras. At that time, he served as principal viola in one of the projects, under the conductor Thomas Dausgard.
In the field of chamber music, he is a national award-winner. With the Hyapu Quartet and the Asunción Trio, he won first prize in the 1st and 2nd Lorenzo N. Livieres Banks National Chamber Music Competitions.
He also spends his time as principal viola player with the National Symphony Orchestra of Paraguay and as viola professor at the Faculty of Music of the National University of Asunción.
Nuria Vizcaino (cello)
Núria was born in Barcelona, and started learning cello and piano at the age of 6. She decided to study her cello bachelor in Conservatori Superior del Liceu, and later she moved to Limerick to complete the MA in Classical String Performance, as well as a Certificate in World Music.
She is very active and likes to travel around in order to perform with different ensembles and kinds of music such as baroque, symphonic, pop, chamber music, or different contemporary works.
Apprentice Programme Alumnae
2024: Jeannette Bogado, Kevin Meehan (violin), Lucy Varney (viola), Sophie Ní Mhaoláin (cello)
2023: Bríona Mannion, Jeannette Bogado (violin), Ciara Sudlow, Lucy Varney (viola), Sophie Ní Mhaoláin (cello)
2022: Jenna Raggett, Giammaria Tesei (violin), Cian MacGarry (viola), Alina Mayer Whitla (cello)
2020 & 2021: Rachel Masterson (violin), Martha Campbell (viola), Alex Felle (double bass)
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