The Ivernia Ensemble...
The Ivernia Ensemble is a flexible chamber group based in Galway.
The group performs music from Baroque to contemporary. We can work with you to craft unforgettable concert and musical experiences for your audiences, clients and employees in Galway, Belfast and further afield.
We are particularly interested in performances that fuse visual, spatial and temporal experiences with sound and music, working in unusual spaces and contexts.
Get in touch with your ideas for collaboration!!
The Ivernia String Quartet are Galway’s newest professional string quartet. Led by violinist and conductor Sinead Hayes, they will perform their first concerts in the Mall Theatre Tuam, for Strings at Christmas.
The Ivernia String Quartet is:
Sinead Hayes – Violin
Zither David Cadena Ramirez – Violin
Gawain Usher – Viola
Eszter Cetinceviz – Cello
The Ivernia Piano Trio gave their first concert at Culture Night, September 2023, performing a programme of Vivaldi, Bach and Carolan for a packed audience in the Augustinian Church, Galway. They recently performed a programme of Mozart and Haydn for the St. Nicholas Coffee Concert Series in November 2023. They also performed a series of concerts in Care Homes for Galway Music Residency, working with sopranos Niamh St. John and Aisling Kenny.
The Ivernia Piano Trio is:
Sinead Hayes – Violin
Eszter Cetinceviz – Cello
Ramin Haghjoo – Piano/Organ
Musician & Collaborator Biographies
Artistic Director - Sinead Hayes
Ivernia Ensemble Artistic Director is Sinead Hayes, a conductor and violinist from Corofin, Tuam, Co. Galway, but working all over Ireland!
Sinead is a Britten Pears Artist for 2023/24. A graduate of the masters conducting programme of the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, she is emerging as a leading interpreter of contemporary music and opera in Ireland. The 2023-24 season is Sinead’s tenth season as conductor of the Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble in Belfast, with whom she has premiered numerous works by established Irish and international composers. She has conducted all the major professional orchestras in Ireland including the Ulster Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra and Irish Chamber Orchestra, as well as conducting productions for Northern Ireland Opera, Irish National Opera and Opera Collective Ireland.
Recent projects include conducting the world premiere of Ian Wilson’s Passerine Night with the Fews Ensemble, the broadcast of Elaine Agnew’s opera Paper Boat for RTE Lyric FM, concerts with Wexford Sinfonia, Limerick Philharmonic and the Luminosa String Orchestra as well as the creation of an audio piece documenting the work of Anthony Braxton at the Darmstadt Summer Course 2023. This season she returns to Wexford Sinfonia and Limerick Philharmonic, as well as making her Ulster Hall debut conducting the Irish Doctor’s Orchestra. She will work for a third season as conductor of the Royal Irish Academy Symphony Orchestra, and looks forward to sharing new approaches on creative music making and conducted improvisation, inspired by her experiences at Darmstadt 2023.
She is founder and artistic director of the Ivernia Ensemble, a new flexible chamber group dedicated to bringing high quality performances and immersive musical projects to audiences in the west of Ireland and Belfast. As a violinist, Sinead has also recently been a guest leader with ConTempo Quartet, performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in Galway in November 2023.
Eszter Cetinceviz - Cello
Eszter Cetinceviz, Hungarian cellist was born in Hungary 1976. She acquired her diploma at The University of Miskolc Bartók Béla Institute of Music. She started her carrier as a member of The Miskolc National Theater Orchestra later she featured there as a Principal Cellist. She got accepted into The Hungarian Symphony Orchestra Miskolc in 2004 and worked until 2022. The Orchestra regularly played at international festivals, and in more notable concert halls worldwide. They were also a constant performer at the Bartók Plus Opera Festival of Miskolc. From 2007 Eszter had many performances as a member of the Allegra string quartet. She got her Master’s Degree in 2013 and she has been actively teaching children in Tiszaújváros and Miskolc on the side.
Since she graduated she continuously worked as a professional musician for more than 20 years.
She is now based in Galway
Ramin Haghjoo - Piano
Ramin Haghjoo was born and raised in California. At the University of California he received a B.M. in Piano, an M.A. in Music Theory, and a Ph.D. in Music Theory, all of which were funded by a full scholarship and full fellowships. Before moving to Galway in 2012, he was based in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he worked as a professional pianist, organist, choir director, and music director. While a doctoral student, he taught in the music department at the University of California while teaching as a piano, organ, and music theory teacher.
In Ireland, Ramin Haghjoo has been working as piano and theory/composition teacher for Maoin Cheoil na Gaillimhe since 2012 where he also conducts the youth orchestra and has led them in concerts in Ireland and Europe. He has also been teaching in composition, history, and theory at NUIG since the inception of the music department in 2018. As a church musician he works as the organist/music director at the Augustinian church in Galway. As a composer he continues to compose and arrange music for choir, youth orchestra, and chamber ensembles. Lastly, as a performer, he is active around the West of Ireland as a piano and organ soloist and accompanist.
Zither David Cadena Ramirez - Violin
David’s journey as a violinist commenced in 2004 with the Colombian Youth Symphony Orchestra Foundation. In 2022, he completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of Cundinamarca in Colombia. Presently, he is a first-year student pursuing a Master in Classical String Performance at the University of Limerick.
Throughout his musical pursuits, he has been privileged to learn from esteemed professors including Luis Martín Niño from Colombia, Robert Stepanian from Armenia, Mikhail Zemtzov from Russia, Alessandro Borgomanero with dual roots in Brazil and Italy, and Erika Dobosiewicz representing Poland.
Gawain Usher - Viola
Originally from rural Vermont in the United States, British-American violist Gawain Usher split his time studying between the United States and Scotland.
During his studies, Gawain was generously awarded numerous prizes such as the Mary D. Adams Prize in Chamber Music, First Prize in the Mabel Glover String Quartet Competition as well as several other performance awards. Currently, Gawain is on trial with the RTE Concert Orchestra, as well as being a regular freelancer with Irish National Opera, the National Symphony Orchestra as well as many other esteemed ensembles across Ireland.
Gawain is very grateful to have studied with several fantastic musical mentors throughout his career such as Mathew Michelic, Renee Skerik, Scott Dickinson, Sophie Renshaw, and Joachim Roewer.