Chamber Music Series: Ora Quartet

Siún Milne, violin 
Molly O’Shea, violin 
Robin Panter, viola 
Yseult Cooper-Stockdale, cello 

Mozart - String Quartet in F major K.590 [1790]
Florence Price - Five Folksongs in Counterpoint [1951]
Deirdre Gribbin - Before the Moon Shattered and Shone Again [2019]
​​​​​​​Schumann - String Quartet in A major Op.41 No.3 [1842]

The Ora Quartet, made up of some of Ireland’s most sought-after chamber musicians and collaborators, was founded in 2023. Members Siún Milne, Molly O’Shea, Ali Comerford and Yseult Cooper Stockdale formed the group after enjoying performing alongside each other for several years with a variety of ensembles, including the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Ficino Ensemble, and Kirkos Ensemble.  

Since the quartet’s inaugural concert at Fuddlefest of August ‘23, the group has gone on to perform several NSQF National Tours and has been broadcast on Lyric FM. Ora particularly enjoy collaborative work, and curating programmes with a diverse range of artists and genres. Recent concerts include a series in the Everyman, Cork, working with extraordinary artists such as Mezzo-Soprano Niamh O’Sullivan, performing new arrangements by Cormac McCarthy for traditional singer Hammy Hamilton and String Quartet at the Ionad Cultúrtha, Baile Bhúirne, and recording an album of new works written especially for the group with singer-songwriter James Smith. 

Championing the performance and creation of new works for quartet, Ora has workshopped pieces with composers Emma O’Halloran and Alex Dowling, and look forward to working with the composition faculty of the Royal Irish Academy of Music in 2026.

The quartet are delighted to welcome violist Robin Panter for this Autumn tour with the NSQF.

Siún Milne, violin 

Siún studied the violin with Ruxandra Colan-Petcu at CIT Cork School of Music before completing her BMus degree on scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Maurice Hasson and Mateja Marinkovic. 

Siún is a member of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and has performed with a variety of ensembles throughout her career including the Irish Chamber Orchestra, The Vanbrugh and Callino String Quartet, Aurora Orchestra, Hebrides Ensemble and Scottish Ensemble. She recently performed Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. 

Siun has participated in masterclasses with Gerhard Schulz at IMS Prussia Cove, Pavlo Beznosiuk, Sylvia Rosenberg and Rachel Podger. As a part of Ólafur Arnald’s string quartet, Siún performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Cross-Linx Festival, Volksbühne Berlin and has toured the UK with Arnald’s soundtrack for “Broadchurch”. She has performed with a diverse range of artists including Mícheál O’ Suilleabháin, Sam Amidon, Frankie Gavin, singer-songwriter Rumer on BBC’s Later with Jools Holland, Loah at the National Concert Hall and Efterklang. 

Molly O’Shea, violin 

Molly O’Shea is a violinist, currently based in Dublin. She completed her BMus in the Cork School of Music in June of 2019 under the guidance of Ruxandra Petcu-Colan and Liz Charleson, graduating with First Class Honours. She had spent the previous 3 years studying under Marc Danel at l’Institut de la Musique et de Pedagogie in Namur, Belgium and graduated with Distinction from a Violin Performance Masters June of 2018. 

During her studies, Molly has been a prizewinner in multiple competitions both locally and nationally. In October 2019 she received 2nd prize in the Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year competition and was also the recipient of the Florian Leonhard Fine Instrument Grant and the John Vallery Prize for the Highest Placed String Player. In 2021, Molly was chosen as one of 5 young musicians to take part in the University Concert Hall’s Rising Stars Concert in Limerick. She has been a member of the First Violin section of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland since March 2020 while also maintaining a varied freelance career. 

Molly is an avid chamber musician. With the Inis quartet, Molly was invited to participate in the West Cork Chamber Music Festival masterclasses in summer 2023, taking masterclasses with the Armida Quartet, the Pacifica Quarter and the Ardeo Quartet. She was selected to participate in the Chamber Music Gathering 2019 in the National Concert Hall. In November 2018, Molly was selected to perform at the Philharmonie de Liege as part of a Young Chamber Musicians Programme.  

Robin Panter, viola

Robin Panter is a violist from Liverpool and graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester in 2001. Robin performed and toured with orchestras such as the Liverpool Philharmonic and the Philharmonia orchestra before moving to Glasgow in 2004 to join the viola section of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, who record regularly for radio and perform each year at the BBC Proms, London.

Robin is very interested in music education and outreach, and while in Scotland trained as a Suzuki violin teacher, and was part of "Big Noise" the Scottish version of El Sistema, Venezuela.

Robin moved to Ireland in 2009, and is currently a member of the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Banbha String Quartet and Trio Táin. He also teaches at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin.

Yseult Cooper-Stockdale, cello 

Yseult Cooper Stockdale enjoys a particularly vibrant career, working extensively as a chamber musician and collaborator, orchestral cellist, and specialising in experimental and new music performance.  

She has performed her own collaboratively-devised works internationally at festivals including New Music Dublin, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and London Contemporary Music Festival. Yseult has been a member of Kirkos Ensemble for over 10 years and has worked with groups including Ficino Ensemble, Crash, Musici Ireland, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Ostravská Banda and The Vanbrugh. As an orchestral player, she has sat Co-Principal with the Irish Chamber Orchestra and Principal with Irish National Opera, The Irish Studio Orchestra and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.

Presented by NCH in association with the National String Quartet Foundation