Guest columnist: violinist Darragh Morgan

In the spring of 1989, I received a letter from the then Music Officer in Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Philip Hammond. The letter said that the Council would help fund the travel costs for me to attend a month-long summer school that year at the Luzerne Music Center in upstate New York.

The opportunity to study chamber music and ensemble playing with members of The Philadelphia Orchestra and to have violin lessons with an ex-assistant of the Russian violinist David Oistrakh, proved to be pivotal experiences for the then 15-year-old me.

I have always appreciated that early recognition from the Arts Council and the support they gave to a young Belfast school boy with an overwhelming passion for music. The knowledge I gained from that summer school and the people I met there were key to my going on to study music at a higher level and to eventually becoming a professional classical violinist.

This initial contact with Philip Hammond - also very much an active composer – led to a collaboration with him the following year on his violin and piano work, Elegiac Variation. This experience and subsequent performances with the late Derek Bell (The Chieftains), who was my piano duet partner when I was growing up in Belfast, sparked a lifetime interest in the music of today.

Since then, I have been lucky enough to forge close creative partnerships with living composers, both as a soloist and a founding member of The Fidelio Trio. These long-standing musical relationships with many of Ireland and Northern Ireland’s leading composers have resulted in the commissioning, premiering and recording of a huge number of new works, often written especially for me.

Encouragement and invaluable support from ACNI has led to close working collaborations with composers including Deirdre Gribbin, Deirdre McKay, Ed Bennett, Ian Wilson, Stephen Gardner, Simon Mawhinney, Piers Hellawell, Michael Alcorn, Philip Hammond, Áine Mallon and Neil Martin.

Through its ongoing funding, the Arts Council has enabled me to present music by Northern Irish composers at prestigious venues across the world, from The Phillips Collection, Washington DC, to Shanghai Oriental Arts Center.

The Arts Council’s championing of our cornerstone music organisations has allowed me to perform and work with Walled City Music, Moving On Music, Belfast Music Society, Belfast International Arts Festival and on many occasions to appear as soloist with our own wonderful Ulster Orchestra, including in a notable world premiere by Sir John Tavener, Hymn of Dawn.

Over thirty years since I initially made contact with ACNI, I was delighted and honoured last year to receive a Major Individual Artist Award. This project has led to my recording four fantastic new works for solo violin and orchestra, all written for me by long time musical friends and collaborators from Northern Ireland: Frank Lyons, Brian Irvine, Bill Campbell and Ryan Molloy.

The recording sessions took place in September 2025 with the Ulster Orchestra, conducted by David Brophy in the fabulous acoustics of the Ulster Hall. The resulting album will be released in spring 2026 on the award-winning record label, Resonus Classics.

For further information on Darragh Morgan’s work, visit Darragh Morgan | Violin

Darragh Morgan will be taking part in the 13th Fidelio Trio Winter Chamber Music Festival, which runs from 28th - 30th November.