Patrick and Fiachra are two of Ireland’s leading figures in classical music and have just recorded an Album with British Label Rubicon Classics to be released Christmas 2024.

Regarded as one of Ireland’s most outstanding musicians, international award-winning violinist and conductor Patrick Rafter has toured Europe, the Middle East, South America, and Asia as a soloist, director, conductor, and recitalist. Internationally, Patrick has been the grand prize winner of multiple competitions including the Valiant Violin Competition, Switzerland 2016, the London Performing Arts Competition 2017, and the Dublin Feis Ceoil Conducting Competition 2022. 

A protege of the legendary violinist, Maxim Vengerov, Patrick was born in 1991 into a musical family in Kilkenny, Ireland. He quickly became recognized as a prodigious talent winning over 50 national accolades. Patrick received a full scholarship to study at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, studying with Eyal Kless and Fionnuala Hunt. In 2011, Patrick was awarded a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music, London, where he graduated summa cum laude and was awarded multiple prizes throughout his studies. He was also selected as a member of the Academy’s elite string ensemble ‘Sainsbury Royal Academy Soloists’ with whom he made his Wigmore Hall debut in January 2015.  In 2015, Patrick was personally invited to study under Maxim Vengerov at the International Menuhin Music Academy. As of 2022, Patrick is a lecturer at Cork School of Music. He previously taught at the Geneva Conservatory of Music and is a visiting professor at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin. 

1st prizewinner at the 2012 Jaques Samuel Competition, London, Fiachra Garvey made his Fazioli Auditorium (Italy) and Wigmore Hall debuts in 2013. Fiachra has also been a prizewinner at AXA Dublin International Piano Competition (Brennan Prize and McCullough Bursary), EU Piano Competition Prague (concerto finalist), 3rd Soirees-Concours Internationales de Piano a Collioure, France (Audience award) and Feis Ceoil Dublin (Morris Grant Bursary and Mabel Swainson award). The National Concert Hall Dublin awarded Fiachra the “Rising Star” prize in 2011 which led to a number of solo and concerto debuts.

Fiachra graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, London in 2013 with 1st class honours and distinction in the M.A. in Music Performance. This follows a 1st class honours B.A. in Music Performance from the Royal Irish Academy of Music in 2011 and a 1st class honours DipMus (performance and teaching) from the RIAM in 2008. Concerto appearances include the Janáček Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, RTE Concert Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra, RIAM Symphony Orchestra, Hibernian Orchestra and UCD Symphony Orchestra working with eminent conductors including John Wilson, Duncan Ward, Theodore Kuchar, Stephen Bell and Mihhail Gerts.

Photo credit for Fiachra Garvey: MarshallLightStudio