About MfG
Music for Galway (MfG) is the supreme platform for excellence in international classical music performance in Galway and the West of Ireland. It offers a diverse and stimulating seasonal programme, from solo recitals to chamber music performances, operatic productions and orchestral galas.
MfG has presented internationally renowned artists such as Yehudi Menuhin, Nigel Kennedy, the Halle Orchestra, Barry Douglas, Evelyn Glennie, Emma Johnson, Nicola Benedetti, Wolfgang Holzmair and Peter Donohue. It collaborates regularly with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Irish Baroque Orchestra, and Ireland’s touring opera, Opera Theatre Company. It was instrumental in setting up ConTempo, the Galway Ensemble in Residence, at the heart of the Galway Music Residency.
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Music for Galway’s Artistic Director is acclaimed international pianist, Dubliner Finghin Collins. American composer Jane O’Leary was MFG’s founding Artistic Director from 1981 to 2013.
Anne Ó Máille is Chairperson of Music for Galway. Anna Lardi Fogarty is the company’s Executive Director.
MfG is funded by The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon and Galway City Council.
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Board of Directors
Delia Breathnach is currently a Freelance Administrator in Galway.
Originally from Brooklyn, New York, she arrived in Galway in 2004 and pursued an HD in Arts Administration at NUI Galway. After the successful completion of a marketing project for Music for Galway, Delia was invited to be on its board and considers this one of the nicest things to have happened to her since her arrival. She has served as its chair from 2009 to 2014 and remains an active board member. Having been a music lover for most of her life and a frequent audience member of the New York Philharmonic (both at Concerts in the Parks and at Lincoln Center) she is very happy to have the opportunity to support great classical music here in Galway.
Cyril Briscoe is a creative professional based in the West Of Ireland. He works as an independent marketing strategist on the culture and tourism industries as well as in entertainment and event production. He holds master degrees in Fine Art & Media from the National College of Art & Design.
Claire Cuddy came to Ireland in the early 1970s as lecturer at NUI Galway French department. A keen amateur musician herself, she also worked for many years for the Alliance Francaise, and volunteering in a number of charities in Galway, she has been involved with Music for Galway almost from the start.
Mark Gantly is a Senior Director of R&D at HPE and the current chair of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland and a Fellow of the Irish Academy of Engineering.
Mark’s role on the board of MfG is to raise our profile with the Galway business community. This has included actually staging a MfG concert at HPE’s new facility in Ballybrit in March 2015. Over the last two years, MfG has been successful in attracting significant new sponsorship which has allowed us to broaden our concert program. Mark is first and foremost a lover of the music that MfG champions . Like many of his generation, Mark took piano lessons as a child. He recently returned to class and is now preparing for his Grade 8 piano exam.
Anne O’Maille, chair is the director and owner of The Original House of Style in Galway.
Anne is a lifelong admirer of Classical music. Active Board member of MfG since 2006 with responsibility for Marketing and Strategic Planning. Chair since 2014.
Liz McConnell is the Head of Development at Kylemore Abbey.
Liz McConnell is a native of Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo. Educated at NUI Galway, she graduated with a BA (English and Philosophy) and completed an MA degree on the works of Irish writer, George Moore, before training as a librarian at Trinity College Dublin and UCD.
She has over 20 years’ experience in educational development and fundraising, having served as Assistant Director of Development at Trinity Foundation and Deputy Director of Galway University Foundation. Since 2003, she has been Director of Public Affairs at NUI Galway, during a period of exponential growth and development, which has seen the University steadily increase its position in global rankings.
Claire McLaughlin joined the board as the GMIT representative. She has has recently taken early retirement, having been a member of staff there, lecturing in Art and Design since 2000. Her work with the Board continues to include the encouragement of students to volunteer with Music for Galway and to experience the live performance of classical music, often for the first time. She also brings her experience in assessing and managing risk to the Board. Claire maintains her own art practice through the medium of clay. Her interest in music finds expression in singing. She is engaged in ongoing research which will explore the inclusion of song and sound in her art practice.
Ludmila Snigireva works at NUI, Maynooth teaching Russian to MA students at the Department of History. She is also a teacher and Russian Development Officer at Marino Institute of Education. Her interests and education are passionately connected with arts, music and literature and that is why Ludmila also teaches Russian Literature at Centre for Adult Learning and Professional Development at NUI, Galway.
Music has been always an integral part of her life and career, that is why she is happily involved into Music for Galway activities. Every year she introduces new members to MfG, establishes connections between Irish and multicultural communities of Galway and Galway County. Her students become MfG concert-goers. Due to her involvement in national, local and multicultural mass-media and organisations like the first Irish newspaper in Russian, internationally spread journals in Russian, first Russian Cultural Music and Book Club in Galway City Library, she promotes MfG concerts and gets first time goers acquainted with programmes, composers and musicians. Her role also includes greeting the audience, selling/circulating programmes, looking after the artists before and during the concerts.
Dan Shields is a solicitor and Mediator with thirty years experience in general practice. He has extensive commercial, litigation and environmental background. Dan is a true lover of music and has been an avid concert goer and friend of MfG for many years, before joining the board in 2018.