Ora Quartet: Contrasts

The Ora Quartet is one of a new generation of fine quartets performing regularly and building a strong following. Their programme for this tour offers four strikingly contrasted quartets.

Haydn - String Quartet in F major Op.50 No.5 The Dream [1786]

Alex Dowling - Breathers (selection) [2026]

Shostakovich - String Quartet No.11 in F minor [1966]

Schumann - String Quartet in A minor Op.41 No.1 [1842]

About Ora Quartet:
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. Concerts to date have included 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.

Recent engagements have included playing in the University Concert Hall as part of the Limerick Classical Concert Series presented by Lyric FM’s Liz Nolan and recording pieces by RIAM composers in the Whyte Recital Hall, Dublin. 

Siun Milne, violin
Molly O'Shea, violin
Ali Comerford, viola
Yseult Cooper Stockdale, cello

About the Quartets:
Haydn’s F major quartet is the most concise of his famous set of Prussian Quartets from 1786, nicknamed The Dream after the calm, otherworldly slow movement. Poised and elegant as always, Haydn delights in playful textures and unexpected turns, particularly in the mischievous final movement.

Alex Dowling’s Breathers is a collection of pieces that guide your breath. The composer writes: In recent years I began practicing meditation as a way to help with various health and autoimmune issues… I would usually do the meditation in silence but, after a while, I decided to try and write something that might serve as a backdrop. A type of music that could help with concentration and going deeper, but also something that I’d actually want to listen to.

Shostakovich’s string quartet no.11, from 1966, is dedicated to the memory of Vasily Shirinsky, second violinist of the Beethoven Quartet and a close friend of the composer, who had died a few months previously. Its seven short, connected, movements reflect on the loss in different ways, with tenderness, admiration, humour, anger and grief.

Schumann’s A minor quartet is the first of his three extraordinary quartets which inhabit the fervent, lyrical world of Romanticism. At its heart, the slow movement is one his most beautiful creations, unfolding with a quiet, glowing warmth. Celebratory and almost orchestral in its textures, the finale brings the quartet, and the concert, to a rousing end.