Liz Doherty is a fiddle player, teacher and arts consultant from Co. Donegal. Her academic credentials include a PhD (Cape Breton fiddle music) and she has lectured on traditional music in Ireland, Canada, the US and Australia. Liz was recently recognised with a National Teaching Fellowship from the UK’s Higher Education Academy for her work in this field. Liz has taught Irish fiddle music at festivals and events around the world. She has performed and recorded with Mícheál Ó Súillebháin and the RTÉ National Symphony and Concert Orchestras, Riverdance -The Show, and with bands Bumblebees, Fiddlesticks and Nomos; she also has two solo recordings. She is currently a member of Culture Ireland’s Expert Advisory Committee.

Liz will talk about I Teach Trad, her new company just launched that offers training and professional development for teachers of traditional music. It is based on a unique model, The TradLABB™, that maps out the lifelong learning journey of the traditional musician.

Xenia Pestova Bennett is an innovative performer and educator who has earned a reputation as a leading interpreter of uncompromising repertoire alongside masterpieces from the past. Her widely acclaimed recordings of core piano duo works of the Twentieth Century by John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen are available on four CDs for Naxos Records. Her evocative solo debut of premiere recordings for the Innova label titled Shadow Piano was described as a "terrific album of dark, probing music" by the Chicago Reader. Xenia's own compositions are available on Diatribe Records and TakuRoku. Her full-length album Atomic Legacies features Ligeti Quartet and the Magnetic Resonator Piano, while her digital EP Atonal Electronic Chamber Music for Cats explores vintage synthesizers.

Xenia will discuss her wellbeing practice which she runs alongside her performance and teaching career. She is a fully-certified yoga teacher and also provides coaching on performance and generalised anxiety management using movement, breathwork and focus interventions.

Gwendolyn Masin is a concert violinist, chamber musician, teacher, artistic director and author, holding a PhD in musicology. She performs internationally, teaches violin and chamber-music masterclasses at institutes and festivals, and gives talks concerning her areas of expertise throughout Europe and North America. She is Professor of Violin Studies at the Haute École de Musique de Genève, Switzerland, and also the author of the award-winning book Michaela’s Music House, The Magic of the Violin. Her exploration and experience of techniques to enable musicians when it comes to postural awareness and understanding of the origin of human movement span more than twenty years and include practices such as Yoga, Pilates, Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Method and Spiral Dynamics.

Gwendolyn will discuss her project The Exhale, an online holistic retreat for musicians which serves both as an employment opportunity and a learning resource. She will be happy to hear from anyone who has an idea for an Exhale class.