Peggy was born in Dublin where she studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music before commencing third level education at the Royal Northern College of Music studying with Peter Dixon and Raphael Wallfisch. She enjoys a rich and varied musical life, centered around chamber music, orchestral playing, and teaching.
As cellist of the Eblana String Trio since its formation in 2006, Peggy has performed in France, Germany and South Africa, as well as throughout the UK in a wide variety and festivals and venues including the Wigmore Hall, St Johns Smith Square and Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall. The trio are City Music Foundation Artists, and former Park Lane Young Artists. They have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and released ‘The King’s Alchemist’, their debut album of British string trios in 2021 to critical acclaim, featuring in BBC Music Magazine as Chamber Music Pick of the month, with five stars for both Performance and Recording. In addition to performing the core string trio repertoire, the trio also has a keen interest in commissioning and performing new works, and have given several World Premieres as part of recitals for the Stratford Upon Avon, King’s Lynn, and SoundState festivals. The Eblanas have all been members of the chamber music faculty at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire since holding the position of Junior Fellows in Chamber Music from 2013-2015, a role which involved delivering seminars and providing mentoring to students within the string department.
Outside of the trio Peggy has appeared with a variety of different chamber groups including Manchester Collective, the Pleyel Ensemble, Robinson Panoramic Quartet, and contemporary music groups Psappha, Vonnegut Ensemble and the Crash Ensemble. She is the cellist of Amika, a string quartet with the objective of widening their horizons into different genres including jazz and folk music, and has played with artists such as Tom Walker, Alfa Mist, Jordan Rakei, Poppy Ajudha and Alice Zawadzki. As a freelance orchestral musician, Peggy regularly performs and tours with some of the UK’s finest orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic, Hallé, Manchester Camerata, and English National Opera, as well as the Irish Chamber Orchestra, with whom she has toured in Ireland, Germany, Belgium, the USA and South America.
As well as teaching cello and chamber music at the Yorkshire Young Musicians, Peggy teaches at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and tutors on ProCorda North. She is the Course Director of ConCorda Chamber music course in Ireland, and is closely involved with the running of Arco, a collaborative distance learning project between the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the Morris Isaacson Centre for Music which provides string teaching to students in Soweto, South Africa and Chennai, India. Peggy is currently pursuing a PhD in Performance at the Royal Northern College of Music, researching performance practice in relation to the chamber music of Luigi Boccherini.
MA (Cambridge), MA (Durham), PGCE (Cambridge), Dalcroze Professional Certificate
Alison grew up in West Yorkshire, and studied music at St John’s College, Cambridge and Durham University. Whilst working as a cello and piano teacher, Alison was struck by the creativity and intuitiveness of the Dalcroze approach to music teaching, which explores music through movement, singing and improvisation. This led her to study for the Dalcroze Professional Certificate. Alison is currently studying for an advanced qualification in Dalcroze Eurhythmics, the Dalcroze Licence.
Alison enjoys working with young people of all ages. She has taught Dalcroze Eurhythmics at YYM since 2010, initially on the Leeds programme, and now at the Hull centre. She works with primary school teachers for the Voices Foundation, and has previously taught in various settings for Opera North. Alison’s latest musical adventure is as music teacher for Coram House, the Junior school at Ackworth School, Pontefract.
