Cathy McEvoy
Waltons New School of Music Faculty
Bluegrass Fiddle • Irish Fiddle • Violin • Sing Your Heart Out Choir • Outreach Programme • Music at Work Programme
Cathy is a full-time musician, arranger, composer and educator, with extensive performing and conducting experience. She holds an honours Music degree from Trinity College Dublin, an ABRSM Performance Diploma (violin) and a Masters in Composition from Maynooth University. She has additionally studied both choral and orchestral conducting with maestros such as George Hurst (UK), Axel Theimer (Austria/US), Robert Houlihan (Ireland) and Rodolfo Sanglimbeni (Venezuela). As well as conducting the school’s Sing Your Heart Out Choir and Company Choirs for our Music at Work programme, Cathy has directed choirs such as Gardiner Street Gospel Choir, Discovery Gospel Choir, Portmarnock Singers, Sandymount Gospel Choir and professional vocal ensemble The Gospel Project. She has been the recipient of several arts awards, including the Arts Council’s Professional Artist Development Award (2025), Agility Award (2021) and an Artist’s Residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in 2018. She has also worked as a vocal coach for both the Abbey Theatre and RTÉ Radio Drama and is on the Artists’ Panel of the National Concert Hall’s Music in Mind Programme. She was the 2023 Artist-in Residence to North East Inner City Arts/Dublin City Council. A crossover musician, Cathy maintains a busy schedule as a freelance violinist performing with a great number of traditional, roots and bluegrass bands, as well as the Dublin Symphony Orchestra, among others. She has shared the stage with artists including the Manic Street Preachers, Mary Coughlan, Eleanor McEvoy and Don Baker, in venues such as Vicar Street, the National Concert Hall and the Olympia Theatre. Thaks to her training in both the classical and trad/folk world, Cathy specialises in teaching violin students who may have formal training but are new to playing by ear, or want to explore folk styles for the first time. cathymcevoy.com
Meet Your Teacher
Cathy plays the beautiful ‘Ashokan Farewell’ by Jay Ungar and talks about her violin teaching.
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