Classical String Performance - MA

This unique programme enables you to develop your skills and realise your full potential as a postgraduate string player, ready to embark on a professional career. 

Explore your own path by learning with the Principal players of the Irish Chamber Orchestra (ICO) at the Irish World Academy, UL. This two‑year full‑time Master of Arts (MA) in Classical String Performance is designed for gifted string players preparing for a professional career as a string player, which e.g., may include solo work chamber music, orchestral work and teaching. 

You’ll refine solo, chamber, and orchestral skills; build confident audition preparation; and develop whole‑embodied awareness through creative, embodied performance practice. 

Weekly one‑to‑one lessons, technique classes, chamber music coaching, and specialised somatic workshops are complemented by sessions with the course pianist, including intensive duo‑sonata weeks. 

You will perform regularly across Limerick and the region and take part in the ICO Academy Project. 

Graduates leave with the technical mastery, artistic confidence, and professional experience needed to succeed in the classical music profession. 

During this programme, you will

• Present solo or chamber music repertoire on campus, and ongoing concert series in Limerick and the surrounding area. 

• Study with ICO Principal players who rehearse, tutor, and perform with you throughout the programme. 

• Receive weekly individual lessons, regular technique classes, chamber music classes and specialist workshops (audition techniques, orchestral excerpts, baroque and contemporary practice, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, creative embodied performance). 

• Gain automatic acceptance onto the Irish Chamber Orchestra Academy Project – an exciting, annual collaboration project involving elite students from around the world and members of the ICO