Founder, Artistic Director & Pianist
Pianist Mary Dullea (Artistic Director) founded Chamber Music on Valentia in 2014 with the aim of bringing chamber music performances of international standing, innovative programming and outreach and engagement programmes to this unique place. As soloist and chamber musician, she leads a diverse performance career internationally. Her frequent broadcasts include BBC Radio 3, Radio 4, RTHK, RTÉ Lyric FM, WQXR, Radio New Zealand and Sky Arts, Irish, French, Austrian and Italian television. Concerto appearances include RTÉ Concert Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and KZN Philharmonic Orchestra. Of her multiple CD releases, recent collaborations include the recording of 3 albums of primarily premiere recordings of solo piano music by Irish composers to be released on Diatribe Records early 2026.
Mary’s expansive repertoire covers the standard piano literature as well as an ever-increasing amount of 20th- and 21st- century compositions, many of which are dedicated to her. Her piano trio, Fidelio Trio, are passionate advocates for piano trio repertoire around the world. They were shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards Ensemble Prize and have been Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice for their recordings. The trio have appeared at prestigious venues around the globe including Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre, Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room Southbank Centre, Casa da Musica Porto, Morrison Artist Series San Francisco, Andy Warhol Museum Pittsburgh, National Centre for Performing Arts Mumbai, Beijing Modern Music Festival, National Concert Hall Dublin, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Brighton Festival, Cheltenham Festival and Gümüşlük International Classical Music Festival. They have collaborated with actor Adrian Dunbar, writer Alexander McCall-Smith and poet Sinead Morrissey. Constantly commissioning new works, composers that the Trio have worked closely with include Johannes Maria Staud, Donnacha Dennehy, Joe Cutler, Judith Weir, Piers Hellawell, Ann Cleare and Charles Wuorinen, to name but a few.
Mary is the curator of Soundings (an annual UK/Austrian collaborative music festival) at the Austrian Cultural Forum London from since 2008. She has served on the jury of ‘Schubert und die Musik der Moderne’ International Chamber Music Competition in Graz, Austria.
Mary’s own studies were at The Royal College of Music, London on the Edith Best Scholarship, Goldsmiths, University of London (MMus) and her PhD in Performance is from Ulster University. Mary was on the piano faculty of Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama for 9 years. She previously held the position of Director of Performance at University of Sheffield and since 2015 she has held this position at Royal Holloway, University of London where she is also a Professor in Music.
For more, see: www.marydullea.com