Pianist Billy O’Brien is founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Waterford Chamber Music Festival, an award-winning annual festival that takes place each summer in his native Waterford. Billy’s musical career spans a wide range of contexts; he performs as a soloist and chamber musician, is active in contemporary music, and enjoys teaching and research. He has appeared as a concerto soloist with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the Hibernian Orchestra, Wexford Sinfonia, and the symphony orchestras of Trinity College Dublin, UCD, and the RIAM. He has given solo recitals throughout Ireland in venues such as the Field Room at the National Concert Hall, the National Gallery of Ireland, the Hugh Lane Gallery, and Triskel Cork, as well as in Spain, France, Finland, and the UK. As a chamber musician, Billy has collaborated with many of Ireland’s leading performers, and in contemporary music he has worked with the Crash, Ficino, and Kirkos Ensembles. Billy studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with Therese Fahy and Hugh Tinney, and in Paris with Rena Shereshevskaya. In 2023, he was awarded a Doctorate in Music Performance from Trinity College Dublin and the RIAM. His research focuses on questions of aesthetics and performance studies in relation to the music of Maurice Ravel; it has been published, and he has presented his work at conferences both in Ireland and abroad. Billy is the winner of the Hibernian Orchestra Concerto Competition, the Maura Dowdall Concerto Competition, and the Teissier Bursary (RIAM), and was awarded second prize in the Irish Freemasons’ Young Musician of the Year. A passionate teacher, Billy is currently a member of the Keyboard Faculty at MTU Cork School of Music.