Formed in 2023 as a flagship ensemble of the Royal Irish Academy of Music, the Sonic Quartet comprises prize-winning musicians, Max Novojilov, Julia Antolec, Shane Quinn and Doireann Ní Aodáin. They débuted as a quartet in a masterclass for the Schumann Quartet as part of the Wigmore Hall Festival at the Whyte Recital Hall of the Royal Irish Academy of Music in September 2023. Since then, they have played in venues such as Elmwood Hall, Belfast, as part of the BMS International Festival of Chamber Music, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Westport Festival of Chamber Music and the National Concert Hall, Dublin. They have also received masterclasses and coaching from the Belcea Quartet, the Pavel Haas Quartet, the Treske Quartet, Mia Cooper and Sarah Sew. This appearance at the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts marks the US debut of this exciting young quartet.

Max Novojilov is a violinist from Cyprus and is studying at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with Sarah Sew and Elaine Clark. Recently he has been accepted into the prestigious European Union Youth Orchestra and has participated in a masterclass with Maxim Vengerov and the National Symphony Orchestra.

Julia Antolec is a violinist from Poland studying at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with Sebastian Liebig. She is currently co-leader of the RIAM Philharmonia, and she has won awards in numerous competitions in Ireland including the Sligo Feis and Holywood Music Festival.

A native of Trim, Shane Quinn is studying violin with Sarah Sew. He has been a recipient of the Colin Staveley Memorial Prize at the Royal Irish Academy of Music for most promising string player. Shane held the position of concertmaster at Dublin Youth Orchestra and was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland.

Doireann Ní Aodáin is a cellist from Cork studying at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with Martin Johnson. She is a previous member of the National Youth Orchestra and playing regularly with National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Ulster Orchestra.

Founded in 1848, the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) is Ireland’s national conservatoire for classical music. Its graduates represent Ireland on the world stage with distinction in music performance. RIAM students perform regularly in the USA and internationally, and have undertaken performance projects with peer institutions such as the Juilliard School of New York, Mozarteum University Salzburg, Paris Conservatoire and the Liszt Academy Hungary. RIAM is an associated college of Trinity College, Dublin

During 2023, RIAM opened a new 6,500 sq. m. campus, launched revised and modernised programmes of music and welcomed the world’s finest artists to its new state-of-the-art 300 seat chamber music hall – The Whyte Recital Hall.

RIAM trains 200 full-time performance, pedagogy and composition students at third level, teaches over 1,800 school-age students annually and has an examination body that accesses 30,000 aspiring musicians every year.