MartinHayes

Press

• An Irish Celebration Martin Hayes & The Common Ground Ensemble

  London, Dublin, and the USA

  Mar 2026

  • To watch Martin Hayes play the Irish fiddle is like watching a man possessed by his music. As his bow flickers across the strings the infectious energy of it spills into the air, through his limbs, and eventually out into the whistling, whooping crowd. His virtuoso repertoire of Irish traditional music spliced with jazz, avant-garde classical, and shimmers of rock filled the venue with an exuberance that made us feel like sycamore leaves spinning in the wind.

    • The Arts Desk
    • 11 March 2026

• Australian Duo Tour With Kyle Sanna

  Chatswood Concourse Concert Hall (Sydney) & Melbourne Recital Centre

  Feb 2026

  • East Clare fiddler Martin Hayes and New York guitarist Kyle Sanna transform the neo-Gothic nave into something between a country kitchen session and a contemplative vigil. This is Hayes’ great structural gift: the juxtaposition of inward-looking airs with increasingly lively jigs and reels that build in layers of excitement, inherited and improvised variation piling upon variation until the foot-tapping becomes irresistible. By the time each set reaches its peak, the stately cathedral feels positively kinetic.

    • Limelight Music News and Culture
    • 20 February 2026

  • Like the trumpet-playing of Miles Davis or the voices of Billie Holiday and Jose Carreras, that same feeling is ever present in the great Irish violinist’s sound and phrasing.

    • Sydney Morning Herald
    • 25 February 2026

  • ★★★★★ For Hayes, melody is the beating heart of this music, and he can shepherd a melody through infinite variations without ever diluting its essence.

    • The Age
    • 24 February 2026

  • It’s immediately apparent that Hayes’ playing is so pure, gentle and controlled, all signs of a virtuoso musician. In Martin Hayes’ hands, the fiddle is not merely an instrument but very much a part of his body, the bow an extension of his arm, while his fingers flutter delicately at the other end of the violin’s neck.

    • Australian Musician
    • 25 February 2026

  • From rural County Clare, Martin Hayes is a unique and legendary fiddler, a humble artist and an extraordinary performer, who has absorbed the best of all musical genres and traditions.

    • Classic Melbourne
    • 25 February 2026

• Martin Hayes & The Common Ground Ensemble

  Vicar Street, Dublin

  Oct 2023

  • Hayses’s admission that when a tune is lying around in his head for too long, there’s no knowing what he’s going to do with it, summed up the evening: unpredictable, richly textured, at times delirious and so, so full of heart.

    • The Irish Times
    • 20 October 2023

• Peggy's Dream - album review

  Mar 2023

  • An unquenchable affinity with the melody line has defined Martin Hayes’s musical odyssey, along with an insatiable appetite for adventure.

    • The Irish Times
    • 31 March 2023

• Martin Hayes Recital

  The Queens Hall, Edinburgh

  Mar 2020

  • He outlines its contours, while shaping and re-shaping its content, introducing an element of improvisation, and never losing sight of its form.

    • Edinburgh Music Review
    • 06 March 2020

• Martin Hayes & the Common Ground Ensemble

  National Concert Hall, Dublin

  Mar 2022

  • This was seven highly skilled and self-assured musicians, drawn from different backgrounds but playing utterly in their element.

    • The Journal of Music