MartinHayes

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  • Fiddle

About Martin

Praised by the Irish Times as a musician with an “insatiable appetite for adventure”, Martin Hayes is regarded as one of the most significant talents to emerge in the world of Irish traditional music. He is the founder of the musical supergroup The Gloaming, The Common Ground Ensemble, and the Martin Hayes Quartet. He is the artistic director of Masters of Tradition, an annual festival in Cork, Ireland,and a co-curator for the Marble Sessions at the Kilkenny Arts Festival, Ireland.

Martin has performed in venues such as the Barbican, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie Cologne, Philharmonie de Paris, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, and Usher Hall, Edinburgh. He has created collaborations in the classical, folk and contemporary music worlds with musicians such as Bill Frisell, Ricky Skaggs, Jordi Savall, Brooklyn Rider and the Irish Chamber Orchestra, and the RTE Concert Orchestra. He has performed on stage with musicians such as Sting and Paul Simon and has recorded with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project. 

The 25/26 season sees Martin curate a celebrationof Irish traditional music at Cork Opera House;returns to the Belfast International Festivaland Concertgebouw Amsterdam; debuts at Rheingau Music Festivaland Penn Live Arts with the Martin Hayes Quartet.In spring 2026, Martin Hayes will curate and lead a major Irish music celebration featuring the Common Ground Ensemble, launching at the National Concert Hall in Dublin before embarking on a U.S. tour. The centrepiece of the tour will be a landmark concert at Carnegie Hall on St. Patrick’s Day, inaugurating a new annual tradition in partnership with Carnegie Hall, New York’s Irish Arts Center, and the National Concert Hall. Joined by special guests, the performances will blend traditional Irish music, song, dance, spoken word, and contemporary interpretations of Irish culture. The tour will include stops at Notre Dame, Cleveland, Boston, and Ann Arbor.

Recent highlights include 3 sold-outconcerts with the National Symphony Orchestra Dublin where Martin’s album Peggy’s Dream was reimagined for fiddle and orchestra,a tour of the UK with the Martin Hayes Trio, to cities including London, Leeds, Bristol and Manchester; and concerts at Union Chapel in London, The Auckland Arts festival in New Zealand, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC in celebration of the anniversary of Northern Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement, at the Stresa Festival.In 2023, Martin released his first recording with the Common Ground Ensemble entitled “Peggy’s Dream”, which received a 5-star review in the Irish Times.

Growing up in a musical family in rural county Clare, Ireland, in a remote mountainous locality with a rich music tradition, instilled in Martin a deep love, understanding and connection to traditional music.

Martin is based in Spain

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Contact

For availability and general enquiries:

Tours:

Sorcha Coller

Sorcha Coller

Associate Director
Chiara Fahy-Spada

Chiara Fahy-Spada

Assistant Artist Manager

Representation

Worldwide General Management with Askonas Holt

Season Highlights

Sep 2025
Cork Opera House, Ireland
Cork Opera House and Masters of Tradition present Martin Hayes with Cormac McCarthy & Special Guests
Oct 2025
Grand Opera House, Belfast International Arts Festival
Martin will be joined on stage by guitarist Conal O’Kane, and bouzouki and concertina player Brian Donnellan.
Nov 2025
Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral, Pennsylvania
Martin Hayes Quartet
Mar 2026
Ireland / USA Tour
Common Ground Ensemble Performances in Dublin, New York, Boston, Notre Dame, Ann Arbor, and Cleveland.
May 2026
Great Amber Concert Hall, Latvia

Photos

Projects

Martin Hayes and the Common Ground Ensemble: An Irish Celebration

A true celebration of the arts, Irish heritage and the enduring power of cultural exchange.

Learn about this project
  • Projects

    Martin Hayes and the Common Ground Ensemble: An Irish Celebration

    A true celebration of the arts, Irish heritage and the enduring power of cultural exchange.

    Learn about this project

News

Press

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.