Full Biography
Aisling was born and raised in Belfast and is now based in Glasgow. She regularly performs around the UK and Ireland and has appeared in concert across Europe, North & South America and Asia. Her performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio and RTE Lyric FM and include many high profile concerts such as a Wigmore Hall chamber music recital and the British Flute Society’s Seventh International Flute Convention in Manchester. As Concerto Soloist she has appeared with various orchestras including the Ulster Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. In 2006 she released her acclaimed debut album Recital with Natural Studio Records and has continued this affiliation with the release of two further chamber music recordings Histoire du Tango and Standing Stones.
Aisling initially learned the flute with Billy Dunwoody and played in the 39th Old Boys Flute Ensemble and the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland. At this time she also had masterclasses with Sir James Galway and Trevor Wye and went on to study with Colin Fleming. Later she studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama with Richard Blake and David Nicholson where she followed masterclasses with players such as Jacques Zoon, Robert Dick, Wissam Boustany and Wilbert Hazelzet. In her third year she won a scholarship to the Lake Placid Institute for Arts in New York and in her final year she was selected to perform the Penderecki Concerto with the RSNO at the Henry Wood Hall in Glasgow; the first performance of this work given in Scotland.
Aisling also holds a Masters degree from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where her studies were generously funded by awards from the Belfast Classical Music Bursaries and the BELB. There she enjoyed lessons with Samuel Coles, Ian Clarke, Sarah Newbold, Philippa Davies and Sharon Williams and on completion of her Masters, Aisling studied privately in London and Paris thanks to an award from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust.Aisling has a keen interest in performing new music and working with composers. She gave the first Scottish performance of the Penderecki Flute Concerto with the RSNO at the Henry Wood Hall in Glasgow and she has premièred works written specially for her by Douglas Whates, Matthew Rogers, Veronique Vella, Greg Caffrey and David Flynn. Aisling also regularly performs with the Scottish based contemporary music group The Research Ensemble with whom she has performed for James MacMillan and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies at their birthday celebration concerts which featured a performance of the solo flute work ‘The Kestrel Paced Round the Sun’. The Agnew/McAllister Duo’s première recording of Greg Caffrey’s Pluck, Blow II (The Return) was recently featured on RTE Lyric FM’s latest CD release Hiccup, having been selected from 65 works commissioned by RTE over the past 8 years.
As a widely active chamber musician, Aisling performs with various ensembles including the Frevo Quartet, the Agnew & Opalinska Flute and Piano Duo and her long established Flute and Guitar Duo with Matthew McAllister. Aisling and Matthew have recently given concerts in Peru, Costa Rica, Holland, Austria, Italy and Malaysia and in 2011 they will celebrate 10 years of performing together with a wide variety of concerts, commissions and live recordings.
