Kirsty Stewart

Born in South Africa, where my earliest training in classical piano took place, I completed my BA in Popular Music in Keyboards at the Cork School of Music, followed immediately by my MA in Composition under the tutelage of renowned jazz composer, Cormac McCarthy. I gig regularly and arrange works for performance in the Cork Opera House by their resident concert orchestra, and enthusiastically teach a large number of piano students in and around Cork City.

Though classically trained, my writing tends to veer outside clear stylistic confines. Sometimes quirky, always striving for originality, I believe that there are a million different ways to communicate something with music without tying oneself to this style or that. Influenced by masters of all genres, including such
artists as Peter Gabriel, Elizabeth Fraser, Mahler and Chopin, I am a flexible and prolific writer inspired by the overcoming of hardships:

‘Essentially, we’re all the same. Everyone has their burdens and their joys, and the ultimate goal is to connect to these things with people through music.’