Martin Hayes & Friends

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 celebration of Irish traditional music at Cork Opera House; returns to the Belfast International Festival and Concertgebouw Amsterdam; and debuts at Rheingau Music Festival and Penn Live Arts with the Martin Hayes Quartet. In spring 2026, Martin 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, Askonas Holt, and New York’s Irish Arts Center. 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.

Other recent highlights include 3 sold-out concerts 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; a tour with guitarist Kyle Sanna in Australia to Melbourne, Adelaide, Syndey, and Brisbane; 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.