Saturday October 25th 2025
Mozart: Oboe Quartet K370 Beethoven: String Trio in C Minor, Op 9 no 3 Britten: Phantasy Quartet, Op 2 Finzi: Prelude and Fugue for String Trio E.J.Moeran: Fantasy Quartet for Oboe and Strings
Since its formation in 2006, the Eblana String Trio has been performing regularly for music societies and festivals throughout the UK and beyond, winning praise from audiences and critics alike for the depth and insight of their performances of this often neglected repertoire. Recent seasons have seen the trio giving acclaimed performances at both the Wigmore Hall for the Park Lane Group and at the Bridgewater Hall for the Manchester Midday Concerts Society, as well as performing live on Radio 3’s ‘In Tune’ programme. The trio are delighted to be Help Musicians supported artists.
In 2017 the trio joined the roster of City Music Foundation artists, giving them access to both high-level performance opportunities as well as world-class professional and artistic mentoring. They have also performed under the auspices of the Park Lane Group and gave a critically acclaimed concert of works by Robin Holloway, Joel Rust (world premiere), and Schoenberg at St John’s Smith Square – “Finally, we heard that towering masterpiece of the chamber repertory, Schoenberg’s String Trio. (Why, o why, do we not hear it more often?) Febrile, intense, this was a fine performance indeed…The players’ instrumental singing of Schoenberg’s lines, flexible yet ever goal-directed, would have drawn in the most sceptical of listeners…” (Seen and heard international)
Other notable appearances over the past decade have included Keele Concerts Society, Derby Chamber Music Society, Bollington Chamber Concerts, Holmes Chapel Music Society, MusikFest Goslar (Germany) and the North Norfolk, King’s Lyn, Stratford-upon-Avon and Salisbury International Festivals. The trio has for many years also made appearances at the annual RNCM Chamber Music Festivals including a critically acclaimed performance of the Schoenberg Trio in their Festival of Viennese chamber music – “…the late, mercurial, if elliptical, String Trio, a sort of 12-tone divertimento, was brilliantly undertaken by the RNCM’s Eblana String Trio.” (Paul Driver – Sunday Times)
During their time at the Royal Northern College of Music the trio won all the major chamber music prizes, notably winning the 2010 RNCM chamber music award and audience prize for their performance of Britten’s Phantasy Quartet for Oboe and Strings. They are also fortunate to have received coaching from many eminent chamber musicians such as Gabor Takacs-Nagy, Hugh Maguire, Robin Ireland and Petr Prause, and have also attended the International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove studying with David Waterman. The trio has also been invited on a number of occasions to participate in the European
Chamber Music Academy, most recently studying with Christoph Richter, Peter Cropper and Hatto Beyerle.
From 2013 until 2015 The Eblana String Trio were Junior Fellows in chamber music at Birmingham Conservatoire, a post which encompassed performing, studying and teaching whilst acting as ambassadors for the Conservatoire. The members of the trio are now visiting tutors in Chamber Music at Birmingham Conservatoire.
Born and raised in Waterford, Ireland, Emmet Byrne took up the Oboe at the age of 15 having previously learned the Piano and Guitar. He went into the Barrack Street Concert Band in Waterford to ask about learning the clarinet but was presented with an oboe that no one else was interested in. Emmet says ‘I had no idea what an oboe even was but was happy to give it a go! I loved it from day one!’ He ended up travelling to Dublin every couple of weeks for lessons with Matthew Manning of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra.
Emmet went on to study at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester with Hugh Mckenna, Melinda Maxwell and Tom Davey, followed by postgraduate studies at the Hochschule fur Musik Cologne, Germany with Prof. Christian Schneider.
Before joining the CBSO Emmet freelanced in Manchester and performed with many of the UK and Ireland’s best orchestras, including most regularly with the Orchestra of Opera North and the BBC Philharmonic.
As Principal 2nd Oboe since May 2013 Emmet says that ‘playing in Symphony Hall week in week out is a real treat’. Highlights so far include the CBSO’s tours to Asia and Europe and the Beethoven Cycle in Bonn with Andris Nelsons. He says ‘I also love the variety of music we get to perform from big Mahler symphonies to opera, film music and musical theatre.’
When not working, Emmet enjoys socialising, eating out, going to the theatre and going back to Ireland to see family and friends.