Peggy Nolan

Peggy enjoys a varied performance career playing with ensembles of all shapes and sizes. As cellist of the Eblana String Trio she has performed in widely since 2006 across the UK, Ireland and further afield. In 2021 the trio released their album, ‘The King’s Alchemist’ to critical acclaim. The album was selected as chamber CD of the month in a 5-star review in BBC music magazine and praised for its “splendidly stylish and affectionate performance” (Gramophone). Their second album of string trios by William Alwyn, JB McEwen and Gordon Jacob will be released in 2025.

Peggy is a member of the Irish Chamber Orchestra, and frequently performs with other ensembles including the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Manchester Collective. She can frequently be heard in collaboration with a diverse array of musicians, including recent performances at the Edinburgh International, Cheltenham, Órtús and Killaloe Chamber Music Festivals. Peggy is also the cellist of Amika, a string quartet who fuse the craft of chamber music with contemporary techniques and approaches. Amika have collaborated with Alfa Mist, Jordan Rakei, Rob Luft, Alice Zawadzki, Natalie Williams and Tom Walker, with live performances bringing them to the Manchester, London, and Cambridge Jazz festivals, as well as broadcasts from BBC Maida Vale, Abbey Road and Metropolis Studios.

In addition to the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Peggy teaches for Arco, a distance-learning project in collaboration which provides string teaching to students in South Africa and India. She teaches on ProCorda North is the Course Director of ConCorda Chamber music course in Ireland, and is studying for a PhD in Performance at the Royal Northern College of Music, researching Boccherinian performance practice, and creating new recordings and editions of Boccherini’s little-known op.24 and 44 string quartets. Peggy was the Artistic Director of the ‘Viva Boccherini’ festival held at RBC in 2019, which featured over 100 performers and prompted a visit from Boccherini’s descendants.