2015 Press Releases

Students hit high note on TG4

22 May 2015
Winners of Busker Abú l-r Meghan Maguire, Bart Kondrat and Aisling Urwin Image: Lynne Nolan

Mahoo was last night named the winner of TG4’s show Busker Abú.

The band, consisting of Aisling Urwin, a harpist and singer-songwriter from Kenmare, who recently completed her BA Arts-Music at UCC; Meghan Maguire, a guitarist and singer-songwriter from Cork set to start her third year of the BSc Earth Science at UCC in September, and Cork-based double bassist Bart Kondrat, impressed the judges to become Ireland’s top busking act.

After thousands of applications and nationwide auditions, 80 acts were selected to go through to the series and over 13 weeks, they competed head-to-head in front of judges Aindrias De Staic, Síle Seoige and Fiachna Ó Braonáin.

 

Hosted by Róisín Ní Thomáin, competition was fierce as each act had just 90 seconds to dazzle the judges at each stage of the competition, with Mahoo taking the top prize in last night’s final.

“Meghan, Bart and I were thrilled to win the competition, recognising our passion for music and performing, and the show will be great platform for us in terms of exposure and our future musical paths. Studying BA Arts-Music at UCC has been a fantastic experience,” Aisling commented.

The results were a double celebration for UCC, with Suantraí – comprised of graduates Fionnuala Joyce (harmony vocals, violin) and Claire O’Brien (lead vocals, piano) from Cork – taking the runner-up spot. 

Both graduated from UCC last year; Claire with a BA Arts-Music and Fionnuala a BSc Geology.  Hear their own composition Swan Song below.

 UCC and Music

UCC's Department of Music is committed to the cultivation - through creativity in teaching, research, composition and performance - of a dynamic learning community dedicated to an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural understanding of music.  More http://www.music.ucc.ie/

 

For anyone who missed both acts’ incredible performances on last night’s final, it will be repeated on Friday at 5:30pm, and UCC’s Facebook and Twitter pages will feature videos of both acts over the coming days.

University College Cork

Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh

College Road, Cork T12 K8AF

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