Festival Director
Mairéad English
@newpark_music_festival
Mairéad English is a Dublin-based flautist and educator whose career brings together performance, teaching, and community music-making. As an orchestral musician, she performs with many of Ireland’s leading ensembles, including National Symphony Orchestra Ireland, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, and Wexford Festival Opera Orchestra. She is also a member of the Gardellino Flute Trio.
Mairéad is a long-time collaborator with Classical Kids, performing chamber concerts and education workshops specifically designed for babies and young children. She has also been involved with the National Concert Hall’s Discover series, performing concerts with a variety of chamber music groups.
At Newpark Academy of Music, Mairéad serves as Head of Wind and Brass and teaches flute. She also runs NAM’s monthly student concert series, designed to give students of all ages and levels the opportunity to nurture their creativity through performance in a supportive and encouraging environment. She is also committed to NAM's inclusive and community-based music projects through her work with the Musical Memories Choir, which welcomes people living with dementia and their carers.
Appointed Newpark Festival’s Director in 2026, Mairéad is focused on sustaining the long-standing legacy of competitions which have played a vital role in nurturing emerging musical talent for over thirty years, while simultaneously broadening and developing the scope of the Festival. Through the introduction of new competition categories, open workshops and concerts, Festival 2027 is curated to appeal to a wider audience, welcoming young competitors and performers, established artists and music lovers of all ages and backgrounds.
Co-Festival Director & Artistic Director
Alyssa Filardo
Alyssa Filardo is an American-Italian pianist based in Dublin, working across collaborative piano, opera réptétiteur work, and solo performance. She holds a Master of Music in Piano Performance from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, where she also specialised in piano pedagogy.
Her performing career has taken her from Carnegie Hall to stages across Bavaria, Germany, where she worked extensively as a réptétiteur and performer with Pasinger Fabrik Opera and at Stadttheater Ingolstadt. She has also appeared as a concerto soloist with the Symphonieorchester des Kulturvereins Zorneding Baldham e.V. under conductor Andreas Pascal Heinzmann. Alongside this work, she has collaborated with singers in a wide range of operatic and recital repertoire, with a particular focus on vocal partnership.
Since relocating to reland in 2021, Alyssa has established an active freelance career as a collaborative pianist, accompanying singers and instrumentalists for competitions, examinations, masterclasses, and recitals throughout Dublin. She accompanies regularly at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and has performed at both Whyte Hall and the National Concert Hall, including appearances in the main auditorium and the John Field Room.
In addition to her performing work, Alyssa is Artistic Director of Newpark Academy of Music and Co-Director of the Newpark Festival, where she programmes concerts, competitions and educational initiatives, supporting the development of emerging musicians across Ireland.