Treske Quartet, featuring Mollie Wrafter, to perform in Esker Arts Centre
A member of the famous Wrafter musical family is coming to the Esker Arts Centre with the Manchester based Treske Quartet next week.
Mollie Wrafter, daughter of Jimmy (formerly of Kilbeggan) and Dolores Wrafter, Ballinagar, says “it is a concert that is particularly special for me – it’s exciting to return and perform in my hometown with my string quartet”.
Sean Walsh, director Esker Arts Centre, is equally enthusiastic about the concert. He said: “We are really looking forward to welcoming the Treske Quartet to Esker. It’s great that there is a musician from Tullamore – Esker Arts was built to showcase the great talent from this part of the country and Mollie is wonderful example of how people can make a career from their talent.
“She has performed all over the world and we are delighted to be able to showcase her gifts here in Tullamore.”
Mollie says it is a privilege to share the stage with her colleagues – Oliver Baily, Abi Hammett and Robert Wheatly – “for an audience who have supported me from when I was a music student of Adele O’Dwyer, Michael Moore, Oonagh Keogh and Regina McCarthy and a pupil in the Sacred Heard School”.
“I was generously supported also by Maureen DeForge, the Birr Classical Music Festival and the Trench Committee.
“We’ll be playing a selection of our favourite music, and I hope to see many familiar faces in the audience.
Mollie’s music
Mollie Wrafter graduated with first class honours from the Royal Northern College of Music, studying with Leland Chen. During her time at RNCM, she won the Norman George Violin Competition and the Nossek Prize for Chamber Music. She was awarded the Irish Heritage Performance Bursary for her Wigmore Hall debut performance in 2019.
Since completing her undergraduate study at RNCM, she has enjoyed a busy freelance career balancing solo engagements and her quartet.
In April 2022, Mollie won the Aileen Gore Cup and RTÉ Lyric FM Award at the Feis Ceoil in Dublin. Subsequently, she was awarded the RDS Jago Award and a professional solo engagement with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra which aired on RTÉ Lyric FM.
Mollie features on Manchester Collective’s debut LP ‘The Centre is Everywhere’, and was named one of Golden Plec Magazine’s ‘PlecPicks’ in 2021.
This year, she has enjoyed playing with the Hallé Orchestra (Manchester) through their Advanced Orchestral Strings Programme and received the Charles Hallé Award. Mollie sits on the board of directors of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland.
As a member of the Treske Quartet, Mollie performs new music and works with composers. In 2022, at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Canada) Treske worked with the JACK Quartet and performed the world premier of ‘La Candela’ by New York based composer Gabriel Bouche Caro.
In 2023, Treske were invited by JACK to New Music on the Point in Vermont, USA, where they worked with four emerging composers on works that were written for Treske.
The quartet are pursuing partnerships with three young composers – Leah Mullen, Matt Brown and Claire Victoria Roberts.
Highlights for the quartet include receiving second place at the Cavatina Competition in Wigmore Hall and performing Different Trains (Reich) and Black Angels (Crumb) in RIAM’s Whyte Recital Hall.
• Tickets for the Esker Arts Centre (€16-€18) are available now from Esker Arts Centre, 057 9383801 or eskerarts.ie.