What is Kaleidoscope?

Described by The Irish Times as a “genre-blind mini festival” and the “capital’s premiere salon series”, Kaleidoscope has long been acclaimed as a hugely important pillar of Dublin musical life. Founded in 2009 by violinist Cliodhna Ryan and cellist Kate Ellis, the series sought to take classical music out of its typical setting and transplant it into an informal and intimate alternative.

What happened as a result was a kind of musical revolution- a monthly musical revolution. 11 years later and the series is still held up by audiences and performers alike as the number one go-to place for a sociable evening of lesser-heard, rarely-heard or never-heard small-ensemble music performed by the country’s top professionals.

An event is usually presented in Dublin’s BelloBar on the first Wednesday of every month.

The Kaleidoscope Team

Lioba Petrie

Curator & Presenter

Cellist Lioba Petrie studied in Dublin’s Conservatory of Music and Drama, and NUI Maynooth. She enjoys teaching, performing, composing and is passionate about chamber music. Recent endeavors include composing and performing music for theatre (Limbik Theatre Co.). Lioba is a member of Unshaped Form with whom she composes and performs soundtracks for old silent movies and modern film.

September 2015 took Lioba to Paris where she enjoyed an artist’s residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais and was commissioned to compose and perform a new score to Chris Marker’s film “La Jetée” (1967).

Lioba can often be seen leaping around the hills of Wicklow where she enjoys hiking, swimming and sitting in front of open fires.

CATERINA SCHEMBRI

Caterina is an Italian-Colombian composer, orchestrator, and producer who specializes in classical contemporary music and music for media.She has a particular talent working with life ensembles, having recorded her music with top-class musicians in state of the art recording studios from different parts of Europe. Her music has been successful on the screen featuring in films from diverse genres and origins. Caterina has also worked as Orchestrator and in the score preparation department for TV and Film productions in Ireland, Malaysia and Korea.

In December 2018 she became one of the founding members of Sonic Gate Studios, an international collective of sound artists working in music and sound for multimedia.

In 2021 she was awarded a place in the prestigious Alliance for Women Film Composers Mentorship program under the guidance of Lolita Ritmanis.

Caterina is very active in the music scene of Ireland working in music production with some of the main cultural organizations of the country including the record label Ergodos, the Irish National Opera, Kaleidoscope Night and the Dublin Theatre Festival. She has undertaken the role of music producer in orchestral and hybrid recordings including INO’s Elektra, A Thing I Cannot Name and The First Child.

She’s currently working as the general manager for the record label Ergodos and developing different projects as a composer, orchestrator and producer.

Adrian Hart

Sound Engineer & Producer

Adrian is a graduate in music performance at the Purcell School of Music and the Royal Irish Academy of Music and has a masters degree in music technology and multimedia composition at Trinity College Dublin. Adrian has worked throughout Europe and America as a performer, composer, sound engineer and producer. Since 2011 Adrian has been production manager for Crash ensemble and has been technical producer and sound engineer for Dublin’s highly acclaimed Kaleidoscope Night since it’s inception in 2009.

As a sound engineer and producer, Adrian has worked with some of the leading names and institutions in music, including Kevin Volans, Gerrald Barry, Barry Guy, NicMuhly, Steve Reich, Michael Gordon, Bang On A Can All-stars, Barbican London, Carnegie Hall New York, Kennedy Arts Centre Washington DC, NOTAM Oslo, SARC Belfast, Virginia Tech and Princeton University.

Juraj Jablonka

Stage manager & Photographer

Juraj grew up in Bratislava, Slovakia. After spending years studying and working in Civil Engineering, he moved to Dublin to improve his English and look for new opportunities. After years working in hospitality, he came on board the Kaleidoscope team as stage manager and later, as photographer as well. Since then Juraj completed a diploma in Festival Management and Sound Production at the Sound Training Center in Temple Bar Dublin. Currently he is a freelancing as stage manager and photographer with jobs across Ireland’s major festivals and abroad.

After nearly 10 years of living in central Dublin Juraj recently moved to the pretty but remote countryside of Kildare and loves his new life there, where he keeps two dogs and a vegetable and herb garden.