‘Whenever I hear [Irlandiani], I will think of the optimism it gifted us at the end of one of the most stressful years any of us can remember’ -John Reed, Fatea Magazine

Carina has held a lifelong love for music. She enjoys a busy career as a chamber musician and continuo player and her playing has been described by BBC Radio 3 as ‘singing across the centuries’.

She was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London where she studied with Philip Sheppard and Jonathan Manson, and later with Richard Lester at the Guildhall, supported by the THCW trust.

Carina toured as principal cello with the European Union Baroque Orchestra in 2010, and has since performed as guest principal with the Irish Baroque Orchestra, Academy of Ancient Music, Dunedin Consort, La Serenissima, Gabrieli Players, Oxford Bach Soloists and Camerata Ireland. In 2024 Carina spent six weeks touring the west coast of Australia as guest principal cellist with Australian Baroque.

As a soloist she has performed a C.P.E. Bach Cello Concerto at the National Concert Hall in Dublin with the Orchestra of St. Cecilia (2013) and Vivaldi’s Double Cello Concerto with Vlad Waltham and La Serenissima at St Martin in the Fields (2022, 2023), a recording of which was released with Signum Records in 2024 on La Serenissima’s Vivaldi x 2-2 album. 

‘musically sensitive.. the playing is excellent, and the musical story fascinating’

Andrew Benson Wilson, Early Music Reviews

A chamber musician at heart, Carina is a founding member of Ensemble Augelletti, the BBC New Generation Baroque Ensemble 2023-2025.

Carina released her first solo album ‘Irlandiani’ to critical acclaim in November 2020, thanks to Arts Council of England funding. The album has been played on BBC Radio 3, RTE Lyric FM and Deutschlandfunk Radio. She was awarded an Arts Council Ireland Emerging Artist Grant in 2021 in order to perform her album programme live in her hometown of Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, and she has toured the album programme around the UK and Ireland with her ensemble Irlandiani. 

In 2022 Carina and her ensemble Irlandiani were awarded a Continuo Foundation grant in order to record a second album Smock Alley which was released in 2023, receiving a double 4 star review in BBC Music Magazine.

When not playing the cello, Carina can be found baking cakes at home which she brings to rehearsals to share with her colleagues!

‘superbly engaging and highly virtuoso performances.. bravura, expressiveness and collegiality’


Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill Reviews