Fergus O'Carroll
Fergus O'Carroll was born in Waterford, Ireland, into a musical family, settled on the French Horn after trying his luck on the violin and trumpet. He studied with Victor Malirsh in the Royal Irish Academy of Music under a scholarship from the Irish Youth Orchestra while finishing his schooling at St Finian's College, Mullingar, home of the Schola Cantorum. He then joined the RTE Symphony Orchestra as 4th horn until 1977, when he was appointed 1st Horn with the RTE Concert Orchestra. In the meantime, Fergus studied horn with Niko Gruger of the Munich Conservatoire of Music and Dale Clevenger of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He returned to the RTE Symphony Orchestra in 1985 (then re-named the National Symphony Orchestra) and has since been Section Principal 1st Horn as well as performing as soloist with most of the orchestras in the country.

Through his association with wind bands, he developed a passion for conducting and has conducted many bands in Dublin most notably the national champions, Dublin Concert Band and St James's Brass and Reed Band. He has conducted the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Irish Sinfonia, the RTE Concert Orchestra, the Orchestra of St Cecilia and the Dublin Baroque Players.

His introduction to choral conducting came when he was invited to be founding conductor of the Ulysses Choir, Dublin. He is presently Musical Director of Mullingar Choral Society and Dun Laoire Choral Society and was founder Musical Director of the Dublin Chamber Choir. Since it's inception, Fergus has been Assistant to the Conductor of the Annalivia Festival of Opera.

Fergus also publishes Irish music for bands under the name OCMP. He is recognised nationally as an expert in the area of computer music notation. His orchestration of Donal Luney's work "Dúiseacht" was performed at the Hanover Exhibition in June 2000 and has received many performances, both in Ireland and in the USA.

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