Get empowered – showcasing female Irish musicians and composers

EMPOWER is an initiative dedicated to promoting fairness and gender equality in the music industry; flautist, workshop leader, and co-founder Sinead Walsh introduces their upcoming event at the Royal Irish Academy of Music on March 8th, marking International Women’s Day.

Like most musicians, I spend a lot of time working alone. Practice rooms are quiet places, and creative work often demands focus and solitude. But the longer I’ve worked in the music industry, the clearer it’s become that the moments which really shape our creative futures don’t happen in isolation. They happen when people come together; to talk, to listen, and to make work collaboratively.

Collaboration creates opportunity because it widens the frame. When artists, educators and organisations work together, particularly across disciplines and career stages, something shifts. New ideas emerge, assumptions are challenged, and pathways open up that wouldn’t exist otherwise. In a creative landscape that’s constantly evolving, collaboration isn’t just helpful but essential.

This belief sits at the heart of EMPOWER: Women Changing Music, a platform I founded nearly five years ago whilst at college with oboist Hannah Seymour, to celebrate and amplify women’s voices across the music industry. From the beginning, EMPOWER was a collaborative space, with our first event back in 2022 designed as an informal, safe and non judgemental space where artists could explore interests. It brings together composers and performers, classical and contemporary practice, emerging musicians and established industry figures – not to flatten differences, but to learn from them.

As an Irish musician, bringing EMPOWER home to Ireland is incredibly important to me. Ireland has a strong tradition of shared music-making, from informal sessions to large-scale festivals, yet like many industries, music here still reflects long-standing imbalances around visibility, leadership and opportunity. EMPOWER isn’t about tearing down existing structures; it’s about widening them, and making space for more voices within them.

Ireland’s creative future won’t be shaped by individual voices working alone, but by communities willing to listen and build together.

In Dublin, EMPOWER has also become something of a family affair. My sister, Niamh Walsh, Head of Music at Sandford Park School, is the Creative Producer for the event, working closely with me to bring the programme to life. That kind of collaboration, rooted in trust, shared values and a deep understanding of one another’s strengths, reflects the ethos of EMPOWER itself. Creative work thrives when relationships are at its centre.

One of the most rewarding things about EMPOWER’s events has been seeing what happens when performance and conversation sit side by side. When a composer speaks alongside a performer, or when a student shares a platform with a working musician, music is no longer presented as a closed, finished product. Instead, it becomes part of a living ecosystem, shaped by education, access, mentorship and community.

That ethos will be central to EMPOWER’s upcoming event at the Royal Irish Academy of Music on March 8th, marking International Women’s Day. The day begins with a relaxed, family-friendly performance at 2pm, featuring an hour of chamber music by women composers. Creating space for younger audiences and families feels like an important part of collaboration too, inviting people into the conversation early and openly.

The evening event begins at 7.30pm and brings together live performance with discussion. Alongside music from some of Ireland’s finest emerging musicians and composers, the programme will include a performance of the OpusHER Commission, EMPOWER’s commissioning award, presented this year in partnership with ABRSM. The 2025 commission was awarded to British Turkish composer Ezo Sarici, and hearing new work brought to life in this context is one of the most powerful reminders of what collaborative support can make possible.

The evening panel will feature Jessie Grimes (NCH Discover Artist in Residence), Deborah Kelleher (Director RIAM Dublin) and Hannah Miller (Principal Horn, Irish National Opera). Each brings a different perspective; education, institutional leadership and performance, and it’s precisely that mix of voices that makes these conversations meaningful.

For emerging artists, collaboration creates tangible opportunities. Shared platforms can lead to mentorship, professional connections and a sense of belonging in an often-fragmented industry. For audiences, collaborative events offer a richer way of engaging with music, one that places the work within its wider social and professional context.

Collaboration is also changing how creative work is sustained. As funding models evolve and audiences engage across live and digital platforms, partnerships allow artists and organisations to share resources, extend reach and build longevity. A single project can live as a performance, a conversation and a lasting resource.

Most importantly, collaboration changes who gets to lead. When projects are built collectively, leadership becomes more representative and less hierarchical. Through EMPOWER, I’ve seen how giving women space to collaborate creates new narratives around creativity, authority and success.

Ireland’s creative future won’t be shaped by individual voices working alone, but by communities willing to listen and build together. Collaboration doesn’t just support the arts but transform them. And in that shared space, opportunity isn’t something we wait for, it’s something we create.

EMPOWER: Women Changing Music will hold their free Relaxed Concert in the Vernon Studio from 2pm on 8th March, with the main event at the Whyte Recital Hall at the Royal Irish Academy of Music at 7:30pm – find out more here.