Paxos Festival

Martin Coyloe

Martin Coyloe is the composer, with Nikos Petsakos, of the music inspired by Seamus Heaney’s ‘Sonnets from Hellas’ and with Elias Dendias, of the music inspired by Heaney’s translation of a poem by C.P. Cavafy. Martin, who also plays the Irish bouzouki for the HELLAS ENSEMBLE, is passionate about traditional music worldwide and specialises in projects of dialogue and exchange. Last year he collaborated with Indian roots musicians on a project involving Irish and Indian vocals and instruments which played the main stage at the Jodphur RIFF festival in Rajasthan. Martin is also bouzouki player and founder of a Balkan-Irish fusion band BASORK and plays in a bouzouki partnership (DUOZOUK) with Nikos Petsakos. He premièred the music inspired by Heaney’s ‘Sonnets from Hellas’ at the Seamus Heaney HomePlace last May and is delighted that his fascination with the history of the Irish bouzouki has now brought him full circle to Greece.