Martin Hayes is one of the world’s most celebrated fiddlers and an influential figure in Irish traditional music. Rooted in the classical, folk and contemporary worlds, Hayes is the founder of the seminal Irish-American supergroup The Gloaming, and has collaborated with everyone from Bill Frisell and Yo-Yo Ma to Sting and Paul Simon.

He formed his latest project, the Common Ground Ensemble, by identifying a group of musicians whose wealth of talent spans trad Irish music, improvisation, arrangement, jazz, avant-garde and cutting edge contemporary classical. His goal, he says, is simply “to have the most fun I can have when I’m on stage.”