Stuart Ironside is a guitarist originally from Bicester, Oxfordshire. Beginning his guitar studies age 12 under Gordon Dunn, he has had tuition and masterclasses from some of the top performing guitarists today, including William Browne, John Williams and Laura Snowden. Completing his BMus at Cardiff University in 2018, he will soon begin studying for an MMus under Graham Devine at Trinity Laban College of Music. He is an experienced soloist and ensemble performer, giving recitals in a number of venues around Wales and England. Stuart has competed and placed highly in competitions around the UK, winning 1st place in Cardiff University Music Society’s Soloist Competition alongside the Neville John Prize for continuing musicians.

Stuart is also passionate about the performance of non-Western music. He advocates the learning of non-western music, and plays West African Mande repertoire in solo and duo contexts. He has played Javanese Gamelan for the last 3 and a half years and last summer travelled to Java, Indonesia as part of the University Gamelan Ensemble. As a composer, he has had works premiered by Cardiff University Contemporary Music Group and Retorica Violins, among others.