Hailing from the Beara Peninsula in the South-West of Ireland, Tara Viscardi performs on Irish traditional, classical and baroque harps. Praised for her music being 'exquisitely performed' (The Times), Tara is Associate Artist with the Irish Baroque Orchestra for 2025, having been a 2024 UK Harp Association Emerging Artist and first prize winner of the 2021 London Camac Harp Competition. 

She has been featured playing her own arrangements and compositions on RTÉ Radio 1, RTÉ Lyric FM, RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Ulster, Radio Kerry and Bloomsbury Radio. Performances have taken her across Ireland and the UK, to venues including the Wigmore Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Cadogan Hall, the Irish Embassy, Irish Cultural Centre, London Irish Centre, Canterbury Cathedral, Shakespeare’s Globe, the National Convention Centre and the National Concert Hall, Dublin. Further highlights include performing at the 14th World Harp Congress, Cardiff and 13th World Harp Congress, Hong Kong (supported by Culture Ireland), for Irish President Michael D. Higgins and Mrs Sabina Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin, for An Taoiseach and An Tánaiste upon their visits to London, for the first St. Patrick's Day Reception to be held at No. 10 Downing Street and for King Charles III and Queen Camilla at Hillsborough Castle.

​A graduate of the Royal College of Music, Civica Scuola di Musica Claudio Abbado Milan and TU Dublin Conservatoire, Tara regularly collaborates with musicians across the folk, traditional Irish, baroque and classical scenes. She launched her debut album 'Beara' in April 2024, where she is joined by flautist Robert Harvey for her own compositions paired with music written and collected on the Beara Peninsula since the 18th century and released a debut EP, 'Uncovered Roots' in 2023 with saxophonist Robert Finegan, which explores folk music from Ireland and the UK in different contexts.

​Tara is quickly gaining a reputation as an exciting and versatile musician and composer. Passionate about education and outreach, she combines performing with roles as Artistic Administrator for Irish Heritage, Festival Manager (Education and Communications) for West Wicklow Festival, Harp Teacher at the Junior King's School, Canterbury and Harp Tutor at the Irish Cultural Centre, Hammersmith. Tara also writes historical fiction and is a member of the London Library. She currently divides her time between London, Kerry and Basel, where she is undertaking part-time postgraduate studies in baroque harp at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Flora Papadopoulos.

Tara is extremely grateful for the generous support of the Arts Council of Ireland, Culture Ireland, Kerry Country Council Arts, Music Network, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Royal College of Music, Irish Heritage, Michael and Gianni Allen-Buckley, Carolyn Galloway, Goodenough College, Martin Clarke of Small Investments Ltd., Beara Distillery and her family towards her studies, projects and the purchase of instruments.

Meadhbh is a graduate of the Royal Irish Academy of Music where she was an 1848 scholarship student studying for her master’s degree with Professor William Dowdall and piccolo with Sinéad Farrell. She currently balances a busy freelance career, featuring regularly as a guest Flute and Piccolo player with many of Ireland's leading orchestras and ensembles, such as the National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Irish National Opera, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Musici Ireland and Crash Ensemble.

Meadhbh made her National Concert Hall solo debut in 2018 performing the Poulenc Sonata arranged for flute and orchestra by Lennox Berkeley with the Orlando Chamber Orchestra as part of the ESB Great Christmas Concert. She was awarded First Prize in the Maura Dowdall Concerto Competition, as well as the Brian Dunning Memorial Prize for best woodwind performance in 2022, which meant she had the opportunity to perform as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland in the National Concert Hall in 2023.

Meadhbh is passionate about the piccolo and currently works as Guest Lecturer in Technical University Dublin Conservatoire as a member of Ireland’s leading contemporary ensemble, Concorde Ensemble. She recently performed at the Low Clarinet Festival in Arizona in January 2025, with her husband, Patrick Burke, a newly commissioned piece for Bass Clarinet and Piccolo by Jane O’Leary, which was funded by Culture Ireland. Meadhbh was also a piccolo semifinalist at the International Competition Concorso Gazzelloni in Naples in September 2025. As well as teaching in TU Dublin, Meadhbh works as Flute Tutor at Clongowes Wood College.

Meadhbh completed her undergraduate studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and spent time afterwards studying at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. She is currently developing her studies in the Koninklijk Conservatorium Antwerp, Belgium, with renowned piccolo specialist, Peter Verhoyen.

In 2019 and 2022, Meadhbh was a recipient of the Music Capital Scheme Award and is grateful for the support of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Music Network and The Arts council, an award which helped fund both of her instruments.