Duo Anima are Andreea Banciu (viola) and Aileen Cahill (piano). With the aim of showcasing the beautiful, but less well-known, viola repertoire, they have performed and toured extensively. Programmes have included works by German, Austrian and Russian composers. More recently, the Duo has focused on reviving works by female composers, such as Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, Rebecca Clarke, Minna Keal, and Amy Beach, to highlight their works and bring diversity into the viola repertoire.

Andreea Banciu is the violist and co-founder of ConTempo Quartet, Galway Ensemble-in-Residence since 2003, and RTÉ Quartet-in-Residence from 2014 to 2019. As part of ConTempo Quartet, Andreea has won 14 International Prizes in Chamber Music Competitions, most notably in London, Munich, Berlin, Prague, Graz, Hamburg, and Rome. With ConTempo Quartet, she has toured extensively and recorded the Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Bartok & Shostakovich string quartet cycles. In 2016, Andreea was conferred a Doctor of Music, honoris causa, by the National University of Ireland, Galway, in recognition of her contribution to the Arts. Currently, she is a Lecturer in Viola at TU Dublin Conservatoire and a visiting Lecturer in Chamber Music at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

Pianist Aileen Cahill is best known for her extensive collaborative work across instrumental and vocal genres. A Masters graduate in Solo Piano (Dr. John O'Conor, Royal Irish Academy of Music) and Piano Accompaniment (Catherina Lemoni-O'Doherty, TU Dublin Conservatoire), Aileen has been awarded many prizes and bursaries for solo piano, piano concerto, instrumental and vocal chamber music, as well as for further research. In concert, she has appeared with Budweis Philharmonic Orchestra (Switzerland), Viarmes Chamber Orchestra (France), Greystones Symphony Orchestra, Irish Youth Wind Ensemble. She is a frequent conductor-soloist with Sligo Baroque Orchestra, with whom she has performed five Mozart piano concerti. Previously repetiteur at Dundalk I.T., Maynooth University, and Lecturer in Piano and Piano Accompaniment at TU Dublin Conservatoire, she is now a doctoral candidate at the Conservatoire and Scholar-in-Residence at the Contemporary Music Centre.