Derravaragh Music Association

Arias from recent operatic roles (including Puccini & Verdi), Songs from Romania, The Four Last Songs (Richard Strauss).

Gabriela Istoc

Gabriela Iştoc is one of Romania’s leading young sopranos and Laureate of numerous national and international competitions. A graduate of the National Opera Studio, London and the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin, she studied with Veronica Dunne. She was a Jerwood Young Artist in 2011 and was awarded the Robert and Margaret Lefever Study Award and the Wessex Glyndebourne Association Award.

Following her success at the Royal Festival Hall and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, she returned to the UK in 2013 to sing The Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos (Glyndebourne) and Lucy Brown in The Threepenny Opera (West Green House with the LPO). Previous roles include: Eurydice Followers, Ludovina The Yellow Sofa, First Nymph Rusalka, Vixen Sharp-Ears The Cunning Little Vixen, Gilda Rigoletto, Soprano Too Hot to Handel, Serpina La serva padrona, Fiordiligi Così fan tutte, and Foreign Princess Rusalka. Recent engagements included: Mimi La Bohème (Opera North, Leeds), Mimi La Bohème (Den Jyske Opera, Denmark), Adina L’Elisir D’Amore (Opera North, Leeds) and Strauss’s Four Last Songs (Teatro Massimo Bellini, Catania).

Current engagements include: Christmas concert touring in Romania with Mihail Jora Philharmonic Orchestra, Antigone in Enescu’s Oedipe (LPO at the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest and the Royal Festival Hall London).

Films and DVDs include: Violetta La traviata: Love, Death and Divas (BBC) and Ariadne auf Naxos for Glyndebourne Festival Opera categories.

Alexandra Silocea

Attracting considerable attention across Europe and the US with her illuminating interpretations of wide-ranging repertoire, the Romanian-born French pianist Alexandra Silocea possesses a highly refined musicianship.

Described as a 'special talent' (International Piano Magazine, with 'musical grace and fluency' (Gramophone), Alexandra has performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Montreal Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Haydn Orchestra Bozen, Gävle Symphony Orchestra, “George Enescu” Philharmonic Orchestra, Meininger Hofkapelle, etc and has worked with conductors such as Vladimir Jurowski, Pablo Gonzalez, Leo McFall, Philippe Bach, Gerard Korsten, Christian Badea, Hansjörg Schellenberger, etc.

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She has performed in venues such as the Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus (both in recital and concerto appearences), Carnegie Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Romanian Atheneum or Wigmore Hall, where she has performed four hands with her mentor, Elisabeth Leonskaja, at the 70th birthday-concert of the accaimed pianist.

Tickets, priced €25, available now from Eventbrite.

One of Ireland's most successful musicians, Finghin Collins was born in Dublin in 1977 and, following initial lessons with his sister Mary, studied piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with John O'Conor and at the Geneva Conservatoire with Dominique Merlet. His international career was launched by winning first prize at the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Switzerland in 1999. He has performed in recital and with major orchestras throughout Europe and the United States, as well in the Far East and Australia. In October 2017, the National University of Ireland conferred on him an honorary Degree of Doctor of Music.

In 2017 he celebrated his 40th birthday with a solo recital at the National Concert Hall in Dublin as part of the Hall’s International Concert Season; other highlights included his debuts at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Zermatt Festival and return engagements with the RPO and in China. In 2018 Collins made two appearances at the Wigmore Hall in London, participated in the Jury of the Dublin International Piano Competition, and performed in Ireland, the UK, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Cuba and Greece. In 2019 Finghin performs in the UK, Denmark, the USA, Italy, Switzerland, Russia, Turkey and undertakes an extensive Irish recital tour marking 20 years since his Clara Haskil Prize. 2020 will see many Beethoven performances to mark the composer’s 250th anniversary, and also the inaugural edition of Music for Galway’s new festival Cellissimo as part of Galway 2020.

Over the past decade Collins has developed a close relationship with Claves Records in Switzerland, recording many award-winning CDs of music by Schumann and Stanford. A Chopin recital CD was released in September 2017, a co-production between RTÉ lyric fm and Claves Records. A new recording of Mozart’s piano quartets will be released by Claves Records in late 2019.

Finghin Collins has been Artistic Director of Music for Galway since 2013 and is also the founding Artistic Director of the New Ross Piano Festival. He is also co-Artistic Director and founder of the International Master Course at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Programme

• Beethoven Sonatas
• Op. 10 no. 1 in C minor
• Op. 57 in F minor “Appassionata”
• Op. 90 in E minor
• Op. 111 in C minor

Tickets, priced €25, available from Eventbrite.