by Rose Rushe
LIME Tree Theatre, one of two centres for this weekend’s inaugural Limerick Literary Festival, is host to a novel component for this “festival for book lovers organised by book lovers” – the committee’s guiding principle. Pianist Finghin Collins is booked for a solo recital at the Mary Immaculate College based venue for Friday 21 at 8pm.
It’s another high peak in this augmented festival’s diary of greats. Book at www.limetreetheatre.ie or www.limerickliteraryfestival.ie
According to Limerick arts officer and Kate O’Brien committee stalwart Sheila Deegan, Collins’ programme reads as:
Chopin Mazurkas Op. 17
Debussy Estampes
Beethoven Sonata in C minor Op. 111
Chopin Twelve Etudes Op. 12 – the first time in 18 years that he will play it
Artist’s note: Finghin Collins studied with John O’Conor at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and with Dominique Merlet at the Geneva Conservatoire. He established his international reputation by winning the 1999 Clara Haskil International Piano Competition.
Since then he has performed with leading orchestras such as the Chicago, City of Birmingham and Houston Symphony orchestras, the Seoul, London, Rotterdam and Royal Philharmonic orchestras, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Northern Sinfonia, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Gulbenkian Orchestra.
Collins has collaborated with conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Myung-Whun Chung, Hans Graf, Emmanuel Krivine, Sakari Oramo, Heinrich Schiff, Vassily Sinaisky, Leonard Slatkin and Frans Bruggen. Last season he completed his three-year tenure as Associate Artist of the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, rounding off his cycle of the complete Mozart and Beethoven piano concertos.
His new double CD recording for the RTE lyric fm label of Mozart piano concertos with the RTE NSO was also released in May 2013.
The following month he made his début in the London Pianoforte Series at the Wigmore Hall in London (run by OBE John Gilhooley, Lisnagry man) and went on to the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado.
Other engagements in the 2013/14 season include appearances with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra and the Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau.
It’s an increasingly rare chance for Limerick audiences to access the pianist extraordinaire, live, one made possible through City of Culture funding.
via Collins musical champion for literary festival | Limerick Post Newswrite.
