The acclaimed chamber group Ficino Ensemble presents a musical odyssey, performing rarely heard music by Mozart, McKay and Penderecki. Mozart’s noble and epic Divertimento for String Trio and Irish composer Deirdre McKay’s atmospheric Between will set the stage for the dynamic and evocative Sextet by the late Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki for which the ensemble will be joined by pianist Finghin Collins.

Programme

Mozart Divertimento K. 563 for String Trio (4/6 movements)
Deirdre McKay Between for Bass clarinet and cello
Penderecki Sextet

Musicians

Elaine Clark violin
Nathan Sherman viola
Ailbhe McDonagh cello
Macdara Ó Seireadán clarinet
Hannah Miller French Horn
Finghin Collins piano

Ficino Ensemble

Formed in 2013, the Ficino Ensemble has been committed to exploring the vast chamber music repertoire and presenting thoughtfully programmed concerts. The group regularly perform as a string quartet, and the addition of winds and percussion gives the possibility of playing large-scale chamber works. The members share a dedicated approach to contemporary music and have premiered many works. In 2018 they performed a concert with Olwen Fouéré as part of MusicTown in Dublin, which included a performance of Thomas Ades’ Four Quarters and Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 132. The group have recorded two acclaimed albums, Winter and Folk Songs which are regularly broadcast on WNYC, BBC3, Radio France and RTÉ LyricFm. The individual members of Ficino Ensemble are curious and fearless performers, and are at the forefront of the contemporary music scene and members of the National Symphony Orchestra and RTE Concert Orchestra. Ficino Ensemble takes the name from Marsilio Ficino, the Renaissance philosopher who regarded music as a “contemplation of the divine”.

ficinoensemble.com

Finghin Collins

One of Ireland’s most celebrated musicians and significant musical ambassadors, 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 Competition in Switzerland in 1999. He has performed in recital and with major orchestras throughout Europe and the United States, as well as in the Far East and Australia.

Engagements in 2020 included solo, chamber and concerto performances of Beethoven across Europe to mark the composer’s 250th anniversary, as well as his début with the Russian National Orchestra in Moscow, although most of these engagements had to be cancelled or postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.  When online activities resumed in Autumn 2020, Collins performed throughout Ireland, in Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, Dublin, Drogheda, Belfast, Wexford Festival Opera, Killaloe Music Festival and Cork, as well as play-directing concertos by Haydn and Mozart with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra.

Since live concerts recommenced during the summer of 2021, Collins has performed at the Wigmore Hall in London and at other venues in the UK and Switzerland; he was also a member of the jury of the Clara Haskil Competition. In the Autumn of 2021 he performs at Music in Monkstown Festival, Galway International Arts Festival, Music for Galway’s 40th Season Gala Concert, the New Ross Piano Festival and the London Piano Festival before embarking on a 17-concert solo recital tour of Ireland. The 2021/22 season also includes engagements in France, Germany, Switzerland, the UK and more.

Finghin Collins makes a significant contribution to the musical landscape of his native Ireland, where he resides.  Since 2013, he has been Artistic Director of Music for Galway, which was tasked with presenting the major classical programme of Galway 2020, European Capital of Culture. The centrepiece of that programme, the cello festival Cellissimo, was delivered successfully online in March 2021.  He is also the founding Artistic Director of the New Ross Piano Festival as well as the founding co-Artistic Director of the International Master Course at the National Concert Hall.

In October 2017, the National University of Ireland conferred on him an honorary Degree of Doctor of Music.

Find out more at www.finghincollins.com