To open this year’s Spotlight Chamber Music Series, three of Ireland’s most accomplished chamber musicians come together to present a beautiful programme encompassing contrasting genres and a variety of sonic landscapes.

The recital will open with Vertical Fields, a piano trio composed in 2014 by GRAMMY-nominated Athlone native Emma O’Halloran, whose music is driven by a fascination with joy, wonder, hope, and human connection. In this short work, she utilises the resonance of the piano as a portal that allows the string textures to transform over time. A motoric pattern in the strings evolves and mutates as if it’s being pushed through different atmospheric densities, vertical fields of thin and thick air. A duo for violin and cello, Castillo Interior, by contemporary Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks will follow, a work based on writings of the same name by the sixteenth-century Carmelite nun Saint Teresa of Ávila. The passages of almost sacred, meditative stillness created by the chorale-like writing in this work are punctuated by raw, intense and dramatic flurries of activity, as if to represent profound revelations on Saint Teresa’s journey towards enlightenment. The second of Mozart’s six piano trios, in three movements (Allegro, Andante and Allegretto), will conclude the programme. Written with the composer’s dear friends, the Jacquin family, in mind, this work exudes conviviality, abounding with elegance, sparkling brilliance and wonderfully operatic lyricism.

This concert, presented by three exceptional artists, promises to be unmissable.

Musicians:

Jennifer Murphy – Violin
Paul Grennan – Cello
Andreas Ioannides – Piano

Programme:

Emma O’Halloran: Vertical Fields for Piano Trio
Vasks: Castillo Interior for String Duo
Mozart: Piano Trio No. 2 in G Major, K. 496

About the Musicians

Violinist Jennifer Murphy is an active soloist and chamber musician whose work has taken her across North America, Australia, and Europe. Her performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio, CBC Canada and RTÉ Lyric FM, and she is equally at home on major concert stages and in more intimate chamber music settings. Solo highlights include performing Korngold’s Violin Concerto with GRAMMY Award-winning conductor Bramwell Tovey at Toronto’s Koerner Hall, and Chausson’s Poème with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and David Brophy.

A dedicated collaborator, Jennifer has worked with leading chamber ensembles such as the ARC Ensemble and the GRAMMY Award-winning Attacca Quartet, and has appeared at festivals including Banff, West Cork, Waterford, Rockport, and Toronto Summer Music. She has worked closely with composers including Laurie Anderson, Osvaldo Golijov, Magnus Lindberg and Hauschka, and gave the Canadian premiere of Thomas Adès’ Alchymia at the West End Micro Music Festival in 2023.

Jennifer trained at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Royal Academy of Music in London, and was a Rebanks Family Fellow at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Her principal teachers were Detlef Hahn, Maurice Hasson and Erika Raum. Outside of performing, she enjoys knitting, yoga, and continued learning, and holds an MSc in Performance Science from the Royal College of Music in London.

After studying at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with Aisling Drury Byrne, Paul Grennan was accepted to the Royal Northern College of Music following a personal recommendation from the renowned cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. At the RNCM, Paul won the prestigious John Barbirolli Cello Prize, received second place in the Premio Francesco Geminiani in Verona, while also receiving full scholarships and an Award from the Musicians Benevolent Fund.

Paul has given recitals throughout Europe and worked on a personal basis with composers such as Kurt Schwertsik, James MacMillan and Colin Matthews. He has performed at the Wigmore Hall as soloist and in chamber music works by James MacMillan, Alexander Goehr and others.

Paul won a coveted place with the Hallé Orchestra in 2015 but also freelances with orchestras throughout the UK and Ireland including the BBC Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Manchester Camerata and many more. As Principal Cello he works regularly with the London Mozart Players, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and has recorded and toured extensively with Manchester Camerata.

With a keen interest in contemporary music, Paul regularly performed with the renowned ensemble Psappha and was lucky enough to take part in a residency with them at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Paul appears as part of The Vonnegut Collective on their debut CD performing Ades’ Piano Quartet.

As well as a diverse career in classical music Paul has toured the world with various Popular ensembles and bands. Amongst numerous engagements as a soloist, notable performances include The Stockhausen Festival and Minimalist Festival at the Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens as well as performing as soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a production of Max Richter’s Memoryhouse, at the Barbican in London.

Lauded as “an outstanding pianist of the highest artistic standards” by the late Menahem Pressler, Cypriot pianist Andreas Ioannides leads a dynamic international career devoted to performance, interpretation, and teaching of the piano.

Andreas has made concert appearances throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America. Highlights include performances at Boston Symphony Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Seoul Arts Centre, the Temppeliaukio Kirkko in Helsinki, the National Concert Hall, Dublin and the Municipal Theatre of Rio de Janeiro. As soloist he has performed under such maestros as Neil Varon, David Effron, Paul Nadler and

Roberto Tibiriçá. A devoted chamber musician, he has collaborated with esteemed artists including John Sharp, Joseph Swensen, Atar Arad, Mark Kaplan, Peter Stumpf and the Pacifica and Ariel quartets.

Andreas’ performances have been broadcast on television and radio across three continents. Having been a prize winner in the BNDES International Piano Competition in Rio de Janeiro and the Hastings International Piano Competition in the UK, he more recently turned his attention to recording projects, including a 2-disc album released by NAXOS in honour of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.

A dedicated educator, Ioannides is currently Lecturer of Piano and Chamber Music at the Technological University of Dublin. He is also co-founder and Artistic Director of ChamberFest Brown County, a chamber music festival that seeks to inspire audiences in rural America. He holds a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University, mentored by legendary pianist Menahem Pressler.