In a prisoner-of-war camp during the early days of World War II, French composer Olivier Messiaen created what would become one of the seminal chamber music masterpieces of the 20^th Century: Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time). Written for the instruments and players available to him (clarinet, violin, cello and piano), this extraordinary work unfolds over fifty minutes and takes the listener from desolate pain and whirling fury to a vision of eternity in passages of ethereal calm. Rooted in his deeply Christian faith, with each movement relating to the apocalyptic Book of Revelation and many sections drawing on Messiaen’s life-long fascination with bird song, Quartet for the End of Time is a tour-de-force in which nature and spirituality are joined.

Musicians:

Mia Cooper – Violin

Aoife Burke – Cello

Macdara Ó Seireadáin – Clarinet

Fiachra Garvey – Piano

Programme:

Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time

About the Musicians

Mia Cooper studied at the Royal Northern College of Music with Yossi Zivoni and Chamber Music at the Paris Conservatoire with Michel Strauss. On graduating, Mia was principal first violin of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for five years, and played with many of London’s chamber orchestras and ensembles, including the Fibonacci Sequence, Barbican Trio, Brodsky Quartet, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Mia was appointed leader of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in 2006, and in the same year took up a position as Professor of Violin at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Mia has given masterclasses in the UK, Spain and Lithuania through Erasmus exchanges.

Mia is in demand as a guest leader and as such has worked with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mia’s love of chamber music grew at an early age, and as a founding member of the Esposito Quartet has given many radio broadcast concert tours of Ireland. Mia has also recorded a wide variety of chamber music, including the violin sonatas of Michele Esposito, and recordings for Naxos and Chandos as a guest of the Gould Piano Trio.

Selected by The Arts Council as a recipient of a Next Generation Artist Bursary 2020, cellist Aoife Burke leads a diverse career as a recitalist, chamber musician, orchestral player, curator and producer.

An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with notable artists including Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Arto Noras and Richard Watkins, and groups such as The Vanbrugh, Navarra Quartet, ConTempo Quartet and the Gavin Bryars, Kirkos, Ficino and Crash Ensembles. Her love for chamber music was fostered, in tandem with many other influences, on the masterclass scheme at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival and during a Chamber Studio mentorship with Richard Lester at King’s Place, London. Aoife has also appeared as soloist with orchestra several times both at home and abroad. Her début with the New York Concerti Sinfonietta in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2016 was described as “a thing of beauty…intelligent, poised, and refined” (The Epoch Times).

Aoife studied at undergraduate level with Emma Ferrand at the RNCM in Manchester, and with Christoph Richter and Andreas Reiner at the Folkwang Universität der Künste in Essen, Germany, graduating in 2014 with a first-class BMus. (Hons.). During the course of her studies, Aoife won the Raphael Sommer Music Scholarship and partook in the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme. She subsequently obtained a Master’s Degree in Arts with Distinction from the CIT Cork School of Music, where she studied under Christopher Marwood, and pursued further study on the Performance Certificate Course (Corso di Perfezionamento) at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, Italy, with Paolo Bonomini and Francesco Dillon. As a session musician, she has recorded for Sinéad O’Connor, U2, The Police, Ed Sheeran and Van Morrison, among many others.

Macdara Ó Seireadáin is a First Class Honours graduate of both the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover and Royal Irish Academy of Music.

In November 2019, after holding positions in Austria and Germany, Macdara joined the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. He has worked with numerous orchestras including Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Staatsoper Hannover, Philharmonsiches Orchester Kiel, Irish Chamber Orchestra, and performed as soloist with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Uelzen Kammerorchester and others.

A keen chamber musician, Macdara performs regularly with pianist Gintaras Januševičius and is a member of the Ficino Ensemble. He has collaborated with John O’Conor, Johannes Peitz, Sharon Kam, Finghin Collins, The Vanburgh, Apollon Musagete Quartet, and performed at numerous festivals including Great Music in Irish Houses, Fredener Musiktage, and Cellissimo.

Additionally, Macdara lectures on performance psychology and coaches at the Klaipeda Piano Masters and Feuerwerk Einbeck academies and hosts the music podcast “Harmonically Speaking”.

First prizewinner at the 2012 Jaques Samuel Competition, London, Fiachra Garvey made his Fazioli Auditorium (Italy) and Wigmore Hall debuts in 2013.

Fiachra has also been a prizewinner at AXA Dublin International Piano Competition (Brennan Prize and McCullough Bursary), EU Piano Competition Prague (concerto finalist), 3rd Soirees-Concours Internationales de Piano a Collioure, France (Audience award) and Feis Ceoil Dublin (Morris Grant Bursary and Mabel Swainson award). The National Concert Hall Dublin awarded Fiachra the “Rising Star” prize in 2011, which led to a number of solo and concerto debuts.

Fiachra graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, London, in 2013 with 1st class honours and distinction in the M.A. in Music Performance. This follows a 1st class honours B.A. in Music Performance from the Royal Irish Academy of Music in 2011 and a 1st class honours DipMus (performance and teaching) from the RIAM in 2008. Concerto appearances include the Janáček Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra, RIAM Symphony Orchestra, Hibernian Orchestra and UCD Symphony Orchestra, working with eminent conductors including John Wilson, Duncan Ward, Theodore Kuchar, Stephen Bell and Mihhail Gerts.

Recent highlights include Google Dublin (first classical artist to be invited), Spoleto Italy, Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall Manchester, NCH Dublin, Snape Maltings Aldeburgh, Petworth Festival, New Ross Piano Festival, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Brighton Festival, Geneva Festival Switzerland, West Cork Music, St Magnus Festival Orkney, Wexford Opera House, Ortús Chamber Music Festival, Killaloe Chamber Music Festival, Drogheda Classical Music, Clifden Arts Festival, a series of solo and two piano recitals in Japan and a tour of China.

Fiachra’s debut CD For the Piano, under the Lyric FM label, was released in 2012: “brings a deep and infectious enthusiasm, combined with insight and technical comfort” (Sunday Times). His second CD, a live performance from Wigmore Hall, was released in 2014.

Fiachra is the founder and artistic director of the West Wicklow Chamber Music Festival (Ireland), described as “One of the best classical music festivals in Europe” (BBC Music Magazine), and Classical Vauxhall (London), described as “Everything the classical concert in the 21st Century should be” (iNews).

Fiachra was awarded an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, London (ARAM) in 2018, served on the Board of Directors of the Dublin International Piano Competition from 2016-2022 and was made a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians in 2021 and a Freeman of the City of London in 2022.

When not performing, Fiachra loves nothing more than returning home to help on the family farm with the yearly lambing, dipping, shearing, harvesting and all the other elegant and refined activities on the farm! Fiachra feels this makes him a more inspired and fulfilled musician.