Music by Chopin, Liszt, Ignace and Rachmaninov

Michael McHale, Nicholas O’Halloran and Santa Ignace

The tradition of the pianist-composer is a long and rich one. Many of the greatest composers in history were also virtuoso keyboard players, and as a result the solo piano repertoire dwarves that of any other instrument. Perhaps three of the greatest of all of the many exceptional pianist-composers are Chopin,

Liszt and Rachmaninov, each of them renowned performers who pushed piano writing to ever-greater expressive and technical extremes. Their artistry has inspired countless subsequent generations of pianists and composers alike, including one of today’s performers Santa Ignace who will be performing one of her own virtuoso compositions, ‘Malvine’.

Fryderyk Chopin:

• Etude in A flat major op.25 no.1 “Aeolian Harp”
• Etude in C sharp minor op.10 no.4
• Waltz in C# minor op.64 no.2
• Mazurka in A minor op.67 no.4

Franz Liszt:

• Paraphrase de concert on Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’

Michael McHale

Franz Liszt:

• Sonnetto 104 del Petrarca S.161 no.5

Fryderyk Chopin:

• Polonaise in A flat major op.53

Nicholas O’Halloran

Santa Ignace:

• Malvine

Sergei Rachmaninov:

• Prelude in G sharp minor op.32 no.12

Santa Ignace

Nicholas O’Halloran began his piano studies with Frau Tilly Fleischmann in Cork. Later, at the Cork School of Music, he studied under Maud O’Hanlon and Jan Čáp, winning the major awards at Feis Maitiu, Cork and Feis Ceoil, Dublin. He completed a B.Sc. in Mathematics before turning to full-time study of music.

In 1980, a scholarship from the Italian Government brought him to Rome and Siena to study under Maestro Guido Agosti. In 1981, as the first recipient of the Fulbright Award for a student of the Arts he went to the United States to study with the internationally renowned Hungarian pianist Béla Siki at the University of Cincinnati from where he graduated with a Master of Music in performance. He has appeared as soloist with the Irish Youth Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra, Cork Youth Orchestra and Cork Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Orchestras of UCC and Waterford Regional Technical College. He has featured in a recording of contemporary Irish piano music released by the Arts Council, playing music by the late Dublin based composer James Wilson. He has performed for the Diplomatic Corps at Iveagh House and for an International Conference of the OECD at University College, Cork. Recitals include Weymouth Arts Centre UK, Kilkenny Arts

Festival, Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Bantry House, as well as numerous appearances in Cork. He has partnered Keith Pascoe, Seamus Conroy, Elizabeth Cooney (violin) and Eilis O’Sullivan (flute) in duo recital. Nicholas is Chairman of the Crawford Gallery Summer Lunchtime Concert Series and a member of the Advisory Committee of Feis Maitiu, Cork.

Santa Ignace began her piano studies with her father, and was very much inspired by his mastery and his unique interpretations of a wide repertoire of jazz, including all the classics. This virtuosic and brilliantly creative introduction to music undoubtedly influenced her approach to the formal study, interpretation and presentation of the Classical and Romantic masters, which were and continue to be her main inspiration for more than thirty years now. Central to her creative ethos is a commitment to constant innovation and experimentation, so when crafting her own musical works, Santa endeavours to maintain a delicate balance of textures, melodies, and rhythmic elements, infusing each composition with a sense of dynamism and unpredictability. In the pursuit of musical expression, Santa refrains from the notion of stylistic dominance, opting instead to cultivate a harmonious coexistence of various genres. Here, in Malvine, it is within this dynamic interplay that this composition finds it’s unique voice, blending the elegance and structural sophistication of classical music with the improvisational spirit and rhythmic vitality of jazz or traditional music. For many composers, the act of writing music serves as a form of therapy, a means of channelling and processing an emotional turmoil and trauma they may have experienced. Through the act of creation, they are able to externalize their innermost thoughts and feelings, transforming pain and suffering into art that speaks through the universal human experience. In this sense, composition becomes a cathartic release, a way of finding solace and healing in the transformative power of music.

Belfast-born Michael McHale has established himself as one of Ireland’s leading pianists, with a busy international career as a recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. He has given notable performances at the BBC Proms, Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tokyo Spring Festival, Barbican and Southbank Centres, London, Berlin Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Lincoln Center, New York, Symphony Hall, Boston, and regularly at Wigmore Hall, London as a founding member of the Wigmore Soloists. He has performed as a soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, Hallé, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, London Mozart Players, City of London Sinfonia, and all five of the major Irish orchestras in a repertoire ranging from Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann to Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Gershwin. His début solo album, The Irish Piano, was released in 2012 and selected as ‘CD of the Week’ by the critic Norman Lebrecht. More recent recordings include solo piano music by Schubert and Beethoven on Ergodos, an album of Clarinet Trios with the Wigmore Soloists on BIS, and the début album of the McGill/McHale Trio, Portraits, featuring special narrations by Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali. For Chandos he has recorded a large repertoire of works for clarinet and piano with Michael Collins; his recording of the Burleske by Richard Strauss with the BBC Symphony Orchestra was released in 2019, followed by a recording of the Piano Concerto by Richard Rodney Bennett with conductor John Wilson and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in 2020. Michael McHale studied at the University of Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music in London. He won the Terence Judd/Hallé Award in 2009. In 2018 he was appointed as a Lecturer in Piano at the MTU Cork School of Music in Ireland. He gives masterclasses and adjudicates competitions internationally. Additionally, he is committed to new music and has given first performances and recordings of works by Arvo Pärt, John Tavener, Valerie Coleman and Valentin Silvestrov. www.michaelmchale.com