Collins will
perform Mozart Sonata in D major K. 284, Debussy Estampes, Brahms Rhapsodies
Op. 79 and Schubert Drei Klavierstücke D. 946.
Widely regarded
as one of Ireland's finest classical musicians, Finghin Collins (pronounced
Fineen) has just completed a fascinating project as the first ever Associate
Artist of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin. As part of this
three-year tenure, he performed the complete Mozart and Beethoven piano
concertos with the orchestra, having directed most of them from the keyboard.
Since taking
first prize at the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Vevey,
Switzerland in 1999, pianist Finghin Collins enjoys a flourishing career that
embraces Ireland, Europe, the United States and Asia. He makes a major
contribution to musical life in his native Ireland, where he is Artistic
Director of the New Ross Piano Festival and Music for Galway and on the Board
of Directors of the Dublin International Piano Competition.
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Last summer
Finghin Collins made his début in the London Pianoforte Series at Wigmore Hall
in London in June, and at the Aspen Music Festival in the USA in August and
performed at Cully Classique and the Festival de Bellerive in
Switzerland. Engagements in the 2013/14 season include appearances with
the Budapest Festival Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra, Anhaltische
Philharmonie Dessau and the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra.
Collins was born
in Dublin and studied with John O’Conor at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and
with Dominique Merlet at the Geneva Conservatoire. He has performed with
leading orchestras such as the Chicago, London and Houston Symphony Orchestras
and the Seoul, London, Rotterdam and Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He has
collaborated with conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Leonard Slatkin,
Myung-Whun Chung, Hans Graf, Emmanuel Krivine, Sakari Oramo, Heinrich Schiff,
Vassily Sinaisky, and Frans Bruggen.
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His new double CD
recording (for the RTÉ lyric fm label) of Mozart piano concertos with the RTÉ
NSO was released last May and reviewed in Gramophone Magazine:
"It's clear that Finghin Collins delights in Mozart and the
four concertos here are the fruits of his time as Associate Artist with the RTÉ
National SO, which he directs from the keyboard. The works range widely in
mood, from the relatively carefree K415 to the proto-Beethovenian K466, and
Collins is alive to their different personalities and at pains to give each
phrase apt contour and detail."
- Harriet Smith, Gramophone Magazine, September 2013
