Collins will
offer a public master class featuring three Washington Conservatory students:
13 year old Johnna Lee, 17 year old Ben Cashin, and adult student, Brad Adelman.
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.
