HE IS one of Ireland's most outstanding classical pianists, but remarkably, when Finghin Collins plays NUI Galway next week, it will be his first solo recital in the city since taking over as artistic director of Music for Galway in 2013.
Finghin Collins plays the Emily Anderson Concert Hall, NUI Galway, on Friday November 8 at 8pm. The programme will feature Mozart’s Piano Sonata 11 in A K331, with the famous ‘Alla turca’ rondo, which was inspired by the music of Turkish Janissary bands; as well as Schubert's Sonata D 959, one of the last pieces the composer wrote, before dying age 31.
Collins will also perform two commissions he gave to Philip Martin and Marian Ingoldsby as part of the New Ross Piano Festival, and which were inspired by the Ros Tapestry.
Regarded as the outstanding Irish pianist of his generation, this concert is the last stop on a 17 venue tour in Ireland, funded by the Arts Council and Arts Council Northern Ireland, and which marks 20 years since he took first prize at the Clara Haskil Competition in Switzerland.
The concert is sponsored by KPMG. Tickets are €20/18/16/10 from Music For Galway (www.musicforgalway.ie, 091 - 705962 ) or from O’Maille’s Original House of Style, Shop Street.
