Kilkenny guitarist Michael O’ Toole is bringing his music closer to home this week when he appears at the GB Shaw Theatre in the Visual Link Gallery. This is a unique and intimate environment to enjoy an evening of music for this very special Music Network concert.
Michael, who hails from Thomastown in Co Kilkenny, is one of the leading figures in the Irish guitar scene today and has performed as a soloist all over the world to great acclaim, and has worked with many other world-class musicians and ensembles. The concert programme includes works by composers from the Baroque to the contemporary, including Bach, Albeniz and Francisco Tarrega.
His commitment to contemporary music and to the expansion of the guitar repertoire has led him to work with prominent Irish composers such as Eric Sweeney, Jerome de Bromhead, David Fennessy, Anna Rice and Ian Wilson as well as international composers such as Toshiyuki Haraoki, Clark Ross and Philip Glass.
He has also performed with Opera Theatre Company, Callino Quartet, Carducci Quartet, Dublin Guitar Quartet, Impromp2 and the National Symphony Orchestra.
Michael studied for many years with Irish guitarist John Feeley and spent two years studying with the renowned Cuban virtuoso Ricardo Iznaola in Denver, Colorado. Despite his busy performance schedule, Michael also shows a deep commitment to education and is on the faculty of the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama and the Music Department at Waterford Institute of Technology.
Following on from Michael’s 2007 solo CD, ‘Invocation’, his hugely successful duo project with famous Chinese pipa virtuoso Liu Fang led to the acclaimed recording ‘Changes’ in 2008. He is currently recording a trio CD of the music of Isaac Albeniz for international release, with John Feeley and English guitarist Ray Burley.
