Róisín Walters and Fiachra Garvey

Thursday 5 May 2022 | 7.30pm
Curtis Auditorium, MTU Cork School of Music

Violinist Róisín Walters – whose solo performances have brought her to such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Club New York, the Barbican Centre, Cadogan Hall and the National Concert Hall, Dublin, where she made her concerto debut at the age of twelve – joins first prize-winner of the 2012 Jaques Samuel Piano Competition and former NCH Rising Star, pianist Fiachra Garvey, to perform works by César FranckLili BoulangerAugusta Holmès and Michele Esposito


Tickets (only available through online booking below):

€20 (General Admission) | €15 (Concessions & COS standard members)
€10 (COS concessionary members) | €5 (Students)Buy tickets for Cork Orchestral Society


Programme

César Franck (1822-1890)
Violin Sonata in A major
Augusta Holmès (1847–1903)
Trois peties pieces
Michele Esposito (1855–1929)
Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 32
Lili Boulanger (1893–1918)
Two Pieces for Violin and Piano, ILB. 10

Róisín Walters, violin
Fiachra Garvey, piano


First prizewinner at the 2012 Jaques Samuel Competition (London), Fiachra Garvey, ARAM, has performed in venues from the Fazioli Auditorium in Italy to London’s Wigmore Hall. He has also been a prizewinner at AXA Dublin International Piano Competition (Brennan Prize and McCullough Bursary), EU Piano Competition Prague (concerto finalist), and 3rd Soirees-Concours Internationales de Piano a Collioure, France (audience award). The National Concert Hall Dublin awarded Fiachra the ‘Rising Star’ prize in 2011, which subsequently led to a series of concerto and solo debuts.

Concerto appearances include Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Janáček Philharmonic, Tchaikovsky and Poulenc with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and Cambridge SO, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Grieg with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Hibernian Orchestra working with eminent conductors including John Wilson, Duncan Ward, Theodore Kuchar, Stephen Bell and Mihhail Gerts.

Recent highlights include the first classical recital at Google Dublin, a series of solo and two piano recitals in Japan, a tour of China including giving masterclasses at the Beijing Conservatory of Music, as well as appearances at Spoleto Festival Italy, Wexford Opera, Brighton Festival, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Bridgewater Hall Manchester and The Geneva Festival, Switzerland.

Fiachra’s debut CD ‘For the Piano’, under the RTÉ lyric fm label ‘brings a deep and infectious enthusiasm, combined with insight and technical comfort’ (Sunday Times). His second CD is a live performance from Wigmore Hall.

Fiachra is the Founder and Artistic Director of the West Wicklow Festival, co-founder and Artistic Director of Classical Vauxhall and sits on the Board of the Dublin International Piano Competition. He is hugely grateful for the support he has received from the Arts Council (Professional Development Award 2020) and the Wicklow Arts Office (Artist Award Scheme 2020).

Irish violinist Róisín Walters has been described as displaying ‘passion and ravishing tonal qualities’, her playing ‘had a gorgeously honeyed, heart-melting quality’ (Irish Times). She made her concerto debut at the age of twelve at the National Concert Hall in Dublin and since then has regularly appeared as soloist with many orchestras in a wide range of repertoire. Her performance of The Lark Ascending with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra was broadcast live on RTÉ lyric fm, and her self-directed tour of America playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with the Royal Irish Academy of Music chamber orchestra culminated in performances at Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Club in New York.

As a chamber musician, Róisín enjoys an exciting schedule of recordings and performances as first violinist of the Liverpool String Quartet. Their debut CD was featured as ‘CD of the week’ on Classic FM and they will soon be releasing their newest recording featuring Piazzolla’s Four Seasons. The quartet are very much looking forward to their upcoming tour of Ireland in November 2022. Róisín also holds the assistant Ccncertmaster chair with pioneering chamber orchestra Britten Sinfonia, with whom she has performed in many incredible venues from London’s Wigmore Hall to the Lincoln Center in New York as well as regular performances at the BBC Proms.

A keen proponent of new music, Róisín has had several concertos written for her. She works regularly with specialist contemporary chamber orchestra the London Sinfonietta and has given many world and European premieres of works by composers including Steve Reich, Raymond Deane and Gerald Barry.

Róisín works regularly as a guest principal in orchestras throughout the UK. She has performed as guest Concertmaster with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Manchester Camerata and Britten Sinfonia. Róisín is based in Cardiff, Wales where she works with the Welsh National Opera Orchestra and enjoys learning the language and discovering the beautiful scenery of Wales. Her violin is a Van Hoof copy of the Kathleen Parlowe del Gesu.