Winds of Change and Ellen Jansson

The fourth concert in the 2021 online series featured a performance from the Cork-based woodwind quintet, Winds of Change, accompanied by the young, multi-award-winning Cork pianist Ellen Jansson.

This concert was available to view from April 17th to May 15th 2021.


Programme:

Ludwig Thuille (1861–1907)
Sextet for piano & wind quintet in B flat major, Op.6

Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)
Sextet for Piano and Winds, Op.100

WINDS OF CHANGE
Kieran Moynihan (flute)
Ciara Glasheen-Artem (oboe)
Conor Sheil (clarinet)
Sinéad Frost (bassoon)
Hannah Miller (horn)
with Ellen Jansson (piano)


WINDS OF CHANGE
Woodwind Quintet

Winds of Change was formed in 2018 and had its inaugural concert in the MTU Cork School of Music as part of the Cork Orchestral Society concert series.

The members of the quintet have played together in many orchestras and ensembles over the years, but the idea to form the group came about following performances as part of the Cork Opera House Concert Orchestra. Winds of Change seeks to promote the performance of wind chamber music with pieces old and new, both popular and less well known by favourite composers and by those whose music has become somewhat neglected over time.

Collectively educated at MTU CSM, Royal Irish Academy of Music, DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, Royal Academy of Music London, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, University of Colorado, and Julliard School, New York the members of Winds of Change enjoy extensive and busy freelance performing careers as orchestral players, chamber music performers and soloists.

This international array of orchestras and chamber ensembles includes the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Colorado Symphony, St Endellion Music Festival and the Kuopion Symphony Orchestra, Finland while in Ireland they regularly work with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Camerata Ireland, Irish National Opera, Wexford Opera and the COH Concert Orchestra.

ELLEN JANSSON
Piano

Hailed as “a major talent” after her Carnegie Hall debut with Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto, Irish pianist Ellen Jansson is quickly establishing herself as one of Ireland’s most versatile and exciting young musicians. As a student of Mary Beattie, she graduated from CSM as Taught MA Student-of-the-Year 2020. She also studied with Professor Martin Hughes at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and is a past pupil of the prestigious Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, where she was the winner of the Chetham’s Yamaha Piano Competition.

Ellen has appeared as soloist with the New York Concerti Sinfonietta, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Esker Festival Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Ireland and CSM Symphony Orchestra. She has performed in many prominent Irish venues as well as abroad in Carnegie Hall (New York), Alexela Concert Hall (Tallinn, Estonia), and the Ukrainian Radio Concert Hall (Kiev).

A multiple prize-winner at Electric Ireland Feis Ceoil in both chamber and solo competitions, Ellen has also been awarded first prize in both the CSM Advanced Recital and Senior Concerto Competitions. She was awarded a Flax Trust bursary at Clandeboye Festival 2016 and she was a finalist in the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Scholarship 2017. Ellen was awarded the second prize in the Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year 2018 and was also recipient of the Cork Orchestral Society Emerging Artist Award that year.

An avid chamber musician, Ellen’s collaborations have included performances with the ConTempo String Quartet, the Ficino Ensemble and the Winds of Change Quintet. She has also performed at the Ortús Chamber Music Festival, Killaloe Chamber Music Festival and the ‘Finding a Voice’ Festival in Clonmel where she curated a concert of solo and chamber works by Alexina Louie and in 2021 gave the first Irish performance of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s Das Jahr.


Filmed by Barra Vernon and Robin Guiton.
Audio recorded and mixed by John Fitzgerald.
Edited by Barra Vernon.
Special thanks to MTU Cork School of Music.
Cork Orchestral Society is funded by Cork City Council and the Arts Council of Ireland.