Program

Performing from Studio 150, Bethlehemkerk, Amsterdam

Arensky: Piano Trio in D minor

Mozart: Piano Trio in B flat K.502

About the Artists

Mairéad Hickey [violin]

Mairéad was NCH Irish Young Musician of the Year 2010-2012. Prizes include the International Louis Spohr Competition, the Jeunesses Musicales Violin Competition, the Berliner International Music Competition and the Manhattan International Music Competition.  She has played with both the RTÉ National Concert and Symphony Orchestras.  She has performed in the Royal Festival Hall, London, Beethoven-Haus, Bonn and Carnegie Hall, New York. 

 She studied with Adrian Petcu at CIT Cork School of Music, at the Conservatoire de Nantes with Constantin Serban.  She now studies with Mihaela Martin at Kronberg Academy. Mairéad has performed in the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, the Westport Festival of Chamber Music, the Clandeboye Music Festival, the Mantova chamber Music Festival, the Grachtenfestival and the Rolandseck Festival.  Mairéad participated in Chamber Music Connects the World 2016. She co-founded the Ortús Chamber Music Festival in 2016 in her native Cork, where she is Artistic Director.

Ella van Pouke [cello]

Winner of the prestigious Premio Chigiana 2017 and recently awarded the Grachtenfestival Prize, the Dutch cellist belongs to the top rank of today's generation of cellists. 

As a passionate chamber musician Ella has performed with Viviane Hagner, Lawrence Power, Gidon Kremer, Colin Carr, Matthias Schorn, Pavel Vernikov, Andreas Reiner, Simone Lamsma, Christiaan Bor, Philippe Graffin, Prazak quartet, Schumann quartett among many others.

She has been guest in numerous international festivals such as Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Krzyzowa Music, Chigiana International Festival, Kaposfest Hungary, Internationaal Kamermuziek Festival Utrecht, Grachten Festival Amsterdam, Kronberg Festival, Cello Biennale Amsterdam and was invited to participate in Verbier Festival Academy in 2009, 2013 and 2014.

She is a regular member of the Amsterdam Chamber Music Society and is the artistic director of the Chamber Music Festival Amsterdam which she and her brother, pianist Nicolas founded in 2010.

José Gallardo [piano]

The Argentine José Gallardo, born in 1970, is one of the most sought-after chamber music pianists in the world. At the age of 5, he began to take piano lessons at the Conservatory in Buenos Aires. Later, he continued his studies with Prof. Poldi Mildner at the Department of Music, University of Mainz, Germany, from which he graduated in 1997. During that time, he already discovered his passion for chamber music. He was musically inspired by artists like Menahem Pressler, Alfonso Montecino, Karl-Heinz Kammerling, Sergiu Celibidache, Rosalyn Tureck and Bernard Greenhouse. José Gallardo received numerous national and international awards. He was invited to numerous musical festivals, such as Chamber Music Festival Lockenhaus, Verbier Festival, Lucerne Festival, Chopin and his Europe Warsaw, Schleswig Holstein, Kronberg Academy Festival, Cork Music Festival, City of London Festival, Musiktage Hitzacker, Budapest Academy Festival and the Rheingau Music Festival. Together with Andreas Ottensamer, he is artistic director of the chamber music festival "Bürgenstock Festival" in Lucerne.

About West Cork Chamber Music Festival

The West Cork Chamber Music Festival takes place annually in Bantry, County Cork. For ten days, from the last Friday in June, a world-class line-up of international ensembles and soloists perform an extensive programme of concerts which run from morning to late night. The two main venues are the intimate library of the historic Bantry House, which overlooks Bantry Bay; and St Brendan’s Church in the centre of Bantry. The Festival also includes a full schedule of performance workshops and masterclasses with resident student ensembles, composition workshops, public talks with artists as well as exhibitions and demonstrations from instrument makers.

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