Program

Performing from Henry Wood Hall, London

Linda Buckley: Solas na Gealai

Beethoven: Sonata No.14 in C sharp minor Op.27/2 ‘Moonlight’

Áine Mallon: Raindrop Prelude

Beethoven: Sonata No.23 in F minor Op.57 ‘Appassionata’

About the Artist

Michael McHale [piano]

Belfast-born Michael McHale has established himself as one of Ireland’s leading pianists and has developed a busy international career as a solo recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician.

He has performed and recorded as a soloist with the Minnesota and Hallé Orchestras, the Moscow, Bournemouth, Jacksonville, Fort Smith, BBC, BBC Scottish and London Symphony Orchestras, City of London Sinfonia, London Mozart Players and all five of the major Irish orchestras, and performed at the Tanglewood and Tokyo Spring Festivals, Berlin Konzerthaus, Lincoln Center, New York and Symphony Hall, Boston. Upcoming début appearances in 2021 include the BBC Proms and with the Wigmore Soloists at Wigmore Hall, London.

Michael’s début solo album The Irish Piano was released in 2012 by RTÉ lyric fm and selected as ‘CD of the Week’ by the critic Norman Lebrecht. More recent solo releases include Richard Rodney Bennett’s Piano Concerto and Strauss’s Burleske on Chandos and Schubert: Four Impromptus on Ergodos. The début album of the McGill/McHale Trio ‘Portraits’ on Cedille featuring special narrations by Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali was released in 2017 and immediately entered the Top 25 US Billboard Classical Chart.

Winner of the Terence Judd/Hallé Award in 2009, Michael was also awarded the Brennan and Field Prizes at the 2006 AXA Dublin International Piano Competition, the 2005 Camerata Ireland/Accenture Award, and in 2016 a Major Individual Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

In 2017 Michael was invited to become a Patron of the Ulster Youth Orchestra, and in 2018 he was appointed as a lecturer in piano for undergraduate and postgraduate students at the MTU Cork School of Music in Ireland. www.michaelmchale.com

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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